Who we are

As the public-private partnership on seafood sustainability with 90+ stakeholders industry-wide, GSSI aligns global efforts and resources to address seafood sustainability challenges. Governed by a Steering Board representing the full seafood value chain, companies, NGOs, governments and international organizations – including the FAO –, GSSI promotes sector-wide collaboration to drive forward more sustainable seafood for everyone.

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GSSI vision

More sustainable seafood for everyone

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GSSI mission

Ensure confidence in the supply and promotion of certified seafood as well as to promote improvement in the seafood certification schemes.

What we do

GSSI operates

the Global Benchmark Tool to provide confidence in certified seafood and promote improvement in certification schemes.

GSSI provides

a global, multi-stakeholder platform for collaboration and knowledge exchange to address sustainability challenges that have an environmental, economic and social impact.

GSSI collaborates

with the Consumer Goods Forum’s Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative (SSCI) to develop a seafood-specific social compliance benchmark.

What is GSSI factsheet

What makes GSSI unique?

GSSI brings together 90+ stakeholders from across the sector, including the FAO, NGOs, policy makers to address global seafood sustainability challenges
GSSI creates global alignment in seafood certification and is the one-stop-shop for credible seafood certification schemes.

GSSI leveraged industry influence to create a Global Benchmark Tool which operationalizes the FAO Guidelines.
GSSI is included in the sourcing policies of the world’s largest retailers and seafood companies, the Tokyo Olympic procurement guidelines and the WEF Tuna Declaration’s environmental pillar.

Vice President Product Integrity, Ahold Delhaize

Hugo Byrnes joined Ahold in 2006 and was subsequently appointed to the position of Vice President Product Integrity. He is responsible for Ahold Delhaize’s food and non-food product policies, which cover product safety and responsible products. This includes social compliance, animal welfare and environmental issues. Hugo Byrnes has a Dutch Law degree from the State University Leiden, the Netherlands. He is a food lawyer whose career has focused on the food business and in particular on quality management and standardization.

Director of Partnerships, Aqua-Spark

Flavio has spent more than two decades working in responsible aquaculture globally for non-profit, intergovernmental, and for-profit organizations. As Aqua-Spark’s Director of Partnerships, he is responsible for driving the development and execution of a robust partner ecosystem that aligns all stakeholders behind a core vision, while supporting Aqua-Spark’s portfolio, network, and goals.

Prior to joining Aqua-Spark, Flavio worked for IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, overseeing their Aquaculture Program. He was also IDH Vietnam Country Director, establishing groundbreaking public-private partnerships in coffee, tea, and apparel. He founded and ran the sustainability arm of the Vietnam association of farmers and fishers (VINAFIS). He has worked as an expert for over 20 international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Flavio holds an M.Sc. in Aquaculture from the University of Stirling and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology, the study of diseases in populations, from the University of Liverpool.

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Global Partnership