Tetra Pak, the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company, has released the 2019 Sustainability Report, marking 21 years of sustainability reporting. The report underlines Tetra Pak’s shared actions, investments and aspirations of its sustainability journey, highlighting the company’s achievements in implementing a holistic value chain approach.
Over the past two decades the Tetra Pak’s approach to sustainability reporting has evolved significantly, from focusing on environmental commitments and actions in the first report in 1999, to evaluating every part of the business and its impact, including societal and supplier governance.
Tetra Pak sustainability report confirms the company’s commitment to achieving a low carbon and ultimately climate neutral circular economy. This supports SDG 13 – reaching the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement by taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts and SDG 12 – action on Responsible Consumption, such as substantially reducing waste through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. The company is on track to meet it’s 2020 carbon emissions reduction ambitions, by saving a cumulative total of 10 million tons CO2 equivalent since 2010 across the value chain.
By applying the principles of sustainable sourcing, circular economy and recyclability, Tetra Pak strives to reduce waste, keep materials in use and regenerate natural systems. An example of sustainable sourcing is the use of renewable resources — natural materials that grow back, such as wood. Using these materials and managing them responsibly is what differentiates Tetra Pak in the market and protects the planet.
Responsible sourcing is another important step in the shift to circularity. All Tetra Pak’s paperboard is sourced from Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™) certified forests, which guarantees that the materials come from responsibly managed forests.
The third element is recycling, which helps keep valuable materials in the economy, with recycled materials becoming increasingly in demand for different applications. In 2018, the company signed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastics Economy Global Commitment and initiated partnerships with companies like Veolia in order to expand collaboration and accelerate global beverage carton recycling. This game-changing partnership enables all components of used beverage cartons collected within the European Union to be recycled by 2025. Tetra Pak has already created 45 new roles within the company to support the collection and recycling of cartons globally and expand the partnership to more markets around the world.
Following the global pattern, Tetra Pak Thailand drives it’s sustainability initiative by optimising the use of resources and deploying several concepts to promote the circular economy. All of the paperboard used in carton packaging in Thailand is sourced from FSC certified forests and other controlled sources. In 2018 Tetra Pak Thailand together with WWF Thailand and FSC carried out FSC awareness campaign educating the benefits of FSC label and inviting consumers to make responsible environmental choices while shopping for packaged beverages.
Tetra Pak Thailand also continues to run the Green Roof project which takes used cartons and recycles them into corrugated roofing sheets for the Friend in Need (of “Pa”) Volunteers Foundation, Thai Red Cross. The roof sheets are used for constructing homes and shelters for victims of floods and natural disasters. Tetra Pak has been running this project for over eight years providing more than 60,000 roof sheets helping thousands of people in need.
“To become more sustainable is something we work on every day. For us sustainability relates to the environment and as well to society and the economy as a whole. Tetra Pak Thailand has been demonstrating our commitment to the environment and social development for two decades. We are aware of environmental and social challenges in the Thai society and we have initiated and partnered various sustainability improvement programs with customers, retailers, local governments, NGOs, industry groups and the public. We know that we have a long journey ahead of us, but as we are committed to make concrete steps in collaboration with our partners, I am convinced that we will progress well in our sustainability journey” said Bert Jan Post, Managing Director, Tetra Pak Thailand.
