Tetra Pak’s US headquarters. Credit: Tetra Pak.
Tetra Pak US and Canada recently released its “2018 Sustainability Report,” which shows how the company’s approach to sustainability reporting has evolved from focusing solely on environmental commitments and actions, to evaluating every part of the business and its impact, including societal and supplier governance; from self-assessment to adopting Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and aligning with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Packing
In the report, Tetra Pak notes that its long-term ambition is that the company’s entire packaging material portfolio will be made from 100% renewable materials, without compromising safety, quality or functionality. With around 75% of the company’s packages made from paperboard, they continue to focus on sustainable timber, while also innovating around polymers and aluminium. In 2018, Tetra Pak delivered 350 billion FSC labelled packages since the launch of the first package in 2007.
Sourcing
Responsible sourcing is one of the three strategic objectives for the company’s supply chain operations. These means that it is incorporated into key performance objectives and individual objectives across all regions and has its own assurance system that is integrated into the Corporate Governance Framework.
Tetra Pak requires suppliers to comply with the company’s Code of Business Conduct for Suppliers (the Supplier Code), which sets out expectations based on the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact.
“We also encourage suppliers to strive for continuous improvement by investing in their own sustainability agendas in order to meet or exceed global best practices,” Tetra Pak notes in the report.
Climate
In the report, Tetra Pak states that its climate goal is to cap the company’s 2020 impact across its value chain at 2010 levels, regardless of business growth. “Although this requires action at every level of our business and supply chain, the two major drivers of progress towards our goal are improving our energy efficiency and increasing the use of renewable electricity,” the report states.
In 2017, the company achieved a 13% reduction in its overall climate impact, despite a 19% increase in packages sold. Further to this, in 2016 Tetra Pak became the first company in the food packaging industry to have its climate impact reduction targets approved by the Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative.
Working with the SBT initiative, Tetra Pak committed to reducing its operational GHG emissions 42% by 2030 and 58% by 2040, from a 2015 baseline. The company also committed to reducing GHG emissions across the value chain 16% per unit of revenue by 2020 from a 2010 baseline.
The science-based targets allowed Tetra Pak to align its climate goal to the level of decarbonization needed to keep global temperature increase below 2°C and to look beyond its existing commitments and set a course of action all the way to 2040.