The global food system accounts for
twenty-six percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,
and about a third of all food produce
is lost or wasted,
which also carries a significant carbon footprint.
The recent pandemic has exposed the
weaknesses of our food system which will get further amplified
with a growing demand for food in the future.
We therefore need sustainable processing and packaging solutions
that not only protect food, but also our planet.
Tetra Pak is the world leading food processing
and packaging solutions company.
We work closely with customers and suppliers.
We help provide safe and nutritious food and beverages
to billions of people in more than 160 countries.
Our vision is to commit to making food safe and available everywhere,
and we promise to do so in a way that protects what’s good.
We protect food, we protect people,
and we protect the planet.
In order to minimise our climate impact
and at the same time ensure food security for the future.
We take a full life cycle view of our solutions.
Given the current climate emergency
we need rapid decarbonization now.
Literally speaking we need to take out carbon from
every step in the value chain.
There are two impactful ways in which
this can be done in our industry.
First, it is to replace high-carbon materials
with low carbon materials, which is where
renewable resources such as plant-based materials
can make a huge difference.
Our cartons are made of approximately seventy percent paper
which comes from responsibly managed forests
which regenerate and take up carbon dioxide as they grow.
Even though our paper-based packages
have a lower carbon footprint compared to the alternatives,
we are working towards creating a package that is made
from fully renewable or recycled materials, allowing ambient distribution
and meeting food safety requirements.
The second area is to decarbonize
the energy used during operations.
In this context we’re committed to achieve Net Zero
greenhouse gas emissions in our own operations,
and to using one-hundred percent renewable electricity, by 2030,
with the ambition to achieve Net Zero greenhouse gas
emissions for the full value chain by 2050.
Nearly half of our value chain climate impact comes
from packaging and processing equipment operating
at food and beverage manufacturers sites,
so supporting customers with their own sustainability goals
is a critical part of realizing the 2050 net zero ambition.
We are continuously investing in innovative equipment
solutions which enable reduction in water consumption,
carbon footprint, and food waste.
The most critical ingredient for success is collaboration,
and more partnerships means faster solutions.
We have been working closely with many of our suppliers
and existing partners with whom we pioneered
the use of renewable plant based polymers from sugar cane
for the manufacture of plastic caps.
We were the first in our industry to launch caps
made from plant-based polymers, reducing the carbon footprint.
In early 2021, we established a collaborative innovation model
with leading paper board suppliers including
Stora Enso, Klabin, and BillerudKorsnäs.
Together with research institutions, Universities and start-ups
to collectively tackle the numerous
sustainability challenges in the food packaging industry.
In 2007 we were the first to introduce the FSC
certification system to the liquid food carton industry,
and today one-hundred percent of the paper board we use comes from
FSC certified and other controlled sources.
Additionally, the Bonsucro Certification of the plant-based
polymers in our packages supports sustainable sugar cane production.
Responsible sourcing needs to go hand in hand
with transparent reporting, for which we work with
leading sustainability assessment platforms, such as EcoVadis and CDP,
which is widely recognised as the gold standard
of corporate and environmental transparency.
We have been the only company in the
carton packaging segment to be included
in the CDP leadership band for five years in a row,
scoring an outstanding double-A for Climate and Forests,
and included in the top one percent companies
taking best practice actions to tackle deforestation.
We also believe that it is not sufficient
to drive actions without clear measurement.
We therefore have our climate impact reduction targets
approved by the Science Based Targets initiative,
being the first company in the food packaging industry to do so.
Recycling can play a strong role in reducing climate change
by keeping materials in use and giving them an extended life.
Our carton packages are recyclable
and are increasingly being collected
and recycled where efficient waste management
and recycling infrastructures are there in place.
They are effectively recycled into various products
such as tissues, paper-based products, stationary items,
as well as into sheets that are used for making furniture or roofing sheets.
Our ambition is to ensure that all of our packages
are recycled and none of them end up as litter.
To improve recycling rates, we have made significant investment
growing the number of facilities that recycle cartons worldwide
from forty in 2002, to more than one-hundred and ninety in 2020.
We co-founded the 3R Initiative with industry partners,
a first-of-its-kind global effort designed to reduce, recover, and recycle
the growing amount of plastics generated by companies.
Our ambition is to deliver the world’s most sustainable food package.
That is a package made from fully renewable
or recycled materials; that’s fully recyclable; and carbon neutral:
a package for ambient distribution food, while meeting the most stringent
safety requirements and regulations.
This is the future of food packaging
and this is what we’re here for.
We have a road map to deliver against these
challenging requirements, and have already made
significant progress by way of major milestones.
A few examples: we’ve already introduced
the world’s first package made fully from plant-based
renewable materials, selling over one billion packages globally.
We’ve sold over twelve billion bio-based
caps made from plant-based polymers.
Our first-generation non-foil package solution
is on the supermarket shelf where the protective aluminium foil layer
has been replaced by a more environmentally sound polymer film,
cutting the carbon footprint by almost twenty-five percent
yet still protecting the food.
We’ve also launched a variety of paper straws in Europe
and will soon deploy a range of tethered cap solutions
to further reduce littering.
Even more sustainable and novel and consumer friendly openings
are in the pipeline.
Around seventy years ago our technology and solutions
changed the rules of the game
in making food safe and available everywhere.
But with the current climate crisis
and the potential food security challenges,
the industry needs another step change in its evolution.
With a strong sustainability foundation and bold ambitions
to lead the sustainability transformation,
we will continue to pioneer a sustainable future
that protects what’s good:
food, people, and the planet.