ALPLA Group

ALPLA wants to reduce its carbon foot­print by 10 per cent by 2022

Third sus­taina­bi­lity report docu­ments ALPLA’s com­mit­ment to sus­tainable development

Hard, 17 July 2019 – The third sus­taina­bi­lity report released by ALPLA, the global spe­cia­lists in pack­a­ging solu­tions, pro­vides detailed insights into the company’s deve­lo­p­ment stra­tegy. The report describes the pro­gress of sus­tainable deve­lo­p­ment from 2016 to 2018, which has then been used as a basis for for­mu­la­ting ambi­tious objec­tives for 2019 to 2022.

ALPLA’s sus­taina­bi­lity record for the past three years is very posi­tive: energy con­sump­tion in rela­tion to pro­duc­tion volumes was reduced by 6.6 per cent and con­sump­tion of fresh water in rela­tion to mate­rial usage by 40 per cent. The com­pany even far exceeded its target for using recy­cled mate­rials: ‘Demand has risen sharply in the reporting period. ALPLA has more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence in recy­cling, both in the manu­fac­ture of recy­clates and in their pro­ces­sing. That’s why we’re able to offer our cus­to­mers func­tio­ning solu­tions on both side,’ empha­sises Chris­toph Hoff­mann, Director Cor­po­rate Stra­tegy, Sus­taina­bi­lity & Cir­cular Economy.

The com­pany was also able to reduce its carbon foot­print, albeit not as much as planned: ‘We expe­ri­enced more growth than expected in count­ries with carbon-intensive elec­tri­city pro­duc­tion,’ Linda Mauksch, Sus­taina­bi­lity Officer at ALPLA since 2012, offers as an expl­ana­tion for why the carbon foot­print objec­tive could not be achieved.

Think global, act local
‘Global tar­gets can only be achieved with efforts by all regions,’ Mauksch says from expe­ri­ence. ALPLA has 178 plants in 46 count­ries. Of these plants, 72 are ‘in-house’, mea­ning they are directly part of the customer’s ope­ra­tions. This approach reduces trans­port routes and carbon emis­sions. Many plants have planned and imple­mented their own sus­taina­bi­lity pro­jects. The sus­taina­bi­lity report out­lines suc­cessful examples of such pro­jects in India, Brazil and Portugal.

Inno­va­tions and ambi­tious objectives
As an inno­va­tion leader, ALPLA can also point to several flag­ship initia­tives in the area of pro­duct deve­lo­p­ment: from bot­tles made enti­rely of recy­c­late and the home-compostable coffee cap­sule to the Simple One, a HDPE bottle that is up to 60 per cent lighter than stan­dard bot­tles. From 2022, the com­pany wants to bring at least three inno­va­tions to the market each year.

It also aims to reduce its carbon foot­print abso­lutely by 10 per cent – even with its pro­jected annual growth of three per cent.

Cir­cular eco­nomy as a suc­cess factor
In 2018, ano­ther part­ner­ship in Wolfen (Ger­many) joined the three PET recy­cling plants in Mexico, Aus­tria and Poland. The four sites deliver 70,000 tonnes of food-grade PET recy­c­late per year.

With its New Pla­s­tics Eco­nomy Global Com­mit­ment, ALPLA has com­mitted to manu­fac­tu­ring 100% recy­clable pro­ducts by 2025 and inves­ting 50 mil­lion euros in the expan­sion of recy­cling acti­vi­ties. The volume of pro­cessed post-consumer recy­cled mate­rials should rise to 25 per cent of total mate­rial usage by this time.

Recy­cling com­pletes the cir­cuit that starts with ‘design for recy­cling’. ‘This is the key to sus­tainable pack­a­ging solu­tions,’ the Exe­cu­tive Board asserts in the sus­taina­bi­lity report.

First online report for ALPLA
The full ver­sion of the report is available online for the first time, with printed abridged ver­sions in German, Eng­lish and Spa­nish. The report has been pre­pared in accordance with sus­taina­bi­lity reporting stan­dards and the Global Reporting Initia­tive (GRI). ALPLA’s stake­hol­ders – the owner family, along with sel­ected employees, cus­to­mers and sup­pliers – chose the ten sub­ject areas covered in the report. These areas range from inno­va­tion lea­der­ship and safety in the work­place to the reduc­tion of carbon emis­sions. ALPLA pre­pared the report with help from c7-consult, a con­sul­tancy firm spe­cia­li­sing in sustainability.

 

ALPLA sustainability report 2018:
https://sustainability-report18.alpla.com/

More information about the company:
www.alpla.com, sustainability.alpla.com

 

Background information:

  • 03/12/2018, The Simple One: https://blog.alpla.com/en/blog/produkte-innovation/less-more-simple-one/12-18
  • 31/10/2018, Global Commitment/New Plastics Economy: https://blog.alpla.com/en/press-release/newsroom/2025-targets-complete-recyclability-more-recycled-materials/10-18
  • 15/10/2018, Home-compostable coffee capsule: https://blog.alpla.com/en/pressemitteilung/newsroom/first-coffee-capsule-compostable-home/10-18
  • 03/07/2018, Recycling at the Wolfen site: https://blog.alpla.com/en/press-release/newsroom/alpla-and-fromm-cooperate-pet-recycling/07-18

 

About ALPLA:
ALPLA is one of the leading companies involved in plastic packaging. Around 20,800 employees worldwide produce custom-made packaging systems, bottles, closures and moulded parts at 178 sites across 46 countries. The high-quality packaging is used in a wide range of areas, including for food and drinks, cosmetics and care products, household detergents, washing and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.
ALPLA operates its own recycling plants: PET Recycling Team with a site in both Austria and Poland, and in the form of joint ventures in Mexico and Germany. ALPLA has been cooperating with Texplast (Germany) on PET recycling since July 2018.

 

Enquiry infor­ma­tion for editorial:
ALPLA, Alex­andra Dittrich (PR & Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions), tel. +43 (0)5574 602 1083, email: alexandra.dittrich@alpla.com
Pzwei. Pres­se­ar­beit, Werner F. Sommer, tel. +43 (0)699 1025 4817, email: werner.sommer@pzwei.at