06.01.21
Graham Packaging has released its 2020 sustainability report. The comprehensive report documents the challenges Graham Packaging overcame in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic while staying focused on helping customers achieve their sustainability goals, as well as Graham’s own efforts to continue innovating within the sustainable packaging solutions industry.
“The pandemic required us to adapt quickly to create increased safety measures while overcoming numerous logistics challenges. As a member of the packaging industry, we were designated as an essential business, so while most of the world slowed down, we had to keep our efforts in 2020 on pace,” says Tracee Auld, chief sustainability officer and chief growth officer, Graham Packaging. “That meant we had to innovate our processes and work around the limitations created by COVID-19, while continuing our ongoing mission to develop new packaging designs to create recyclable, responsible products for consumers.”
While COVID-19 posed a challenge for Graham Packaging, it was far from the company’s sole focus in 2020. The Pennsylvania-based company continued to successfully move ahead on many important initiatives, including:
“The pandemic required us to adapt quickly to create increased safety measures while overcoming numerous logistics challenges. As a member of the packaging industry, we were designated as an essential business, so while most of the world slowed down, we had to keep our efforts in 2020 on pace,” says Tracee Auld, chief sustainability officer and chief growth officer, Graham Packaging. “That meant we had to innovate our processes and work around the limitations created by COVID-19, while continuing our ongoing mission to develop new packaging designs to create recyclable, responsible products for consumers.”
While COVID-19 posed a challenge for Graham Packaging, it was far from the company’s sole focus in 2020. The Pennsylvania-based company continued to successfully move ahead on many important initiatives, including:
- Expanding its commitment to sustainability by signing on to the UN Global Compact, the largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative in the world.
- Helping to launch the National Lubricant Container Recycling Coalition, an organization that will tackle issues around oil bottle recycling.
- Joining the Digital Watermarks Initiative Holy Grail 2.0 project to improve recycling operations through the use of digital watermarks in sorting efforts.
- Continuing to innovate in product lightweighting, durability and reusability, helping to reduce unnecessary plastic.
- Driving the industry on ethics and governance issues, including initiatives on Graham’s codes of conduct and its strategic response to climate change.
- Ranking No. 1 out of 54 companies in the plastic, metal and glass packaging industry in the ESG Risk Rating Report, where 1 is the lowest risk. The third-party evaluator, Sustainalytics, also rated Graham Packaging as No. 3 out of 90 companies in the containers packaging industry and overall placed Graham in the top 2% of 13,562 companies measured globally by Sustainalytics.
- Offering 91% fully recyclable PET & HDPE containers and 7% sometimes recyclable PP containers.
- Accomplishing an 8% reduction in climate change impacts from 2019 to 2020.
- Reducing its energy intensity by 8% from a 2018 baseline, on its way to its 2025 goal of a 25% reduction.
- Winning the 2020 Innovator Award from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
- Earning a 95% favorability rating for its Environmental, Health & Safety in an internal employee survey.
- Completing 50 life cycle assessment studies to help customers lower their own environmental impact.
