SUBSCRIBE NOW RESPONSIBLE PRODUCTS Our customers want to minimise the footprint of their products every step of the way. Packaging is part of this product lifecycle and our cartons offer proven environmental benefits compared with alternatives. We’re working hard to cut the impact of our cartons even further across all stages of their lifecycle. And we go beyond to help customers reduce the impact of their own factories with expert advice and fast, efficient filling machines. OUR CORPORATE COMPASS: RESPONSIBLE PRODUCTS Ambition: Innovate smart solutions with proven sustainability across the entire life-cycle 2030 Goal: Offer customers the most sustainable food packaging solution(s) - carton or other materials LOWEST IMPACT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY Independent lifecycle assessments show that our cartons offer significantly better environmental performance than alternative packaging such as glass, HDPE or PET bottles, pouches and cans – for a range of products including long-life food, UHT milk and non-carbonated soft drinks. The lifecycle carbon footprint of a carton is 28% to 70% lower than the alternatives. And cartons also use considerably fewer fossil fuel resources – with consumption rates between 38% and 77% lower. How do our cartons score so well on the environment? Because for example their main material is paper board made from renewable wood and their lightweight, space-saving design is exceptionally efficient to make, fill and transport. Learn more about the 3 reasons why carton packs win every time on SIGnals – the SIG blog. These results are from Europe-wide lifecycle assessments carried out by independent experts using the ISO 14040 international standard and critically reviewed by an independent panel. FOR MORE DETAIL, DOWNLOAD OUR QUICK GUIDES TO THE ASSESSMENTS FOR: Quick guide to the lifecycle assessment for combibloc EcoPlus DOWNLOAD NOW UHT milk DOWNLOAD NOW Non-carbonated soft drinks DOWNLOAD NOW Food aseptic DOWNLOAD NOW Food retort DOWNLOAD NOW SMARTER PACKAGING SOLUTIONS We want our products to give customers and consumers the best possible performance – highest quality, maximum convenience, best value and lowest environmental impact. Cartons already offer the smallest footprint, but we want to go further. Our combibloc RS structure reduces the carbon footprint of our standard packs by 5% from cradle to gate for 1 litre packs and by 6% for 200ml packs. And that’s just one of the ways we’re reducing lifecycle impacts. Product innovation is key to realising our ambition to offer customers the most sustainable food packaging solutions. We’ve already created an aseptic solution that eliminates the need for aluminium (combibloc EcoPlus) and the world’s first aseptic pack that is 100% linked to plant-based renewable material (SIGNATURE PACK). We’ve even achieved the unthinkable by turning a carton into a bottle (combidome). ECO INNOVATION: COMBIBLOC ECOPLUS Our combibloc EcoPlus aseptic carton aseptic carton uses an innovative composite structure to cut the environmental impact. Wood pulp from FSCTM-certified renewable sources makes up more than 80% of the carton. And there’s no aluminium. Polyethylene layers securely contain the food or drink, and an ultra-thin layer of polyamide shields the contents from flavour impairment and unwanted odours. combibloc EcoPlus cuts the carbon footprint of our combiblocSlimline 1 litre carton by 28%. And the addition of our screw cap combiCap – 60% lighter than other screw caps – gives additional consumer convenience with minimal environmental impact. Lifecycle assessment for combibloc EcoPlus DOWNLOAD NOW SIGNATURE PACK: 100% linked to plant-based renewable material Our SIGNATURE PACK is the world’s first aseptic pack 100% linked to plant-based renewable material, bringing added value by helping to meet demand for more sustainable products. SIGNATURE PACK builds on the aluminium-free design we developed for combibloc EcoPlus that’s made from up to 82% renewable paper board – and takes this a step further by using polymers that are linked to renewable forest-based material to make up the rest of the carton, the barrier and the spout. We use a mass balance system to link the polymer to forest-based material. This means that the amount of plant-based raw materials in the mix is equivalent to the amount needed for the polymers used in SIGNATURE PACK. The totals are balanced through recognised and audited certification schemes. The environmental benefits of SIGNATURE PACK have been confirmed by a critically reviewed ISO-conformant lifecycle assessment (LCA) – the world’s first for a mass balanced product. The LCA showed significant reductions in environmental impacts across all categories as a result of the substitution of fossil polymers with mass balance plant-based polymers made from tall oil (a by-product of paper manufacturing). The carbon footprint of SIGNATURE PACK is significantly lower than a standard SIG 1 litre carton pack across its lifecycle, based on the Europe-wide LCA. Find out more about our award-winning SIGNATURE PACK and the mass balancing system it uses on our SIGnals blog. SIGNATURE PACK LCA DOWNLOAD NOW Addendum to LCA for SIGNATURE PACK with closure combiSwift Plus DOWNLOAD NOW Addendum to LCA for SIGNATURE PACK for the Dutch Market DOWNLOAD NOW SIGNATURE PACK LCA cb2 and cb9 DOWNLOAD NOW CARTON MEETS BOTTLE: COMBIDOME combidome. It looks like a bottle, but it folds like a carton. It pours like a bottle, but it has all the benefits of a carton – including the environmental performance. Across its lifecycle, combidome’s carbon footprint is significantly smaller than that of bottles: 75% less than glass, 41% less than multilayer PET and 27% less than monolayer PET. Like all our cartons, it’s made of 75% paper board on average – all from FSCTM-certified renewable sources. And it’s fully recyclable as a single unit. MINIMISING WASTE IN OUR CUSTOMERS’ FACTORIES Our cartons are an important part of our packaging solutions, but so are the machines our customers use to fill them. We’re working to reduce the impact across our value chain, including the filling process in our customers’ factories. With an waste rate of below 0.5%, our filling machines help minimise waste in our customers’ factories. With our flexible filling machines for food and beverages, you only need one machine for up to nine different carton volumes. And you can change to cartons with a new design without interrupting the production process. We aim to make our high-speed filling machines as efficient as possible to minimise operating costs and environmental impact. Our latest models use significantly less water, energy and compressed air. We’ve also designed technical upgrades to reduce energy and water use that can be retrofitted to existing SIG filling machines. Our technical service support, consulting and training help customers maximise the efficiency of the filling machines – and their whole factory. They can tap into our years of experience working with major international customers, learn from best practices and use our three-stage programme to increase efficiency, cut operating costs and reduce environmental impact. FOSTER RECYCLING All the materials in our cartons can be recycled and there is a market for reusing the materials to make new products. We’re working with others to promote this circular economy. Many countries already have the infrastructure in place to collect and recycle cartons. Empty cartons are compatible with all local and national recycling and waste management options that recycle materials or use them to recover energy. In Europe, around 47% of cartons are recycled and a further 29% are recovered for energy. We’re supporting efforts to strengthen national systems for collecting cartons and increase capacity for separating and recycling the raw materials. In the UK, for example, we supported the creation of the country’s first facility built exclusively to recycle food and beverage cartons. But having the facilities to recycle is only half the battle. Consumers also need to do their bit by putting their cartons in the right bin. We partner with others on campaigns to promote recycling. In Brazil, for example, we partner with customers to raise consumer awareness of environmental issues and support education programmes on recycling for schoolchildren – the consumers of tomorrow. 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