Tetra Pak, a leading food processing and packaging solutions company, has announced its 23rd Sustainability Report highlighting the company’s achievements and progress actions designed to help realise sustainable food systems in the last one year.
The sustainability report underscores the need for a radical approach to defining the way we feed the world while minimizing the impact on the planet.
Its President/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Adolfo Orive reacted: “The way we source, produce and process our food; to its transportation, the materials we use to package it, and the critical role of collaborations makes it happen.
“Sustainability is not just on the agenda. It is THE agenda. We must ‘walk the talk’ by maximising our positive impact on nature and society, by continuing to embed sustainability as a key business driver and decision-making criteria.
“Our ambition is to lead sustainability transformation within our industry and our initiatives in this regard have continued over the last 12 months, working together with our customers and partners to support their own efforts as well. We realise the cost of inaction on sustainability today is a world we won’t recognise tomorrow. Our progress depends on being able to embrace a mindset which drives both growth and sustainability for a better future”.
The company said it made considerable progress in helping food and beverage manufacturers worldwide meet the international food safety standards – now and for the future – with its expertise in packaging, equipment, and services.
“Our expertise in sterilisation technology and microbiology, combined with our hygienic equipment and robust digitised control systems, enabled it to contribute to internationally leading food safety standards. Our global and cross-functional network of employees proactively monitors food safety legislations and regulatory developments. So we can continue to ‘future-proof’ our products and solutions before compliance regulations emerge and evolve has been impactful in our achievements this past year:”, the report stated.
In its West Africa operations, and in line with this global initiative, the 2022 sustainability report highlights that Tetra Pak West Africa made tremendous progress in enabling a secure long-term supply of locally sourced, high-quality milk by improving smallholder farmers’ productivity, market access, profitability, and livelihoods together with their partners.
While commenting on this, Managing Director of Tetra Pak West Africa, Mr Oshiokamele Aruna said the company, through the Dairy Hub Model, food and beverage manufacturers, secured a long-term supply of locally produced quality milk by providing smallholder dairy farmers access to training services and cooling infrastructure technology needed to increase the productivity, availability, and quality of milk, and farm profitability.
He explained: “Tetra Pak partnered with food and beverage manufacturers to increase water availability, which is a crucial part of milk production, and to improve the safe transportation of milk to collection centres. Solar-powered boreholes were installed to provide water to communities, and provisions were made for food contact safe milk collecting cans for transportation, which increased the shelf life of the product.
“The result, according to the statement, is that 750 farmers in a nomadic dairy farming community in Osun State increased their yield by 3,750 litres of milk daily”.
Other highlights and achievements, according to the report, include ongoing initiatives to protect food, people, and the planet. These include reduced operational GHG emissions by 36 percent, with 80 percent of energy coming from renewable sources; and doubling the solar energy capacity to 5.55MW; the launch of a pioneering land restoration initiative in Brazil, in collaboration with local NGO Apremavi in early 2022 with the aim to restore up to 7,000 hectares of land by 2030 for biodiversity recovery; carbon capture; and climate change mitigation.
It also indicated that the company 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. The company also invested €40 million to support the collection and recycling of 50 billion cartons, contributing to a circular economy, while ensuring that 61 million children in 41 countries received milk or other nutritious beverages in Tetra Pak packages through its school feeding programmes.
Others include the successful completion of a commercial validation of a polymer-based barrier to replace the aluminum layer in aseptic cartons. The company said testing has started on a new fiber-based barrier – a first within food carton packages distributed under ambient conditions; while 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 and Dairy.
The year also saw Tetra Pak partnering with several innovative companies to transform potential food waste into sources of nutritious food, as well as developing alternative protein-based food applications.
