Sustainable Development Goals

2 – ZERO HUNGER

Today, nutrients are sourced primarily through agricultural activity and from other biomasses, whereas only a small fraction comes from marine plants.

While traditional alginate production taints or destroys components of nutritional value, Alginor’s AORTA biorefining facilitates for gentle extraction of nutritious ingredients. Many of our future offerings are applicable as ingredients in health & nutrition products. Algal amino acids, for instance, combine well with residual biomass from pea production, to create protein-rich products with a healthy amino acid composition.

8 – DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Sustainable economic growth as a concept is deeply embedded in Alginor and was a key motivational factor for the company’s foundation. As industries advance, breakthroughs leading to economic growth become increasingly rare as most links of the value chain are optimised to within perfection. Thus, improvements must be replaced by innovation. Alginor’s total utilisation not only enable us to greatly increase the number of unique downstream products, but also to improve on those which already have established — albeit not satiated — markets. This means jobs can be created at no cost to already existing workplaces. Alginor’s value chain is a complex one, linking subsea operations and laboratories, and will offer work to many people with various skills.

9 – INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Alginor actively promotes a more sustainable and greener seaweed industry. On our own and through collaboration with national and international partners and institutions, we have completed several R&D projects aimed at transforming, upgrading, and enhancing industrial technologies related to marine biomasses. The continuous R&D and extensive in-house and external piloting have resulted in verification and documentation of Alginor’s harvesting and biorefining methods, ready for upscaling through our ongoing industrial R&D projects e.g., most notably DACOTA. Through relevant industrial demonstration, Alginor seeks to prove the viability of and economic potential behind its innovative and sustainable approach to the seaweed industry.

12 – RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

Alginor’s total utilisation objective and biorefining approach facilitates for sound, responsible and efficient use and management of the biomass. Our methods are specifically tailored to prevent biomass loss or waste. Through focused R&D, accumulated know-how and experience, Alginor will continue its devotion towards upstream and downstream process optimisation and product enhancements, and refrain from using chemicals that are or may pose dangers to humans, animals, marine organisms, or the environment. Through its fully integrated vertical value chain, Alginor will control and secure maximum traceability for its products to the benefit of customers, end-users, and society.

13 – CLIMATE ACTION

Like their terrestrial counterparts, marine plants have an exceptional ability to fix carbon within its structures while growing. Carbon is absorbed rapidly during the kelp’s early growth, whereas the absorption decreases dramatically and flattens out as the kelp reaches its full growth. Under Norway’s current harvesting scheme, the annual parcel rotation cycle ensures sustainable harvesting by allowing the juvenile kelp time to recover every five years. At this stage, the kelp’s ability to absorb carbon is nearly complete and highly limited. The kelp will, if not harvested, eventually die and release its fixed carbon structures back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane. By harvesting the kelp when it is close to or has completed its carbon absorption capacity, the kelp’s carbon (and the kelp itself) can be utilised instead, whereas the juvenile kelp can begin their increased carbon absorption earlier.

Alginor seeks to process and refine the harvested biomass in its entirety, with no downstream waste. Consequently, Alginor’s input factors are simply put allocated on the complete biomass and more products, resulting in a significant carbon footprint decrease relative to the product output.

Alginor’s formaldehyde-free methods saves Alginor from spending massive input factors, including energy, fresh water, process chemicals and manpower, on washing and cleansing its products to meet the legal and/or customer requirements for minimum formaldehyde content/concentration. Therefore, we have reason to believe that our overall carbon footprint related to upstream and downstream processing will be significantly lower than compared to the current industry practice.

14 – LIFE BELOW WATER

Alginor will not release any biomass or formaldehyde to the ocean, and thus avoid direct marine pollution from upstream and downstream processes.

Alginor’s harvesting operations will interfere with life below water. Alginor will follow and comply with all relevant laws and regulations and, to the best of its ability, seek to keep its interference to a minimum through its policies, practices, and advances in technology.

Alginor’s harvesting method, Hypomar, is being developed with increased control and manoeuvrability in order to enable safe and gentle harvesting with minimal impact to the seabed and surrounding marine organisms. Moreover, the harvesting method is being developed to compensate for the seabed’s uneven surfaces in order to facilitate for a complete harvest of each parcel. A complete harvest is expected to increase the kelp recovery rate because the larger plants that remain after an incomplete harvest prevent or limit the juvenile kelps’ exposure to the sun’s rays.

The Bellona Foundation acted as advisor to Alginor regarding environmental impacts of harvesting during the early development stages of the Hypomar harvesting method. Responsible, sound and sustainable harvesting continues to be among our core objectives moving forward.

17 – PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

Alginor is actively involved in a multitude of R&D projects with institutional, educational, and commercial partners across Europe. Such collaborations are not only key for Alginor’s continued progression, but vital for knowledge sharing and dissemination of results.