Coveris and Neoen partner on wind energy in “No Waste” vision

01 Feb 2023 --- Coveris has signed a ten year purchase agreement with Neoen and is investing in green energy that meets the electricity needs of its European plants. The energy will be generated by a future wind farm in Storbrännkullen, Sweden. 

“Renewable energy is a major pillar of our committed [environmental] sustainability strategy. In the past couple of years, we have already gradually switched to green energy, most recently in our plants in Austria, Hungary and Egypt,” Christian Kolarik, CEO at Coveris tells PackagingInsights. 

The new virtual power purchase agreement is now “instrumental” in helping Coveris achieve zero scope 2 CO2 emissions and an improved overall Environmental, Social and Governance status, explains Kolarik. 

“It will also help to improve the packaging performance in our life cycle analysis tool, which calculates the footprint of each packaging alternative to identify the best packaging solution for each product – in terms of CO2, water and energy consumption as well as recyclability.”

No Waste sustainability vision
Since Coveris introduced its “No Waste” sustainability vision, the company claims to have significantly improved its sustainability performance. 

Christian Kolarik, CEO at Coveris. “With our award winning No Waste sustainability vision, Coveris identified one common trigger for a sustainable future: The reduction of waste in all its forms throughout the entire life cycle of packaging, from its production to usage and from recyclability to recycling.”

“We have defined three major areas – ‘No Product Waste, No Packaging Waste and No Operational Waste,’” asserts Kolarik. 

He explains that No Product Waste is focusing on the sustainable value of packaging, keeping consumer goods safe and hygienic while extending the period during which the product can be used. Coveris also aims to improve the technologically advanced functionalities to avoid any product or food waste. 

“In regard to No Packaging Waste, we dedicate resources to further developing better recyclable packaging such as our MonoFlex range or using post-consumer waste for the films we produce. Most recently, we also introduced ReCover, bundling all efforts in waste sourcing, processing and recycling to close the loop for circular plastic recycling,” adds Kolarik.

Enhancing environmental sustainability 
Furthermore, Coveris’ CEO believes there is a “huge potential” to avoid waste in the company’s operations. Like with this new virtual power purchase agreement, which is instrumental in helping Coveris achieve zero scope 2 CO2 emissions. 

“To support our vision, we have established Green Teams in every site to identify and implement sustainability projects in all areas. Besides all the internal projects we entertain within No Waste, we are externally rated by Ecovadis to monitor the sustainability performance of our business and sites.”

Kolarik continues that while from a carbon footprint perspective, most of the packaging solutions of Coveris already offer a reduced footprint compared to alternative materials.

“We continuously work on more sustainable packaging solutions, mainly focused on monomaterials, the use of post-consumer recycled or post-industrial recycled materials or paper.”

The construction of the wind farm began in July 2022 and is scheduled to be commissioned in late 2023. The facility is expected to have a production capacity equivalent to the annual consumption of 30,000 homes.

By Natalie Schwertheim 

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