What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2019 Sustainability Report Australis Seafoods identified a range of material issues, such as product safety and quality, community relations, human rights, talent management, environmental footprint. Among these, promoting ethical business conduct stands out as a key material issue for Australis Seafoods.

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:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process 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 Australis Seafoods engages with:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Collaborators and leaders of the organisation	·      Intranet ·      Wall diaries ·      Complaint Channel (CPM) ·      Information Screens ·      Communications Mail ·      Newsletters ·      Joint Hygiene and Safety Committees ·      Sustainability Report
Customers	·      Direct relationship with Commercial Management ·      Meetings in commercial offices ·      Participation in international fairs ·      Web page ·      Complaint Channel (CPM) ·      Social networks ·      LinkedIn ·      Corporate Memory ·      Sustainability Report
Consumers	·      Stores in Santiago, Puerto Varas and Puerto Natales ·      Social Networks (Instagram) ·      Cooking lessons
Suppliers	·      Meetings ·      Contract administration ·      Complaint Channel (CPM)
Communities	·      Community Links Programme ·      Puerto Natales Office and Store ·      Email box
Local authorities	·      Public Affairs Meetings ·      Visits to the company’s facilities
Sector Authorities	·      Operation Coordination ·      Public Affairs Plan ·      Visits to the company’s facilities
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)	·      Meetings ·      Joint Development Programmes
Industrial associations	·      Global Salmon Initiative ·      SalmonChile ·      Magellan Salmon Farmers Association
Academy	·      Meetings
Media	·      Meetings ·      Activities and visits to the company’s facilities
Business Partners	·      Bice ·      Santander ·      Chile bank

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Australis Seafoods conducted stakeholder surveys.

What actions were taken by Australis Seafoods to promote ethical business conduct?

In its 2019 Sustainability Report Australis Seafoods reports that it took the following actions for promoting ethical business conduct:

• Implementing a Crime Prevention Model
• Through its Crime Prevention Model (CPM), Australis Seafoods manages and controls the activities that are exposed to the risks of committing criminal offenses, seeking to promote an organisational culture of business integrity. During the year 2019, Australis Seafoods was focused on the dissemination and implementation of its CPM and the tools to channel possible complaints.

• Launching a complaint channel
• This tool is available on Australis Seafoods’ corporate website and intranet and allows all the company’s employees, anonymously or under strict reservation of their identity, to report any fact in order to be investigated. There is a detailed protocol on how these situations should be handled and it is based on the principles of legality, reservation and respect.

• Establishing an Ethics Committee
• Australis Seafoods has an Ethics Committee composed of the Chairman of the Board of Australis Seafoods S.A. (Jie Tang), the Administration & Finance Manager (Moisés Saravia) and the Corporate Affairs & Human Resources Manager (Josefina Moreno). The Ethics Committee’s main function is the investigation and resolution of complaints received through the complaints channel. The Head of Crime Prevention is the internal collaborator with direct dependence on the Board of Australis Seafoods S.A. and Subsidiaries, who will coordinate the activities to be developed once a complaint has been received. He/she is in charge of collecting preliminary records to see if it is appropriate to inform the Ethics Committee to proceed with the relevant research actions.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures

 Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
• Targets: 16.5

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

• Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
• Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
• Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.
References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Australis Seafoods, 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 original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to Australis Seafoods: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2019 Sustainability Report Australis Seafoods identified a range of material issues, such as product safety and quality, integrity and transparency, talent management, environmental footprint, human rights. Among these, supporting surrounding communities stands out as a key material issue for Australis Seafoods.

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:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process 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 Australis Seafoods engages with: 

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Collaborators and leaders of the organisation	·      Intranet ·      Wall diaries ·      Complaint Channel (CPM) ·      Information Screens ·      Communications Mail ·      Newsletters ·      Joint Hygiene and Safety Committees ·      Sustainability Report
Customers	·      Direct relationship with Commercial Management ·      Meetings in commercial offices ·      Participation in international fairs ·      Web page ·      Complaint Channel (CPM) ·      Social networks ·      LinkedIn ·      Corporate Memory ·      Sustainability Report
Consumers	·      Stores in Santiago, Puerto Varas and Puerto Natales ·      Social Networks (Instagram) ·      Cooking lessons
Suppliers	·      Meetings ·      Contract administration ·      Complaint Channel (CPM)
Communities	·      Community Links Programme ·      Puerto Natales Office and Store ·      Email box
Local authorities	·      Public Affairs Meetings ·      Visits to the company’s facilities
Sector Authorities	·      Operation Coordination ·      Public Affairs Plan ·      Visits to the company’s facilities
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)	·      Meetings ·      Joint Development Programmes
Industrial associations	·      Global Salmon Initiative ·      SalmonChile ·      Magellan Salmon Farmers Association
Academy	·      Meetings
Media	·      Meetings ·      Activities and visits to the company’s facilities
Business Partners	·      Bice ·      Santander ·      Chile bank

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Australis Seafoods engaged with its stakeholders through stakeholder surveys.

