Sustainability report - Collaborating
Collaborating
Amcor brings scale and expertise to partnerships focused on maximizing the reach and impact of waste management infrastructure.
Our Strategy: Collaborating
Multiple levels of collaboration will be required to ensure a more responsible future for the packaging industry.
Amcor is proud of our continued leadership in bringing together stakeholders throughout the value chain to deliver a responsible packaging system that works.
The biggest barrier to eliminating waste leakage is poor waste management systems and infrastructure. Proper waste management improves people’s lives, protects public health, and has been shown to unlock economic benefits. It is also the only means by which we can ensure that the progress we are making by designing more and more packaging to be recycled is realized.
Achieving this requires participation across the full value chain: raw material suppliers, packaging convertors like Amcor, industry bodies, retailers, brands, food and beverage producers, NGOs, governments, collection and recycling organizations, and consumers. For this reason, one key focus of our approach to collaboration is working with others to understand and build the infrastructure that we need to deliver good waste management and recyclability at scale.
Amcor also works across the packaging value chain to create and define standards that align our industry behind common definitions and design standards that advance sustainability. And we show leadership in terms of our disclosures and our collaborations across industry, science, academia, and government to fill knowledge gaps and support better decision-making by all.
Fundamentally, we will not enjoy the full benefits of our progress in designing packaging to be recycled if we do not make parallel progress in waste management and infrastructure investment. Consumers rightly expect the packaging they value to be recyclable or reusable. We are succeeding in designing our packaging to meet those standards, but we need to work with others to ensure that the collection and processing systems are in place to make this a reality in practice.
Developing Infrastructure
Evidence shows that the packaging value chain can drive down pollution by aligning waste management infrastructure with innovations in product design.
__Material suppliers, packaging convertors, consumer packaged goods companies, retailers, waste management companies, governments, and consumers all have a role to play in supporting this outcome. __
Like any other product, packaging recycling requires sorting, collecting, and recycling infrastructure. In many countries, forward-thinking policies and environmental considerations over the years have led to steady investment in such infrastructure. Other regions, however, do not yet offer consumers an easy and effective way to participate in eliminating packaging waste. Collaboration will be vital to closing these gaps so that everyone has access to a responsible packaging system that works. Where governments and other organizations are active on this front, it is important that they work with industry to develop informed policy solutions.
Amcor works with CEFLEX (A Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) to develop recycling infrastructure for flexible packaging in Europe. CEFLEX is a collaborative effort of the European flexible packaging value chain led by a consortium of raw material producers, packaging converters, brand owners, retailers, recyclers, and equipment manufacturers. The initiative’s goals include facilitating the development of a collection, sorting, and reprocessing infrastructure for post- consumer flexible packaging across Europe by 2025. As a leading partner in this project, Amcor is active in several working groups and is chair of the CEFLEX Steering Committee.
Another example of Amcor’s collaborative approach to supporting recycling infrastructure is our work with the MRFF (Materials Recovery for the Future) consortium. In 2020, MRFF completed a pilot project in the U.S. demonstrating the successful collection, separation, and preparation for recycling of flexible plastic packaging. Its pilot research report shared details about this replicable model, which other communities can adopt.
Amcor is a member of the MRFF Steering Committee, which oversaw the pilot, supported strategic decision-making, and is now working toward the next steps in the scaled expansion to other regions. We additionally committed grant funds toward the installation of state-of-the- art sorting equipment at the materials recovery facility involved in the pilot. Amcor Flexibles North America’s Sustainability Director also participated in the end-market search for outlets to receive recycled flexible plastic packaging.
“MRFF’s collaboration across the value chain creates a powerful force to tackle a common challenge.”
Fabio Peyer, Amcor Flexibles North America Sustainability Director, Member of MRFF Steering Committee
We continue to lead partnerships supporting a multi-stakeholder approach to waste infrastructure development. Such collaboration and harmonization between companies, markets, and governments is needed to ensure our innovative products enter a marketplace that is equipped to collect and recycle them.
Defining Industry Standards
As momentum around responsible packaging has grown and investment in sustainability innovation has followed suit, members of the packaging value chain have recognized the need to come together to define the future of our industry.
In regions around the world, industry stakeholders are collaborating to define how a circular economy for packaging should look and how individual players can best contribute.
