Tetra Pak Makes Further Progress on Sustainability Transformation

2:02:48 PM | 7/28/2023

Tetra Pak has recently published its Sustainability Report FY22 , highlighting the company’s progress across various aspects of sustainability. Now in its 24th edition, the report demonstrates how sustainability remains core to Tetra Pak’s strategy and continues to be prioritised in decision making.

Sustainable development remains at the core of Tetra Pak's strategy

During the year 2022, Tetra Pak achieved significant milestones, reducing operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 39% , with 84% of the energy coming from renewable sources . This puts the company on track to achieve net zero within its own operations by 2030. Additionally, the sale of 8.8 billion plant-based packages and 11.9 billion plant-based caps translated into 131 kilo tonnes of CO2 savings. Tetra Pak also invested nearly €30 million to accelerate collection and recycling of beverage cartons, while working with food technology incubators and start-ups to explore the future of sustainable food.

This was in the context of a year marked by considerable uncertainty, driven by the after-effects of COVID-19, supply chain issues and geo-political challenges such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The combination of all these factors has resulted in significant financial challenges for businesses and consumers, driving up the cost of living and resulting in food insecurity for many.

Mr. Adolfo Orive, President & CEO at Tetra Pak affirmed the core purpose of the corporation is "Protect What’s good"

Adolfo Orive, President & CEO at Tetra Pak, says: “The current operating environment has emphasised the need for integrated, systemic solutions. This is the only way we can meet the scale and speed of change required to strengthen food access while reducing the environmental impact, in a way that leaves no one behind. This is why we have taken a holistic approach across five interconnected and interdependent areas where we can contribute the most - food systems, circularity, climate, nature and social sustainability.”

Tetra Pak’s Sustainability Report FY22 highlights the company’s achievements in the past year, and the ongoing initiatives to protect food, people and the planet. These include:

Testing an industry-first fibre-based barrier to replace the thin aluminium foil layer in aseptic carton packages – a breakthrough in the company’s journey towards a fully renewable aseptic package.
Recognition for leadership in corporate transparency and performance on climate change and forests by global environmental non-profit CDP, securing a place on its prestigious ‘A List’ for the fourth year running.
Designing a new processing method for soya drinks, as well as a new technology to transform Brewer’s Spent Grain into a plant-based beverage – for less waste and more nutrition.
Enabling 66 million children in 44 countries to get access to nutritious beverages through school feeding programmes, helping to improve children’s health, increase school attendance and support agricultural development.
Delivering milk to dairies in 22 Dairy Hub projects through approximately 44,000 farmers, in most cases smallholders, as part of the company’s long-term work to build local dairy value chains.
Restoring 87 hectares of land - the equivalent of 136 football fields - through the Araucaria Conservation Programme in Brazil.
Implementing UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and making progress on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I).

Adolfo concludes: “With a solid environmental track record and a strong commitment to the future, we will continue to drive ourselves and others to work ever more closely and find sustainable solutions to the challenges we face as a society. After all, this is core to our purpose: ‘We commit to making food safe and available, everywhere. And we promise to protect what’s good: food, people, and the planet.’”

The full FY22 report can be found here.

Tetra Pak Vietnam has achieved remarkable achievements in food protection, promoting circularity and eliminating climate changes

In Vietnam, our sustainability initiatives have achieved remarkable results in food protection, circularity promotion, and climate change mitigation. Some of our notable accomplishments include:

Food protection

- Attaining the prestigious AA+ BRCGS certificate, making Tetra Pak Binh Duong the first factory in Vietnam's packaging sector to achieve this recognition on food standard.

Circularity promotion

- Investing 1.2 million euro into increasing Dong Tien recycling factory’s capabilities of separating paper from used beverage carton by almost double, reaching 17,000 tonnes /year.

- Collaborating with the Packaging Recycling Organization Vietnam (PRO Vietnam) to drive the collection of used beverage cartons (UBC) through informal sectors in the southern region. By the end of 2022, we had onboarded three aggregators, resulting in the delivery of 339 tons of UBC for recycling.

- Continuing our partnership with VECA, a scrap collection app, to collect UBC periodically from 20 apartments and expanding online UBC collection via the VECA app in 18 districts of HCM city. This has enabled the collection of 4.3 tons of UBC.

- Working in conjunction with partners and retailers such as Aeon Mall and MM Mega Market to expand public drop-off stations in their shopping malls in Ho Chi Minh and Binh Duong, providing convenient access for carton collection.

Climate change mitigation

- Successfully installing solar panel on an area of 5,900m2 in Tetra Pak Binh Duong packaging material manufacturing factory, which can help reduce 700 tons of CO2 emissions a year.

Through these initiatives and partnerships, we remain committed to driving sustainable practices, environmental protection, and creating a positive impact on Vietnam's ecosystem and communities.

Mr. Adolfo Orive, President & CEO at Tetra Pak

H.N (Vietnam Business Forum)