Business Opportunity Assessment Project

Project: The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) provided a wild-caught sustainable seafood certification. Sodexo was purchasing MSC-certified wild-caught seafood as part of its global commitment to source sustainable seafood, but was prevented from marketing it as such to its customers unless it obtained what was called “Chain of Custody” certification. Chain of Custody certification utilizes third party audits to guarantee that the seafood at the table has come from a sustainably-managed fishery. While there were clear costs to obtaining Chain of Custody certification, the benefits were less clear. Sodexo was currently piloting a Chain of Custody certification program at 12 sites in Washington, DC where they obtained data on consumer responses to MSC-branded seafood. Based on the results of the pilot, Sodexo was considering scaling the program throughout North America. The SGE Immersion team determined whether there was true value to obtaining Chain of Custody MSC certification or whether an alternative approach would be more effective.