What actions were taken by Australis Seafoods to support surrounding communities?

In its 2019 Sustainability Report Australis Seafoods reports that it took the following actions for supporting surrounding communities:

• Creating the Salmon Social Initiative
• Australis, together with 10 other companies in the industry, created the Salmon Social Initiative (SSI), with the aim of jointly improving the social and environmental standards of operations, beyond current regulations. During 2019, Australis Seafoods signed a decalogue for a responsible relationship with the communities, which included 10 specific commitments based on:
  • Respect and care for the environment: Australis Seafoods responsibly manages the social and environmental impacts of its operations, ensuring that they are compatible with the natural environment and local culture.
  • Building relationships of trust: Australis Seafoods promotes spaces for the exchange of information, participation and dialogue, which allow the building of relationships of trust with local communities.
  • Contributing to development: Australis Seafoods seeks to contribute to local development and the generation of shared value in the territories, according to the reality of each one of them.

• Supporting ancestral communities
• As a company, Australis Seafoods is convinced that the cultural wealth of its ancestral communities is an essential pillar for the development of people. Rescuing and transcending their history was one of the focuses of work for 2019, through intercultural meetings between the Mapuche community and Kawésqar, originating in the region of La Araucanía and Magallanes, respectively. Both groups visited each other to learn about their cultures, customs and traditions. From visits to Australis Seafoods’ facilities, Australis Seafoods was able to discover their life story from first source, recovering the valuable tradition of oral transmission from generation to generation.

• Improving access to healthcare
• The close relationship generated with its communities has allowed Australis Seafoods to see their reality and assimilate their main needs, engaging with them in the search for solutions. In the Aysén region, Australis Seafoods signed a collaboration agreement with the regional Health Service, which aims to facilitate the entry of health personnel in charge of medical operations, to the Huichas Islands. A sector with difficult connectivity and which had not previously been accessed by these medical operations. The agreement also allows to provide boats for the transfer of patients in a state of emergency and to give access to the use of satellite telephony, contributing to a better quality of life.

• Strengthening local entrepreneurship
• To promote local entrepreneurship, Australis Seafoods created a labour integration programme aimed at its communities between the regions VIII and XII, developing courses in different trades, such as carpentry on pallets, cooking, pastry and bakery, providing skills and abilities to people which will generate income through entrepreneurship and the possibility of diversification of work areas. In addition, Australis Seafoods works with groups of fishermen in its communities, supporting the diversification of their sector to other areas such as tourism, innovation in productivity and providing added value to their products. They also had the opportunity to market their products in Australis Seafoods’ casinos and sales rooms, which creates growth opportunities for groups that interact with the company. Additionally, for the third consecutive year, Australis Seafoods organised the “Australis Summer Super Cup 2019”, an instance that allowed nearly 372 boys and 84 girls to be the sports stars of a great summer party, where native entrepreneurs had a space to position and promote business development at the craft fair that was carried out during the day.

• Promoting recycling
• In May 2019, Australis inaugurated the Clean Point, located next to its corporate office in Puerto Varas. One of the main objectives of this initiative is to provide a recycling space to the Puertovarian community, where they can have the following items:
  • Papers and cardboard
  • Tetrapack
  • Expanded polystyrene
  • Transparent and coloured PET
  • Tin cans
• In the framework of starting the operation of the Clean Point, Australis Seafoods carried out environmental education workshops, in conjunction with the Municipality of Puerto Varas, for the community and collaborators. The focus of these trainings was to provide tools so that everyone could learn to recycle their items at home, but also promote the reuse and reduction of waste.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments, and development programs

Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments, and development programs does not correspond to any SDG.

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

• Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
• Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
• Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.
References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Australis Seafoods, 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 original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to Australis Seafoods: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.