Category:
May 24, 2022
Elopak Sustainability Report 2021 – Towards net-zero
The year 2021 was a landmark year for Elopak. We shifted our focus from simply doing less harm towards doing more good. The roll-out of our new vision, ‘Chosen by people, packaged by nature’, and our mission to remain our customers’ partner and consumers’ favorite across the business supports this positioning both externally and internally.
Our sustainability report 2021 gives an update on our progress and goals regarding people, planet and profit.
Sustainability:
The way we work:
As a global corporation, Elopak is committed to work systematically with all aspects of sustainability, from the well-being of our employees, initiatives to mitigate climate change, responsible sourcing of raw materials, to responsible business conduct, upholding the highest ethical standards in all our business operations.
Being sustainable means finding the balance between what is good for the people, the planet and the profit.
Our sustainability targets:
Our sustainability targets remain the same as last year, safeguarding our long-term commitments to key global challenges such as climate change, scarce natural resources, diversity, safety and responsibility in supply chains.
1.
Elopak offers a top-quartile motivating workplace by 2025
2.
85% of employees have individual targets and documented competence development plans
3.
Target the same distribution in gender diversity across all hierarchical levels
“Over the past three years, we have further embedded sustainability throughout Elopak’s business and operational units. This helped us incorporate our sustainability targets with the company’s overall targets and to work systematically with the topics most important to us.”
Marianne Groven, Sustainability Director at Elopak
Renewability
Renewability is important to Elopak because we are an inherent part of this world, and we have a responsibility to maintain the scarce resources of our planet.
Since our primary raw material originates from the forests, we take responsible forest management very seriously.
Elopak has an ambitious goal of 100% renewable or recycled content materials in our cartons on the European market by 2030.
Naturally renewable – maintaining living and viable forests
Elopak sources all of its paperboard from verified and controlled sources. Since our certification in 2010, the annual sales of FSC-certified cartons has been steadily increasing with 54% of our sales volume being FSC-certified in 2021 (74% in Europe).
Fossil-free –
with certified renewable polymers
Since the launch of our first fully renewable carton in 2014, the share of cartons with plant-based polyethylene in Europe has steadily increased, reaching 22% in 2021.
Our self-defined target is to reach 50% by 2025.
Net Zero
Elopak has worked systematically to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions since 2008 and we have publicly reported our emission data every year
In 2016, we became a member of RE100 and a carbon-neutral company, offering carbon-neutral packaging to our customers, and have been sourcing 100% renewable electricity ever since.
We were an early adopter of the Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative in 2019 and took part in their Net zero Road Test with 80 other companies during the summer of 2021.
Carbon neutral
Elopak has been a carbon neutral company since 2016. Through carbon neutrality, we compensate for all emissions from our own manufacturing processes, our transport and our business travels. By expanding the scope, we can offer carbon neutral packaging to our customers. We were the first to offer CarbonNeutral® Packaging for beverages and liquid foods.
Elopak supports projects outside of the value chain, that can provide third-party verified carbon emission reduction credits. In doing so, we are contributing not only to reduced emissions but also facilitating positive effects on local livelihoods and the environment.
More than 303,800 tonnes CO2e
have been compensated through the first five years of Elopak's Carbon Neutral Program.
Building the road to 2030 with Science Based Targets
We have updated our near-term targets on the path to net zero, committing to reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 42% by 2030 from a 2020 base year. In addition, we pledge to continue sourcing 100% renewable electricity. We have also committed to reducing scope 3 GHG emissions by 25% by 2030 from a 2020 base year.
Recycling & circular economy
Elopak cartons are recyclable with existing technology. Our cartons are currently recycled in about 20 paper mills across Europe.
Elopak supports requirements for recyclability and circularity, which are evident in regulatory developments all over the world and particularly in Europe.
Elopak participates in multiple associations and industry partnerships to support the continued improvement of the collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure for our paper-based cartons.
Recycling
Our cartons contain fibres of very high quality that can be recycled up to seven times. The challenge is to continue to make national collection and recycling facilities more widely available and easily accessible, so more people can recycle. Therefore, Elopak works together with industry peers to increase and strengthen the collection and recycling of cartons across our markets.
*Latest figures from 2019
Recycled (percent)
About 20 paper mills across Europe currently recycle collected beverage cartons.
Both the private sector (e.g. in Italy, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic) and the beverage carton industry have invested in recycling of the non-paper fraction of beverage cartons. The industry initiative Palurec GmbH is now operational in Cologne.
There are 4 initiatives recycling the non-paper fraction, and through these, roughly 30% of the European volume can be recycled as of today.
ASI certification
The Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) has announced that it has officially certified Elopak for the company’s material stewardship of aluminium throughout its entire value chain.
EcoVadis platinum rating
Elopak has been awarded a platinum rating for its sustainability performance by EcoVadis, the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings. This achievement places Elopak in the top 1% of companies evaluated across all industries.
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New on the shelf
Farm Dairy, Netherlands
Product:
Pure-Pak® SenseFarm Dairy has launched its first plant-based milk alternatives in the Netherlands in 750ml Pure-Pak® Sense. Since the beginning of February, three plant-based yoghurts from Picnic’s own “Nogurt” brand have been available exclusively through the Picnic app. Further plant-based product launches for a range of Dutch retail brands are already planned. With both fresh and long-life milk alternatives, Farm Dairy is firmly positioning itself as an accelerator of the protein transition in the Netherlands.
Niehoffs Vaihinger Fruchtsaft, Germany
Product:
Pure-Pak® ClassicThe best of juice and oats – the fruit oat drinks Youce by Vaihinger combine tropical fruit flavors with the nutritious qualities of oat drinks. The fruity new product is now available in the flavors orange-mango and cherry-pomegranate in Elopak’s 750ml Pure Pak Classic carton. Whether pure, in muesli or as a snack – in a consumer test, more than 80 percent of the test subjects attested to a high purchase probability.
Co-op, UK
Product:
D-PAK™ CartonIn January 2025, the British retailer Co-op introduced its own-brand detergents in 750ml D-PAK™ cartons throughout the country. By switching from plastic bottles to cardboard packaging, the company is saving around 80 percent on plastic annually. Since the D-PAK™ cartonboard is 45 percent lighter than plastic bottles and can be transported more efficiently, the switch also results in significant logistical savings.
Utsikt, Norway
Product:
D-PAK™ CartonThe Norwegian company DRIV Energi has been marketing a sustainable alternative to plastic packaging since October 2024 with its Utsikt windshield wiper fluid in cartons. The 2-liter D-PAK™ saves 50 grams of plastic and 300 grams of CO2 per carton. Customers appreciate the recyclability and easy handling, especially the ease of pouring.