Case study: How Grieg Seafood creates economic value for its stakeholders
Grieg Seafood is one of the world’s leading salmon farming companies, targeting 90,000 tonnes of harvest in 2022 and 130,000 tonnes in 2025. Combining decades of experience with new technologies, knowledge and data driven intelligence, Grieg Seafood seeks to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2021 Annual Report by Grieg Seafood, prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards, that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Beyond short-term profitability, Grieg Seafood is committed to sustainable and long-term value creation for all of its stakeholders. In order to create economic value for its stakeholders Grieg Seafood took action to:
- create economic value for employees
- create economic value for providers of capital
- create economic value for the government
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Grieg Seafood has identified;
- How Grieg Seafood proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Grieg Seafood to create economic value for its stakeholders
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2021 Annual Report Grieg Seafood identified a range of material issues, such as employee health & safety, fish health & welfare, protecting biodiversity & marine ecosystems, responsible business conduct, carbon emissions. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for Grieg Seafood.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Grieg Seafood engages with:
To identify and prioritise material topics Grieg Seafood engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| National authorities/ regulators | · Meetings · Site visits · Correspondence |
| Local authorities/ communities
| · Dialogue with special interest groups locally · Open meetings · Site visits · Dialogue through mainstream media and digital channels |
| Stakeholder organisations/ non-governmental organisations | · Correspondence · Meetings · Media and social media |
| Shareholders, investors, asset managers and analysts | · Quarterly presentations · Roadshows · Meetings · Frequent dialogue · Capital market days · Engagement with relevant indexes |
| Customers | · Customer surveys · Frequent dialogue · Audits · Visits · Trade fairs |
| Employees | · Continuous dialogue and meetings · Intranet · Employee surveys |
| Suppliers | · Dialogue · Meetings · Conferences and correspondence |
What actions were taken by Grieg Seafood to create economic value for its stakeholders?
In its 2021 Annual Report Grieg Seafood reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:
- Creating economic value for employees
- In 2021, Grieg Seafood paid NOK 577 million for salaries and personnel expenses.
- Creating economic value for providers of capital
- In 2021, Grieg Seafood paid NOK 200 million in net interest and other financial items.
- Creating economic value for the government
- In 2021, Grieg Seafood paid NOK 249 million in income tax.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed
Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.1, 8.2
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Targets: 9.1, 9.4, 9.5
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References:
This case study is based on published information by Grieg Seafood, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:
https://cdn.sanity.io/files/1gakia31/production/8699f764225f2b441044453452ada7923cca1994.pdf
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