Climate+

We are committed to keep reducing our carbon footprint until we capture more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit.

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is critical to prevent catastrophic climate change. To do this, the world needs to reach Net Zero – the point at which we achieve a balance between emissions that may not be avoided and emissions removed from the atmosphere – by 2050. Everyone has a part to play in this, including us.

Our aseptic cartons play a key role in minimising carbon emissions by keeping food safe and fresh for long periods without the need for refrigeration in the supply chain. They have a 28–70% lower carbon footprint than other packaging formats, such as plastic and glass bottles or aluminium cans – and solutions in our innovative SIGNATURE portfolio offer even further reductions of up to 58%. They are made mainly from renewable materials and we source the fibre used to make their main raw material, liquid packaging board, from sustainably managed forests that act as important carbon sinks. The electricity used to produce our aseptic carton packs is 100% renewable and we offset all emissions from non-renewable energy through Gold Standard CO₂ offset.

Tackling climate change helps us mitigate risks (physical and transitional), meet growing expectations from stakeholders on climate action and harness opportunities for our business.

We are well positioned to grow our market share in a low carbon economy as our solutions provide a strong differentiator for customers seeking to meet growing consumer demand for low carbon products and packaging. The addition of spouted pouches and bag-in-box (see A broader universe of opportunity and Bag-in-box and spouted pouch), as well as chilled cartons, to our portfolio through acquisitions in 2022 extends our range of low carbon solutions across further market segments.

Our commitment

We are committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to the levels demanded by science to keep global warming below 1.5°C. Our goal is to achieve Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Building on our current 1.5°C science-based target that was approved by the Science Based Targets initiative in 2019, we are now going further with even more stretching 2030 emissions reduction targets for our operations and our value chain (see targets table below). At the same time, we are committed to pioneering even lower carbon packs to bring our customers the lowest carbon packaging solutions.

We have developed a series of workstreams to support progress on our path to Net Zero – including a strong alignment with other focus areas of Way Beyond Good, such as sustainable innovation and supply chain, that support our Climate+ targets. Together, these workstreams will help us meet our science-based targets and expand our positive impact by delivering greenhouse gas emissions reductions across the value chain and beyond. Areas of focus include:

Our operations

• Seeking further energy savings through efficiencies and technology changes where feasible
• Directly investing in more renewable energy capacity through on-site solar and power purchase agreements¹
• Seeking viable alternatives to natural gas, such as biogas or green hydrogen, to reduce emissions from heating (which are currently offset through Gold Standard CO₂ offset certificates)
• Replacing solvent-based printing with water-based inks.

Our value chain

• Encouraging suppliers to set their own science-based targets and take action to cut their greenhouse gas emissions
• Reducing our use of carbon-intensive raw materials, such as fossil-based polymers and aluminium foil
• Supporting carbon storage by sourcing from sustainably managed forests
• Working with suppliers and logistic providers to reduce emissions from inbound and outbound logistics
• Helping customers cut emissions from their factories by reducing energy requirements for our next-generation filling machines and offering upgrade kits to cut energy use in existing filling machines
• Increasing collection and recycling rates for used beverage cartons to avoid emissions from landfill
• Seeking lasting uses for the recycled material that store embodied carbon over the long term.

Beyond our value chain

• Continuing to offer the lowest carbon alternative to other types of packaging and increase uptake of our lowest carbon solutions, supported by critically reviewed life-cycle assessments based on the ISO 14040 and 14044 international standards
• Mitigating food loss and waste (and associated greenhouse gas emissions) through our long-life packaging solutions and technical innovations
• Driving carbon reductions in the supply chain for our industry and beyond as an early adopter of transformative initiatives, such as certification to the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) which includes strict requirements for carbon reductions in the production of aluminium²
• Enabling carbon capture by accelerating efforts to restore or create additional hectares of thriving forests beyond those we need to provide raw materials for our cartons
• Using recycled materials from used beverage cartons to create a low carbon alternative to carbon-intensive materials, such as materials for construction.

We have extended our greenhouse gas accounting and ambitions to include our new bag-in-box, spouted pouch and chilled carton businesses, which joined SIG Group through acquisitions this year. See pages 380–386 in the Annual Report PDF for more on our greenhouse gas emissions basis for reporting. We will use the data we gathered to integrate these businesses into our workstreams to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all our operations and along our broadened value chain.

