Tetra Pak published its Annual Sustainability Report highlighting the company’s global achievements and progress in the last year and details the actions to help realise resilient and sustainable food systems. A special South Asia supplement released along with the report highlights the local initiatives taken to promote a low-carbon circular economy- ranging from helping customers reduce their emissions, to environment friendly practices adopted in the company’s own operations, as well as various partnerships undertaken to increase collection & recycling of used carton packages.

Global Highlights

The impact of the pandemic and several global events have made a significant impact on the global logistics and raw material prices. However, as the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company Tetra Pak has worked towards reducing the impact of unprecedented disruptions around the global supply chain while leading the sustainability transformation within the industry.

Tetra Pak’s 23^rd Sustainability Report highlights the company’s achievements and ongoing initiatives – to protect food, people and the planet. These include:

• Reduced operational GHG emissions by 36%, with 80% of energy coming from renewable sources, doubling the solar energy capacity to 5.55MW

• Launched a pioneering land restoration initiative in Brazil, in collaboration with local NGO Apremavi in early 2022. The aim is to restore up to 7,000 hectares of land by 2030 for biodiversity recovery, carbon capture and climate change mitigation

• Sold 17.6 billion plant-based packages and 10.8 billion plant-based caps in the past year, enabling the saving of 96 kilo tonnes of CO₂, compared to fossil-based plastic

• Invested €40 million to support the collection and recycling of 50 billion cartons, contributing to a circular economy

• 61 million children in 41 countries received milk or other nutritious beverages in Tetra Pak packages through school feeding programmes

• Successfully completed a commercial validation of a polymer-based barrier to replace the aluminium layer in aseptic cartons. Testing has started on a new fibre-based barrier - a first within food carton packages distributed under ambient conditions

• Becoming the first carton packaging player in the food and beverage industry to launch a cap using attributed recycled polymers, in partnership with Elvir, a subsidiary of world leading milk processor Savencia Fromage & Dairy

• Partnered with several innovative companies to transform potential food waste into sources of nutritious food, as well as developing alternative protein-based food applications. Along with the potential for a lower carbon footprint, alternative proteins offer scope for significantly reduced land and water use, compared with traditional sources

• Committed to halve food waste, water consumption and carbon footprint of its best practice processing lines by 2030

In addition, here are some highlights from Tetra Pak's initiatives in India: 

• Supported customers in reducing food waste, water consumption and carbon footprint through technological innovation and interventions

• Tetra Pak’s manufacturing site in Chakan (near Pune) was recertified as IGBC Platinum, meeting a range of parameters - Sustainable Site, Water Conservation, Energy Conservation, Innovation, Indoor environmental quality, material conservation and more)

• Collection & Recycling network for used cartons packages expanded to cover more cities across 26 states and Union Territories and 15 Army cantonments, supported by 4 recyclers across India

• Joined hands with Nestlé a+ to launch ‘Cartons 2 Classroom’ – an initiative to increase awareness about recycling by recycling used cartons to create classroom furniture for schools for less-privileged children

• Launched a unique program called Happy Wings in partnership with Eco Roots Foundation, an NGO working to conserve ecosystem, environment, and biodiversity

  • This program aims to reach out to over 200 schools across the country, covering over 20,000 students to educate children about the importance of protecting biodiversity, while also teaching them how to make nests for birds using household waste like jute, coconut husk and recycled beverage cartons

• Tied up with micro-delivery start-up Milkbasket to help consumers recycle used carton packages from their doorstep through the Milkbasket app.

• ‘Alag Karo – Har Din Teen Bin’, a waste segregation awareness program in partnership with Coca Cola India, GiZ and Saahas since 2019 expanded to cover more wards in South Delhi and Gurugram showing strong impact

“Our ambition is to lead the sustainability transformation within our industry, and this is only possible through concrete actions across our value chain. We believe that it is imperative to leverage strong and system-wide partnerships, as collaboration is key to successfully overcome the challenges we face today. It is also critical to embed sustainability as a key business driver & decision-making criterion and promoting a culture of sustainability in our business and industry. As you will see in our latest sustainability report, we are making strong efforts in these areas,” said Ashutosh Manohar, managing director - Tetra Pak South Asia.

The full report including highlights & cases from India can be viewed here:

https://www.tetrapak.com/en-in/sustainability/sustainability-updates