Our Invoice System
An Invoice System That Helps Customers Rate Their Purchases
Our invoices are designed to help you gain a better understanding of the overall sustainability of your seafood purchases through a sustainability ranking average. On your invoice, you’ll notice each of your purchases has a number assigned to it. Items that are ranked as green (Best Choice) are given a 4, yellow (Good Alternative) species are given a 3, blue (SMS Approved) are given a 2, and red (Avoid) species are given a 1. Grey species are not included in the ranking process.
Here’s an example – On this particular invoice you purchased 120 lbs. of PEI mussels (green), 30 lbs. of wild ling cod from Washington (yellow), 40 lbs. of Indonesian barramundi (SMS Blue), 250 lbs. of Chilean farmed salmon (red) and 30 lbs. of New Zealand John Dory (grey).
To get your GPA (also known as a “weighted average”), simply multiply the ranking by the number of lbs. purchased to get a total score for the rank. Then, add up the total amount of lbs. purchased (not including any gray ranked items) and the total score’s ranking values. Divide the total ranked pounds of product by the total ranking value to get your GPA. The higher GPA you get, the more sustainable your purchases are.
If you find yourself with a low GPA and want to raise it, we recommend that you think long term; review your invoices for a period of 30 days, and then begin planning what small changes you can make to raise your GPA over time. We understand that many items that are extremely popular with your customers (and therefore, extremely popular with us) are sometimes ranked very low on sustainability lists; farmed salmon and farmed shrimp, to name a few. Your Santa Monica Seafood Representative is a great resource. They have tools available that they can use to run your ordering history for a week, month or year. By reviewing that information periodically you will be able to get a good idea of how your purchases are trending. We are happy to help you work on making changes to your menu, or check out our Red List substitutes page.
We also hold a variety of events throughout the year that highlight the most sustainable items in our inventory – check out our events calendar for more information!