The Clean Technology Centre has been commissioned by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) to provide sustainable resource management consultancy services to the Irish Seafood Processing Sector (Green Seafood Business Programme 2021).
CTC has been supporting the work of BIM for over 10 years on a variety of different projects covering the fishing fleet (development of EMS and environmental surveys), ports (Fishing For Litter) and the processors (Green Seafood Business and Food Heroes). Having been involved in the Green Seafood Business Programme since inception, we have an excellent understanding of the types of supports offered by the Programme as well as a very good overall appreciation of the Irish seafood processing sector.
Through the 2018 Green Seafood Business (GSB) Programme CTC worked with processors on improving their resource efficiency. More importantly, through working with BIM we have refined the interaction process with business so that it is more goal orientated which has helped address one of the key challenges, converting the assistance provided through GSB into successful actions. A key resource use area for the sector is refrigeration, and CTC, in collaboration with FTG Refrigeration, recently developed a comprehensive refrigeration guide for the industry. Through this, allied to work examining heat exchange potential in the sector, CTC will provide the programme with invaluable sector specific knowledge in these essential areas.
There are three main elements to the programme:
- Resource Efficiency Assessment and Report preparation (to 6 seafood processing companies). Provide desktop (remote) support to those companies as they implement the improvement actions identified in their reports. Review progress on project implementation after 6 months.
- Development, delivery, and facilitation of 3 sustainability themed webinars/workshops. Due to Covid restrictions these will probably be delivered online. Some potential topics for consideration include:
- Refrigeration management best practice
- Food waste reporting and adding value to waste
- Minimising water costs through best practice cleaning
- General advisory services (considered response to queries as they arise) and the development of Green Programme communications and guidance materials. These will be identified based on the needs of the sector and the communication channels to be used. They may include conventional case studies, short animations, factsheets, templates, and how to guides. Having already worked on similar materials for BIM (e.g. water tool, MIC calculator, insulation calculator), converting these into sustainability-focused tools, guidance and reflecting best practice through success stories.