Our path to Net Zero

Reducing the carbon footprint of our packaging at every stage of the life-cycle

(% life-cycle carbon footprint of an aseptic beverage carton¹)

1 Indicative figures referring to the climate impact of an average 1 litre SIG pack in EU28 based on our LCA tool.

Climate-related risks and opportunities for our business

Our risk management approach builds on best available practice. Climate-related risks and opportunities are identified following the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). These inform several risk categories in the portfolio of risks in our annual corporate risk assessment, which identifies our main business risks based on financial and reputational implications.

Climate-related risks to our business include transitional risks – such as regulations (existing and emerging), availability of technology, reputation and changes in market demand – which we assess regularly. They also include physical risks, such as more frequent extreme weather that could affect our production plants and supply chain resilience.

We disclose further information on climate risks and opportunities for our business – including potential financial impact – through our CDP Climate and DJSI responses. This year, we have also aligned our public reporting with the elements of the TCFD framework, including scenario analysis, to address climate-related risks and opportunities and related impacts (see Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures report).

Our targets

Our progress

We have formally committed to achieving Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and set stretching targets to help us get there. We maintained carbon neutral production for our aseptic carton packs with 100% renewable electricity and Gold Standard CO₂ offset for all non-renewable energy. We also invested in more on-site solar installations and power purchase agreements that support further investment in renewable energy as part of the global energy mix. Sales of our lowest carbon packaging materials – our SIGNATURE portfolio – grew by a further 13% this year and we launched the world’s first full barrier solution for aseptic carton packs for use with products such as juices, as well as liquid dairy.

Extending SIG’s industry lead on renewable energy with physical PPAs

We have used 100% renewable electricity to make our aseptic carton packs since 2017. Initially, we sourced renewable power mainly through Guarantees of Origin certificates. Now we are going further by sourcing more directly through power purchase agreements (PPAs) that support further investment in renewable energy as part of the global energy mix.

We have now secured physical PPAs to power 100% of our carton packaging production in Germany from January 2023. These include a combination of on-site solar installations, renewable electricity from on-shore wind turbines in Germany on a real-time supply basis and a flexible top-up of hydropower.

And we’re not stopping there. Two vast solar arrays at our plants in Linnich and Wittenberg, currently in construction, will enable us to power more of our production with renewable power generated at our own sites. Together with planned installations in Mexico and Saudi Arabia, these will triple our total on-site energy generation worldwide.

Performance in 2022

Integrating new businesses

• We have integrated our new bag-in-box, spouted pouch and chilled carton businesses, which joined SIG Group through the acquisitions of Scholle IPN and Evergreen Asia in 2022, into our greenhouse gas inventory (see pages 380–386 in the Annual Report PDF) and relevant activities related to our Net Zero pathway. These new acquisitions are also included in the scope of our new targets on Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions and related reporting of data for SIG Group from 2020 to 2022.

Value chain emissions

• Since 2016, we have reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions and our most significant Scope 3 emissions³ from our aseptic carton business by 20% from the 2016 baseline, putting us on track to meet our science-based target to cut these relative emissions by 25% by 2030.
• We have set a new and expanded target to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions – including all Scope 3 categories – by 52% per litre packed by 2030 from a 2020 baseline for SIG Group (including our new bag-in-box, spouted pouch and chilled carton businesses). Once approved by the SBTi, this target will replace our current value chain target. SIG Group’s Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions per litre packed have decreased slightly from 2020 to 2022, and we aim to drive progress towards this new target through our Net Zero workstreams.
• Cutting our Scope 3 emissions is central to our path to Net Zero and we have set a target to achieve a 97% reduction per litre packed by 2050 (from a 2020 baseline) for SIG Group. SIG Group’s total Scope 3 emissions remained at a steady level from 2020 to 2022, and we aim to drive progress towards this new target through our Net Zero workstreams.

Value chain carbon footprint for our aseptic carton business¹ (thousand tonnes of CO₂ equivalent)

Value chain emissions rate for our aseptic carton business¹

(grams CO₂ equivalent/litre of food packed)

Value chain carbon footprint for SIG Group¹ (thousand tonnes of CO₂ equivalent)

Value chain emissions rate for SIG Group¹

(grams CO₂ equivalent/litre of food packed)

