But early action doesn't mean easy action. For years, Rinø’s team assembled Nova Sea’s carbon accounts by hand, chasing data on everything from fish feed to fuel use. Much of it lived in spreadsheets, and key figures from suppliers were often missing or estimated. The process was slow and labor-intensive: each annual greenhouse gas (ghg) inventory took months to compile, leaving little time to act on the findings. It was the right thing to do, but more time spent on reporting emissions meant more time stolen from reducing emissions.
“Attempting to do this work ourselves manually would have been borderline impossible, even if we hired more people” - Silje Fiskum Rinø, Head of Sustainability at Nova Sea.
Turning Point: From Spreadsheets to Speed
By 2022, with new EU sustainability reporting rules looming and Nova Sea’s own emission reduction targets becoming more ambitious, it was clear the old methods were not fit to scale. “We realized we had to professionalize what we had developed internally,” says Rinø. The team explored the climate tech market for a better way. “We did a broad exploration of the tools out there, there were many, but Morescope was the best fit for us,” she explains. Morescope’s platform stood out for converting financial data (“kroner and øre”) straight into carbon estimates, and allowing Nova Sea to combine this with their activity data seamlessly. “The spend methodology was fantastic, and automation removes sources of error that can easily accumulate when you plot manually” Rinø notes.
Nova Sea brought in Morescope to turn its carbon accounting into a streamlined process. Implementation was step-by-step: they ran the new platform in parallel with old spreadsheets to verify results. Letting go of familiar tools can be uncomfortable (especially when you have built it yourself), but as automated data rolled in and exceeded what they could ever do manually, confidence started to grow. Very soon, tasks that once took months were reduced to a few clicks. “It used to take me half a day just to input and compare things that are now fully automated” Silje says.
ClimateWork That Works
Nova Sea has throughout the years turned out as a thought-leader on many fields due to their ambitious climate work. Their impact has scaled not just inside their own operations, but outward. This isn't by coincidence.
Silje and her team knew early on that their biggest emissions were not where they had the most control. Their own operations were a piece of a much bigger puzzle. That’s why they decided to get more involved. Backed by solid data and a deep understanding of their own emissions, they opened the conversation with their partners, and started to collaborate on reducing emissions.
Within their supply chain they required stricter carbon targets, pushed for hybrid-electric solutions and offered their own expertise to support the process. It has turned out to be an impactful give-and-take relationship as better control and better cooperation in the supply chain is crucial for their long-term business resilience.
With Morescope, the ability to set these clear expectations has grown stronger. The data is now more standardized and transparent, making it easier to compare, justify and demand progress. These are ripple effects they have also started to see across their industry as they have started to bring along players outside of their own supply chain.
In Norway’s aquaculture sector Nova Sea has started to talk and benchmark with peers, learning from one another and identifying what’s working. The comparability of Morescope data has made this work a lot easier. They are also getting questions from actors that are just beginning their carbon accounting journey. “We’ve had newcomers reach out, and we talk about how we got started,” she says, adding that she’s quick to recommend Morescope.
She hopes the industry will align around common standards so that every salmon producer works from comparable numbers. That’s already starting to happen: as more companies adopt platforms like Morescope, data sharing and best practices spread faster. «When we have Morescope as a shared base, we can talk on the same terms - ranging from sharing a language to sharing a best practice.”
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"... climate credentials are often among the top reasons customers choose Nova Sea’s salmon. Regulators and local communities, too, see us as a responsible player, which has opened doors to some exciting projects” - Silje Fiskum Rinø, Head of Sustainability at Nova Sea.
Good for the climate, good for business
These efforts are not only good for emission reduction, it is good for business, as sustainability performance has turned into a real selling point. Rinø notes that climate credentials are often among the top reasons customers choose Nova Sea’s salmon. Regulators and local communities, too, see Nova Sea as a responsible player, which “has opened doors to some exciting projects,” she says.
Her advice to other companies is simple: “Climate change is happening either you act on it or not, so start today and don’t wait. There are many good tools available; Morescope is one of them. The path is more walked now, so it should be easier. The ones that are not working proactively on this will dig their own grave”.
Nova Sea’s journey shows the power of acting early and working smarter. Their journey on climate work truly works; for the oceans their fish rely on, the industry their customers rely on and the future their business rely on.
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