Stepping up for the climate decade

2020 marked the beginning of the climate decade. Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, we remained focused on our vision – chosen by people, packaged by nature.

At Elopak sustainability is not something we do; it is something we are. In our fifth year as a carbon neutral company, we continued our work to embed our commitment to sustainability throughout the company and its operations. In line with this, the 2020 Sustainability Report has been developed in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework and has approval from the Board of Directors.

Reflecting on our performance we can be proud of our dual approach that prioritizes both consumers and the planet. By leveraging our innovation-driven legacy, investing in reducing our carbon impact and working to maintain our unique consumer position, we were able to demonstrate the demand for, and the feasibility of, more sustainable packaging solutions.

We sustained a strong response to the pandemic, with a particular focus on the safety and wellbeing of our staff. At the same time, we continued our drive to make measurable progress in line with the Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative and recorded an 11% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions against a 2017 baseline, marking great progress towards the SBT goal of a 55% reduction by 2030.

In June we launched the Pure-Pak^® Imagine carton – helping consumers to make even more environmentally conscious choices. Fully renewable, recyclable, and carbon neutral the carton contains 46% less plastic than a conventional carton with a plastic closure.

Our commitment to sustainability continued to be rewarded, with an increasing number of consumers choosing more sustainable packaging options. Elopak recorded a significant increase in the sale of Pure-Pak^® cartons, with one in five cartons made with Natural Brown Board in Europe. These cartons are fully renewable, recyclable and have a lower CO₂ footprint owing to reduced wood consumption and the elimination of the bleaching process.

2020 once again reinforced in our minds the importance of collaboration in helping to foster innovation and sustainability. We continued our work with the 4evergreen alliance, which is working towards a recycling rate of 90% for all fibre-based packaging. In September, we supported the launch of the HolyGrail 2.0 initiative – a cross-value chain effort to improve packaging recycling through the use of pioneering digital watermarks.

As we continue our journey, we remain focused on taking measurable action to improve on past performance and we have recently joined the UN Global Compact as a participant.

All in all, 2020 was a challenging but exciting year for Elopak. As we grow and evolve we are careful to never lose sight of what’s important. We are committed to remaining our customers’ partner and the consumers’ favorite, through relentlessly developing new solutions for an expanding range of content. Applying market-leading technology, skills and natural materials sourcing, we always aim to provide the highest quality products that leave the world unharmed.