Scope 3 emissions by category in 2022 for SIG Group¹

Raw materials

• We continued to work with suppliers to cut emissions from the production of the main raw materials for our aseptic cartons. We engaged with aluminium suppliers to encourage more of them to achieve ASI Chain of Custody certification, which includes strict requirements on carbon reductions in the smelting process, and secured further supplies of ASI-certified aluminium to enable us to procure 100% of the aluminium foil for our aseptic carton packs with ASI certification from January 2023 (see Responsible culture: our supply chain). We sourced a considerable amount of low-density polyethylene from INEOS Olefins and Polymers Europe, made with certified renewable power, which reduces the carbon footprint by 21%. And we held top management-level discussions on emissions reductions plans with Stora Enso, one of our main liquid packaging board suppliers.
• 71% (by volume) of the A-materials⁴ for our aseptic cartons came from renewable sources in 2021 – mostly liquid packaging board as well as the polymers linked to 100% renewable materials⁵ for the growing number of packs sold with our SIGNATURE 100 and SIGNATURE FULL BARRIER solutions.
• Seven of our eight aseptic carton production plants have already moved from fossil-based solvents to plant-based bioethanol for our printing processes and we are continuing to explore how to extend the switch to renewable alternatives worldwide. The plant-based ethanol we use is made from agricultural residues, not food crops.

Operations

• We have cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions from our aseptic carton business by 78% from the 2016 baseline, putting us on track to meet our current science-based target to reduce these emissions by 60% for 2030. Switching to renewable electricity to power 100% of our production in 2017 made the biggest contribution to this progress.
• We are now going further by targeting a reduction of 42% by 2030 – and 90% by 2050 – for SIG Group (including our new bag-in-box, spouted pouch and chilled carton businesses) from a baseline of 2020, when we had already moved to 100% renewable electricity at all the plants we owned then. Once approved by the SBTi, this target will replace our current science-based target. We cut our total Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 22% from the 2020 baseline for the new target.⁶
• We maintained carbon neutral production for our aseptic carton packs by using 100% renewable electricity for production and offsetting non-renewable energy through Gold Standard CO₂ offset. Since we first achieved this milestone in 2018, this has avoided over 246,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions.
• Our existing 11.3 MWp of on-site solar power met 2.6% of global electricity use for our aseptic carton business in 2022. More is in development, including two huge roof and ground-mounted arrays at our sites in Wittenberg and Linnich (both in Germany) as well as installations in Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Together, these will triple total on-site energy generation for production of our aseptic cartons. Three of our newly acquired sites – in Australia, China and the USA – have rooftop solar arrays and we have begun feasibility studies to develop new on-site solar at others.
• We continued to increase the positive impact we deliver through our sourcing of renewable power by securing more physical power purchase agreements (PPAs) that support further investment in renewable energy as part of the global energy mix. PPAs met 12% of global electricity use for our aseptic carton business in 2022 and we have secured PPAs that are expected to increase this to 29% in 2023, including enough to power 100% of our aseptic carton production in Germany (see case study above).
• The greenhouse gas emissions intensity of our aseptic carton production decreased by a further 19% to 12 tonnes CO₂ equivalent/million m² of sleeves produced in 2022.
• Energy conservation programmes contributed to a 7% reduction in the energy intensity of our aseptic carton production to 183 MWh/million m² of sleeves produced in 2022. Our three aseptic carton production plants in Europe continued to demonstrate annual energy reductions to maintain their certification to ISO 50001, and our plant in Rayong (Thailand) achieved this certification for the first time.
• We continued to explore ways to cut emissions from generation of thermal energy by reducing or replacing use of fossil fuels. A new system to recover heat from production processes at Saalfelden (Austria) is expected to reduce the site’s natural gas consumption by 45%, avoid an estimated 790 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year and deliver annual savings of around €30,000 in energy costs. We are also exploring the feasibility of green hydrogen and carbon capture technologies in the longer term.
• We completed construction of our new plant in Querétaro (Mexico), which has been designed in line with criteria set by the LEED sustainable buildings standard (targeting Gold level) and will feature solar panels on its rooftop.
• We maintained our global ISO 14001 certification for our aseptic carton business – and began work to extend it to newly acquired sites in 2023 – for our environmental management systems that include management of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. We also designed and launched new interactive online training on ISO 14001 to help employees understand how our environmental management systems can help us cut environmental impacts and how they can do their part to help. Initially rolled out to colleagues in our new bag-in-box and spouted pouch business, we plan to roll out this training across SIG Group in the coming year through our established learning and development channels.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions intensity from aseptic carton production¹

(tonnes CO₂ equivalent/million m² of sleeves produced)

Energy intensity of aseptic carton production¹

(MWh/million m² of sleeves produced)

Energy use for aseptic carton production¹ (GWh, by type)

