Coles will face up to its shareholders over its salmon sourcing after activist share trading platform SIX and 120 other Coles shareholders submitted a shareholder resolution to a vote at this year’s AGM.
Last week Woolworths became the first company in the world to receive a shareholder resolution that aims to stop an extinction event. Now it’s Coles’ turn, with over 120 shareholders uniting to propose a resolution to save the critically endangered Maugean skate that is under threat from farmed salmon sold in Coles stores.
At the Coles AGM on 12 November, company shareholders will be asked to vote on whether Coles should stop sourcing farmed salmon from Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania, and give the Maugean skate a chance at survival.
The Maugean skate population has plummeted to an estimated 40-120 adults. The Australian Government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee noted the primary threat to the Skate is degraded water quality due to increases in salmon aquaculture, and that reducing salmon farming was urgent to recover the Skate’s critical habitat.
SIX CEO Adam Verwey said “Coles have acknowledged in their Sustainability Report that their salmon sourcing is a problem and have said they’re reducing the amount of salmon they’re sourcing from Macquarie Harbour as a result. However, there’s no detail and no timeline. We need Coles to act with urgency to save the Maugean skate from extinction. Our resolution asks Coles to cease sourcing farmed salmon from Macquarie Harbour within 6 months.”
“The two supermarkets heavily brand themselves as sustainability leaders. It doesn’t make sense why they would risk involvement in an extinction event for the sake of just a small amount of their salmon supply. We didn’t expect we’d need to get shareholders to step in to stop the supermarkets contributing to an extinction”.
Australia’s peak seafood certifier, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), states that none of the 11 salmon farming sites in Macquarie Harbour complies with their standards.
Adam Verwey said “The ASC won’t certify Macquarie Harbour salmon, and now Coles has acknowledged in its own Sustainability Report that it is reducing its sourcing due to sustainability concerns. Yet Coles and Woolworths continue to sell Macquarie Harbour salmon with a sustainably sourced sticker on it. That’s greenwashing an extinction”.
“At least Coles is publicly acknowledging there’s a problem and starting to take action. Even with constant pressure from shareholders and stakeholders, Woolworths didn’t even acknowledge the impact of their salmon sourcing on the Maugean skate in their Sustainability Report”.
“The resolutions to Coles and Woolworths will be one of the first tests of how seriously large investors like super funds are considering nature risks. They are exposing all of their investors to an extinction risk, and the company’s largest investors are going to need a plan for how they respond to that given their own sustainability and nature commitments”, Verwey continued.
