Swiss-based Tetra Pak Issues New Environmental Goals
Food packaging manufacturer Tetra Pak says it will develop packaging material based on 100 per cent renewable materials.
Tetra Pak, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based food processing and packaging company, this week published its biennial sustainability update. In the report, titled Mission Possible, company president and CEO Dennis Jönsson said that the company “will step up our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint along the value chain and to meet rising demand for safe and nutritious food.”
Tetra Pak says that it has been able to meet a goal of 13% absolute carbon reduction since 2005 and has pledged to cap carbon emissions at 2010 levels by the end of 2020. The company produces aseptic and other food and drink boxes and has seen an increase of recycled used cartons of more than 1 billion per year since 2002, it says.
Its new goal is to double the recycling rate by the end of the decade and to “develop packaging material based on 100 per cent renewable materials and increase the supply of FSC certified paper board used in its products to 100 per cent, with an interim target to achieve 50 per cent in 2012.”
“The world is changing faster than ever, and companies that want to compete and thrive must adapt to some of the key drivers shaping our industry, driving innovation and a step-change in sustainability,” said Jönsson.
Those drivers, according to a press release, are population growth; an increase in the number of people 60 and older; the economic rise of Brazil, Russia, India, China and other emerging countries; an expanding middle class; a resource crunch in water, forests and energy; globalization; urbanization; technological change; and stricter environmental legislation and taxes.
The company’s full plan is online at a special website, Tetra Pak Sustainability Update 2011. You can also download the Mission Possible report (pdf).