Packs

• Sales of our lowest carbon packaging materials – combibloc ECOPLUS, SIGNATURE 100 and SIGNATURE FULL BARRIER – increased by 13% this year, with 611.6 million litres of food packed in SIG aseptic cartons with these three SIGNATURE portfolio packaging materials in 2022. We have now sold enough packs with SIGNATURE portfolio solutions to fill more than 2.7 billion litres of food. Together, these products have saved an estimated 56,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions compared with standard SIG aseptic carton packs. As sales of these sustainable innovations grow, so will the associated carbon reductions.
• We launched SIGNATURE EVO, the world’s first full barrier solution for aseptic carton packs with no aluminium layer that can be used with oxygen-sensitive products, such as juices, as well as liquid dairy. This aluminium-free⁷ solution provides comparable barrier properties to our standard aseptic carton solutions that include a layer of aluminium foil. SIGNATURE EVO was launched in early 2022 in our combiblocMini portion-sized format and will be extended to other formats. We are currently working on a life-cycle assessment to quantify the carbon footprint reduction that can be achieved using SIGNATURE EVO compared with a standard SIG aseptic carton pack, with results expected in 2023.
• An independent life-cycle assessment with Riedel found that our new combismile pack with SIGNATURE FULL BARRIER offers a carbon footprint reduction of 75% or more compared with the PET bottles that Riedel was using previously for its on-the-go juices (see Demonstrating our packs’ environmental credentials).
• We remain the only carton producer to offer packs with ASI-certified aluminium and, from January 2023, we are sourcing 100% ASI-certified aluminium foil. We sold over 8.6 billion SIG packs in 2022 with the ASI code, showing that ASI-certified aluminium foil was sourced for their production. Of these, nearly 1.4 billion feature the ASI label – almost three times the number in 2021 as more customers opt to include the ASI label on their packs to demonstrate and raise awareness of responsible aluminium sourcing.
• We commissioned the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) to conduct independent ISO-conformant life-cycle assessments for our newly acquired bag-in-box and spouted pouch solutions. Preliminary results, to be confirmed through an independent critical review process, show significant carbon savings compared with alternative types of packaging: bag-in-box solutions for wine offer an 80% lower carbon footprint compared with glass bottles; and 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.

See Sustainable innovation for more on our SIGNATURE portfolio, our latest sustainable innovation developments and uptake of the lowest carbon solutions for our packs.

Logistics

• We continued efforts to cut emissions from logistics by reducing the distances our raw materials and finished packaging need to travel, working to qualify more suppliers in the regions where we operate and increasing local aseptic carton production capacity to serve the Americas with our new plant in Mexico.
• Emissions from outbound logistics decreased by 21% in 2022 to 51,382 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. This reduction was supported by moving production for some of our customers in Asia that previously received cartons from our former plant in Australia, to instead deliver from our plants in China and Thailand. We also maintained a high rate of full truck loads (95%) for delivery to our aseptic carton customers.
• Overall, upstream logistics emissions (inbound and outbound transportation) for our aseptic carton business have increased by 7% from the 2016 target baseline.

Filling machines

• Our next-generation filling machine for SIG aseptic cartons, SIG NEO, launched at the end of 2021, is designed to cut energy use and offer a 25% lower carbon footprint for the filling and packaging process per pack compared with our third-generation filling machines. Field testing planned for 2022 has been delayed and we now expect to report on carbon reductions achieved by customers in practice in 2024.

Recycling

See Resource+ for information on how we are supporting efforts to increase recycling of used beverage cartons.

Removing carbon from the atmosphere

See Forest+ for information on how we are taking carbon out of the atmosphere by supporting thriving forests.

1 We currently purchase renewable electricity through guarantees of origin and international renewable energy certificates, as well as directly through on- or off-site power purchase agreements, to maintain 100% renewable electricity for production of our aseptic cartons.

2 ASI-certified smelters must achieve a level of Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions below 8 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per tonne of aluminium produced by 2030 (or immediately for smelters starting production after 2020). This is a significant reduction from the current global average of 12 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per tonne of aluminium ingot produced.

3 Includes Scope 3 emissions from our supply chain, use of our filling machines and recycling or disposal of our cartons.

4 A-materials are those that go directly into our packs – paperboard, polymers, aluminium foil and ink.

5 Linked to wood residues from paper making via an independently certified mass balance system.

6 Includes our new bag-in-box, spouted pouch and chilled carton businesses, which joined SIG Group through the acquisitions of Scholle IPN and Evergreen Asia in 2022.

7 With no aluminium layer.