Setting bold goals for the future

Constantia Flexibles is proud to announce that it has been selected as one of the 50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders in an international initiative supported by the United Nations and Bloomberg’s digital media network. Highlighting positive stories in the fight against climate change, poverty, hunger, inequality, and injustice as part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the initiative shows the world that sustainable business is better business for everyone from the ground up.

Last year, we were thrilled to be selected to take part in a new initiative focused on international businesses taking effective action against climate change. The 50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders (50SCL) project promotes good role models for effective leadership in sustainability and uses solutions-based video journalism to show how companies like Constantia Flexibles are contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. “The real question is not whether sustainable development is within reach,” explains Thomas Greigeritsch, Vice President Group Sustainability, “but what we can do together to make it happen. That’s what the 50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders project is all about.”

Towards a sustainable future

As outlined in our short film on the 50SCL website, sustainability has been one of Constantia Flexibles’s core priorities for over a decade – focused on both combatting climate change and achieving a circular economy. In pursuit of the first objective, we have set ourselves ambitious science-based targets, like reducing absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 24% by 2030 and by 49% by 2050 (from a 2015 base year). In addition to the environmental and energy management system certifications awarded to several of our sites, our largest plant is ASI (Aluminium Stewardship Initiative) certified. We also made this year’s CDP Climate Change A List of the world’s leading companies in environmental transparency and performance – another indicator of how committed we are to the global effort to combat climate change.

Towards a circular economy

In pursuit of the second objective, we have pledged to make all of our food, hygiene, and pharmaceutical packaging recyclable by 2025. One example of this is our fully recyclable flexible packaging from the EcoLam range, a monopolymer PE-based laminate has similar barrier properties to aluminum foil that can be recycled in well-established recycling streams. EcoLam is produced at the new Ecoflex plant in Ahmedabad, India, our first plant dedicated solely to the production of recyclable packaging. Thanks to this and our other initiatives, 60% of the packaging produced by Constantia Flexibles is recyclable today.

In a search for ways to address the challenges global society is facing, we applaud the leadership of organizations like the UN and the other participants in this initiative for placing the focus on real-life solutions. We look forward to sharing our sustainability efforts and success stories with the wider world.