By bringing carton, bag-in-box and spouted pouch together in our portfolio, we have further strengthened our ability to support customers in their transition to more sustainable packaging across a wide range of market applications – from dairy and fruit juice to water, wine and baby food – in retail, food service and industry settings.

This opens up even greater potential for our business to deliver a net positive impact on people and the planet by helping customers get more food to consumers around the world in more settings – all in a safe, sustainable and affordable way.

Aseptic cartons

Our aseptic cartons help customers deliver billions of litres of food to consumers around the world every year, keeping food safe for months without the need for refrigeration or preservatives.

Critically reviewed life-cycle assessments, conducted in line with recognised international standards, show that SIG’s aseptic cartons have a 28–70% lower carbon footprint than alternative packaging such as plastic and glass bottles and aluminium cans for dairy, non-carbonated soft drinks and food.

Our most sustainable innovations cut this even further. Packaging materials in our SIGNATURE portfolio cut carbon by up to 58% compared with standard SIG aseptic cartons.

SIG standard aseptic cartons offer

28–70

%

less CO₂ than plastic and glass bottles, or cans

Our SIGNATURE portfolio cuts CO₂ by up to

58

%

compared with our standard aseptic cartons

Carbon footprint: how aseptic beverage cartons compare¹

Liquid dairy

kg CO₂ equivalent per packaging required for 1,000 litres UHT milk

Non-carbonated soft drinks

kg CO₂ equivalent per packaging required for 1,000 litres non-carbonated soft drinks

Food

kg CO₂ equivalent per packaging required for 1,000 litres food

1 Based on life-cycle assessments for UHT milk, non-carbonated soft drinks and long-life food.

Carbon footprint: additional savings with our SIGNATURE portfolio for aseptic cartons

Milk

kg CO₂ equivalent per packaging required for 1,000 litres of milk in 1 litre cb3 pack format (with cSwift)¹

Fruit juice

kg CO₂ equivalent per packaging required for 1,000 litres of fruit juice in 1 litre cb2 pack format (with cSwift)²

1 Results based on ISO-compliant life-cycle assessment CB-100732c for Europe.

2 Results based on ISO-compliant life-cycle assessment CB-100733 for Europe.

“Being the first to offer Dutch consumers such a great, convenient and sustainable packaging solution for our on-the-go juices is an important step forward for Riedel. We conducted an independent life-cycle assessment, and the positive results show SIG’s combismile pack has 75% less CO₂ emissions than our previous PET bottles. On the one hand we are following our carton pack roots, while on the other bringing true innovation with combismile and SIGNATURE FULL BARRIER, as our busy consumers gravitate towards more sustainable and convenient packaging options.”

Bag-in-box and spouted pouch

Our newly acquired bag-in-box and spouted pouch packaging solutions offer significant sustainability benefits by design.

Both offer strong product-to-packaging ratios, optimising material use while still effectively protecting the food inside. The protection they offer also helps to avoid potential food waste from spoilage and the extra pressure this puts on resources.

Preliminary results of a life-cycle assessment – conducted in line with recognised international standards and to be confirmed through an independent critical review process – show significant carbon savings compared with alternative types of packaging.

Bag-in-box for wine offers an approximate 80% smaller carbon footprint than glass bottles. Meanwhile, mono-material spouted pouches for baby food offer an 11% reduction in carbon footprint compared with plastic tubs and a 59% reduction compared with glass jars.

Sustainable innovation

SIG’s standard packs – cartons, bag-in-box and pouches – already offer the most sustainable packaging solutions in each relevant market segment. We are innovating to make them even more sustainable as part of our commitment to go Way Beyond Good for people and planet.

The SIGNATURE portfolio of our most sustainable solutions for aseptic cartons continues to grow. SIGNATURE EVO, launched this year, is the latest development from SIG’s sustainable innovation pipeline. The world’s first full barrier solution for aseptic cartons with no aluminium layer, it extends our aluminium-free¹ aseptic carton portfolio beyond dairy to more oxygen-sensitive products such as fruit juices. It follows the recent launch of SIG NEO, our next-generation filling machine, which further reduces the environmental footprint of filling.

In our bag-in-box and spouted pouch businesses, innovations are focused on increasing the recyclability of these types of packaging and exploring alternatives to virgin fossil-based plastics. We already offer the first APR²-recognised recyclable bag-in-box. Other innovations include recycle-ready mono-material spouted pouches and the world’s first bag-in-box linked to post-consumer recycled content – both being trialled by major customers.

We see great potential to catalyse sustainable innovation across our portfolio by harnessing complementary know-how and experience across our carton, bag-in-box and spouted pouch businesses to go Way Beyond Good.

See Sustainable innovation for more on our sustainable innovation.