The Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions (CASS) brings more than 200 businesses and NGOs together to drive seafood sustainability. When CASS adopted a new strategy in 2019, they needed a benchmark and agreed to use the Collaboration’s data tool to assess progress towards its shared sustainability goal.
The data tool feels very inclusive, pulling data from several programs to provide a comprehensive view of the sustainability status for global seafood production.
For the Alliance, the tool acts as a “community tool” in that it is community-built and community-serving. That’s important because the tool is informed by consultation with Alliance members and other stakeholders, and because it unites data from different certification and ratings programs. “This spirit of inclusivity reflects the values of the Alliance itself, which welcomes all who are committed to advancing sustainable seafood—recognizing that progress comes through a diversity of approaches,” said Hudgins. “The Alliance believes that all meaningful efforts deserve recognition and that every contribution plays a role in moving our shared mission forward.”
The data tool is efficient and easy to use; it’s very fit for purpose.
The data tool allows users to get a high-level overview and, at the same time, also allows them to drill down into the data they are most interested in. For example, the Alliance uses the tool at the country level to identify priority regions that may have large volumes of seafood production, persistent environmental issues in the seafood supply chain, etc. and might benefit from engagement with the Alliance . The Alliance team has included information like this, along with other context-setting details taken from the tool, in grant proposals and reports.
When the Alliance references progress towards its shared goal—by 2030, at least 75% of global, commercial seafood production will be environmentally responsible or making verifiable improvements, and safeguards will be in place to ensure social responsibility—the data tool is used to demonstrate the value of collaboration amongst the Alliance community and to spotlight opportunities to accelerate progress.
It’s great to have quantitative data that we can point to which shows that our community’s actions are adding up to make progress.