Bakkafrost participates in project to build eco-friendly workboat
19.06.2020
In our latest sustainability report, Healthy Living 2019, we have committed to reduce our CO2 footprint from Faroese operations by 50% by 2030. Therefore, we at Bakkafrost continue to be on the look for projects that support our goal to become even more sustainable.
Like Bakkafrost, the Government of the Faroe Islands takes part in the work to achieve the UN Sustainability Goals. UN encourages every country to base their actions to become more sustainable on their individual premises and to make their own priorities to achieve the sustainability goals.
- At Bakkafrost we have sustainability as one of our top priorities. This is an obvious project for us to be a part of, and we hope the project becomes a success, so that eco-friendly boats become a natural part of the farming operations in the future, says Regin Jacobsen, CEO at Bakkafrost.
The salmon industry plays a big role in the Faroese society, and therefore the industry wishes to collaborate with the Faroese authorities on the journey to become more sustainable.
Today, 19th of June, the minister of Nordic Collaboration, Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen, and CEO Regin Jacobsen signed an intent to facilitate a competition to build a new eco-friendly workboat. It is the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Government of the Faroe Islands, who have initiated the project. The goal is to discover new green solutions for remote locations. The salmon industry in the Faroe Islands has agreed that Bakkafrost should participate in the project on behalf of the industry.
The task is to design a workboat for the salmon industry, which exclusively runs on renewable energy.
The winner of the competition gets to sign a contract with Bakkafrost, who commits to buy the boat; provided that the suggestions are satisfactory.
Bakkafrost has approximately 60 workboats and is therefore happy to get the opportunity to be a part of the project.
Kaj Leo Holm Johannessen also a applauds the collaboration with Bakkafrost, which can become an important step towards an even more sustainable society.
- It is often said that we don’t have any solutions to make our vessels and boats eco-friendly, and that they need to run on traditional fuel. However, with this project, we contribute to the discovery of new solutions to make the maritime industry environmentally friendly, Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen says.
The Faroese Environment Agency is managing the project on behalf of the Faroese government. They point to the fact that the project will contribute to higher efficiency and diversity in the use of renewable energy. It is up to the participants to pick, what kind of renewable energy source they want to use. In the tender specifications different solutions are mentioned for using the electrical energy from renewable energy sources such as wind, directly or transformed to fuel to use in e.g. fuel cells.
- We are going to expand the wind energy for the next couple of years, and already at this point we know that there will be produced more energy, than we can use directly. This is a project that utilizes and stores this surplus energy, says Sigurð í Jákupsstovu, manager at The Faroese Environment Agency.
The project receives 4 million DKK in financial support from the Nordic Council of Ministers. If the project becomes a success, the workboat will become part of the operations in 2021.