Avery Dennison targets net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, sets recycled and renewable material goals

05 May 2021 --- Avery Dennison is committing to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2050 and introducing new 2030 social and environmental sustainability goals.

As part of these new targets, the company’s Label and Graphic Materials (LGM) business has pledged that its entire core film and paper product categories globally will contain recycled or renewable content by 2030. Also, all of its regions will have labels “enabling the circularity of plastics.”

The 2030 targets fall under three broad sustainability goals: 

• Deliver innovations that advance the circular economy; 
• Reduce environmental impact in operations and supply chain; and 
• Make a positive social impact by improving the livelihoods of people and communities.

Avery Dennison originally announced “more ambitious 2030 sustainability goals” in its 2020 Sustainability and Annual report, where the LGM business presented highlights of its achievements against its 2025 sustainability goals.

“Our net-zero commitments for 2030 and 2050 are intended to set our vision of the future for our employees and our industries,” Renae Kezar, senior director of global sustainability at Avery Dennison LGM, tells PackagingInsights. 

“However, as with many of our other sustainability goals, it does not mean we will wait until that time to achieve the goals. We achieved our first set of GHG emissions goals five years early.”

A step-by-step approach
Avery Dennison will take a step-by-step approach to achieve its net-zero GHG goal. First, it aims to reduce emissions by 70 percent against its 2015 baseline by 2030. Next, the company will work with its supply chain to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 30 percent against its 2018 baseline. 

The initial 2025 goal was to achieve at least 3 percent absolute reduction year-over-year and at least 26 percent overall reduction by 2025. 

Avery Dennison’s 2030 sustainability goals align with seven of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.By 2020, Avery Dennison had reduced absolute GHG emissions by approximately 19 percent in 12 months through Q3 2020 compared to the same period in the prior year. This was primarily due to an increased purchase of renewable energy credits. GHG emissions fell by roughly 45 percent compared to the baseline year.

Other objectives in the “reducing environmental impact” pillar include:

• Source 100 percent of paper fiber from certified sources focused on a deforestation-free future.
• Divert 95 percent of waste away from landfills, with a minimum of 80 percent of waste recycled and the remainder either reused, composted or sent to energy recovery.
• Deliver a 15 percent increase in water efficiency at Avery Dennison sites located in high or extremely high-risk countries.
• Engage 80 percent of LGM’s direct suppliers spending on their environmental and social policies, including water, human rights, fair business and forestry.

In this space, Avery Dennison introduced compostable label adhesives and recycled direct thermal labels. Early last year, the company introduced recycled polypropylene label facestock in an industry first together with chemical company SABIC.

Taking action
“Our strategies anticipate change, in all three of the goals we set forth,” says Kezar. 

“But as we learned in the last three years, our strategies and organization need to be resilient. Of all the targets, the most challenging is achieving net-zero,” she admits.

Avery Dennison has invested in renewable energy, including the installation of solar panels and windmills at its sites. 

Also, the company entered into a wind virtual power purchase agreement for the Plum Creek Wind project, which is now fully operational. It is expected to reduce our market-based emissions by approximately 100,000 metric tons of CO2 per year in the US.

Finally, Avery Dennison purchased international renewable energy certificates (I-RECS) to further increase the percentage of renewable energy in our overall energy consumption in multiple geographies including China and Malaysia.

The Carbon Catalyst
Several packaging suppliers and FMCG giants are committing to reducing their carbon footprints to null within the next thirty years. Tetra Pak and Smurfit Kappa have announced similar ambitions to achieve net-zero GHG emissions for their entire value chains by 2025.

With earlier goals set, Sainsbury’s committed £1 billion (US$1.4 billion) in early 2020 to become a net-zero business across its operations by 2040. Sealed Air is targeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 after it achieved 44 percent GHG cuts in 2020.

Energy efficiency in production and processing is also crucial to packaging’s total CO2 impact. Renewable energy is increasingly common – ranging from Palsgaard’s carbon-neutral plant-based polymer additives to Crown’s wind-powered North American beverage can plants.

These developments all fall under Innova Market Insights’ second top packaging trend for 2021: “The Carbon Catalyst.” Packaging’s carbon footprint is increasingly viewed as the key indicator of environmental sustainability amid increasingly stark climate change warnings. 

By Anni Schleicher