Interview: Louise Buttle, DSM

How Can Connectivity Support Sustainable Blue Food Production?

Royal DSM is a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, working to deliver sustainable animal farming that respects animals, people and planet.

In 2021, DSM launched Sustell™, an intelligent sustainability service that delivers ‘accurate, simple, and actionable’ farm-level solutions, to improve the environmental footprint and profitability of animal protein production.

Louise Buttle, the Sustell Lead for Aqua & Global Key Account Manager at DSM, discusses the importance of utilising data for connectivity in Blue Food value chains.

What role does data play in measuring and monitoring environmental impact across the aquaculture value chain?

You cannot manage what you cannot measure, and credible data availability is critical.

For example, DSM launched Sustell^TM, which calculates the environmental footprint of animal production. Its ISO certified by DNV, and the power behind Sustell is the calculation engine which relies on continuously updated and validated methodologies which allows users to input the specific data related to their company’s animal production. So you can compare apples against apples, and not rely on industry averages.

Having good quality data allows you to measure, manage and reduce your footprint which ultimately allows progress (against climate change, for example).

What is needed to drive data innovation?

This is the key question. The data gap is one thing, but if you cannot connect all the data, then you are missing the full picture.

Connectivity of data is, in my view, key to driving data innovation, and one management dashboard that easily manages all aspects of the business (from finance to environmental, for example) is important going forward.

Sustell^TM is unique, in that it is an easy to use, agile system, that was designed, from the outset, to be able to bridge different data sources by incorporating, in a secure environment, feed formulation variations, farm by farm, production system by production system for example.

Where is the data gap within blue food?

We are missing primary data on some of the resources we use in our industry, we know feed and raw material has a major impact and environmental footprint is a key metric in measuring sustainable growth of the aquaculture and blue food space.

The carbon footprint of a key feed ingredients like soy depends on the country of origin, especially when the environmental impact of Land Use Change is included.

Raw material data in farmed aqua species is critical to accurately measuring footprint and consequently, improving the environmental footprint.

Lastly, what are you looking forward to most at the summit in May?

I am really looking forward to being in London with colleagues old and new, it’s always a great opportunity to network with different parts of the value chain in our industry.

Louise will be joining the panel, ‘The Power of Data: Accelerating Digitalisation to Harness Blue Food’s Growth’ with leaders from THE YIELD LAB ASIA PACIFIC, SCOOT SCIENCE, AQUABYTE, WITTAYA AQUA and IBM at the summit in London on May 23-24. Check out the agenda here.