A plastics company trying to be carbon neutral may sound like greenwashing, unless you understand the tangible actions our teams around the world have been taking to implement our Carbon Zero strategy.
Whether our customers are looking to change their packaging to light-weight, sustainable pouches, or to paper-based materials, we have been busy building up the capacity to help them make that change at scale in a big way – in a way that makes them game changers. For over 10 years, we have been calculating the carbon footprints of our packaging and consulting R&D to reduce our emissions effectively. and inform our customers on the best possible green choice for them.
We have built new factories to get us ready for the future. While people can think of factories as these inherently dirty places – chimneys and noise and pollution – our factories are where our most significant sustainability innovations come from. We’ve been addressing low-hanging fruit such as changing lights to more energy-efficient LEDs, providing electrical charging points for employee cars, and other energy sources such as solar panels are in discussion for implementation where suitable. But many of our factories, like Wipak Nastola, already run on 100% renewable energy, with Walsrode and Poland to follow in 2021. All our sites will be entirely carbon free by the end of 2022.
We have investments in our global sites which allow us to reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency. Most recently, we announced a multi-million pound machinery investment in Wipak UK, which will significantly enhance their production capabilities and sustainable product offering by Summer 2021. “Wipak UK’s new conversion equipment is fully in-line with our promise to reduce our CO2 footprint to ZERO and will allow us to develop REAL sustainable packaging solutions with REAL benefits for our customers, consumers and the environment.” shared Managing Director of Wipak UK, Andrew Newbold.
We adopt a lifecycle approach to product development, considering raw materials and recyclability, as well as seeing innovation and collaboration with our customers as the key to creating tangible, long-lasting change. Our N.E.X.T. Centre for Packaging Innovation & Insights offer creative, customer-focused workshops, training and seminars to help clients stay ahead of the market.
Together with a highly skilled team and experts in technology, sustainability, recycling, product application and more, N.E.X.T. designs the packaging of tomorrow while keeping sustainability at the heart of the innovation process.
Find out more about how the Wipak N.E.X.T. Centre is creating real change, here and here. And check out our steps to sustainability here.
