Illustration: UN

Sustainability analysis

Sustainability analysis was one of six research areas in Period 1 (2021-2024). You can find the research areas under period 2 on the research page.

Objectives

Blue Food will provide world-class sustainability research, in broad collaboration, to identify a niche that enables Swedish seafood production to be at the forefront of sustainability. The research area is designed to be adaptable to its evolving mission, allowing the focus to adapt to new sustainability challenges or opportunities as they arise. The research area will work closely with - and act as a resource for - all other research areas, partners and stakeholders, and be an expert group on sustainable development goals.

The research area will
  • be able to support Blue Food stakeholders, industry partners and research areas with expertise on the SDGs.
  • develop and apply the best available methods for life cycle assessment for seafood systems.
  • analyze the economic performance of local supply chains.

Methodology

The following tasks, specifically linked to the objectives, are proposed to be implemented:
  • Develop a monitoring process for the SDGs adapted to the needs of the seafood sector.
  • Identify conflicts and synergies between the Global Goals, in particular Goal 14, and the sustainable development of the seafood sector. Cooperation with horizontal research area 4.
  • Develop methodologies that can be harmonized with life cycle assessment to enable the accounting of underutilized perspectives of particular importance for seafood sustainability.
  • Apply life cycle assessment to concrete business cases and link the results to the SDGs.
  • Analyze the production cost of a selection of new products that can be launched on the market.
  • Analyze the role of economies of scale in reducing costs compared to the benefits of small-scale production from a marketing perspective.

Expected results
  • Better methods to identify the contribution of seafood products to the SDGs
  • A PhD student with knowledge of sustainability analysis methods and deep knowledge of the Swedish seafood industry.
  • Scientific publications analyzing new Swedish supply chains sustainability