Amcor takes part in several such initiatives in both participatory and advisory capacities. Regionally and globally, we convene pre-competitively with other stakeholders to align around a shared set of goals, definitions, and design standards to guide innovation in support of a circular economy for packaging.
Through our partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Amcor contributes global packaging and supply chain expertise to help rethink and redesign the future of plastic packaging. Since 2016, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative has brought together businesses and governments to create a positive vision of a circular economy for plastics.
Amcor is one of the initiative’s 11 Core Partners, and we are an active member of its Advisory Board. For the past several years, we have also been a leader in Project Barrier, an initiative to develop a global design-for-recyclability standard for high-barrier flexible packaging.
In 2018, Amcor joined 250 other global brand owners, retailers, NGOs, policymakers, and others in signing the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment to keep plastics in the economy and out of the environment. By the end of June 2020, the number of signatories was approaching 1,000, representing over 20% of plastic packaging produced around the world. This indicates a strong momentum across industry in the work to collaborate on developing a circular economy for packaging.
In FY20, we contributed to the publication of a new recyclability testing resource from the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR). The new resource, PE Film Critical Guidance Test Protocol, is an addition to The APR Design Guide for Plastics Recyclability. It determines whether film packaging is compatible with the current recycling infrastructure in the U.S. The test, which measures the capability of innovative film packaging to be recycled into new thin film applications, was the result of extensive industry collaboration led by APR. Several Amcor R&D experts contributed their knowledge as members of the APR PE Film Reclamation Committee, which was responsible for developing the new guidelines.
“Working with APR helps us learn from each other and push each other to improve packaging recyclability and performance.”
Rebecca Mick, Amcor R&D Innostream Program Manager, Member of APR PE Film Reclamation Committee
Amcor is an active member of the Consumer Goods Forum’s work to eliminate plastic waste on land and at sea. This work is focused on bringing members together to share knowledge and experience as they align around standards established by groups such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and CEFLEX. Our sustainability leaders are involved in several project workstreams. We participate in the Packaging Design workstream, which is working to align a critical mass of companies around common packaging design principles and guidelines for flexible and rigid materials. We also contribute to the Advanced Recycling workstream, which plans to scale up chemical recycling – especially for flexible packaging – and engages with key stakeholders to ensure broad support and to send a strong demand signal to investors and upstream suppliers. We additionally support work by the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) workstream, which in FY20 released a position paper to guide the development of effective EPR policy around the world.
Closing Data Gaps
Reliable data is essential to developing the solutions needed to create a circular economy for packaging.
Data about recycling rates and pollution helps identify areas where investment is needed to build waste infrastructure or where policies could be adopted to improve collection and recycling. This type of data also helps companies like Amcor understand how our packaging is being disposed of after use and how we can contribute to better outcomes. Once those interventions have been implemented, data also helps track their effectiveness and assess whether additional attention or investment is required.
Amcor is an active contributor to several collaborative efforts to improve the pool of circular economy data and to ensure it is used to drive progress toward our responsible packaging goals.
In June 2020, we proudly joined the World Wildlife Fund-led activation hub ReSource: Plastic. This global consortium of companies and organizations is focused on collaborating to keep waste out of the environment. Launched in 2019, ReSource aims to accelerate large-scale plastic commitments by collaborating with industry to ensure a systems-based approach to addressing plastic production, consumption, waste management, and recycling as a single system. By 2030, the initiative targets the prevention of at least 50 million metric tons of plastic waste from entering nature. Collecting and transparently reporting data related to this goal will be essential to monitoring progress, and ReSource has committed to publicly reporting the amount of plastic waste prevented by participants on an annual basis. As part of our membership, Amcor has committed to sharing the internal production data needed to support those calculations.
Global Commitment
As a signatory of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, Amcor agreed to share annual data on our progress toward the goals outlined in its vision. In October 2019, the first Progress Report summarizing data shared by Global Commitment signatories, including Amcor, was published. With help from signatory data, the report provided an update on progress across the signatory group, highlighted leading examples that could serve as inspiration for others, and disclosed the progress of individual companies and governments toward a circular economy for plastics. Significantly, the report established a quantitative baseline that can be used to measure progress across a large group of businesses through 2025. This is an essential component of the continued scaling of the action that will be required to make a circular economy for packaging a reality.
In addition to sharing our own data, Amcor also contributes to collaborations that use available data to help inform the development of policies supporting a circular economy for packaging. Since 2015, we have been a member of the Trash Free Seas Alliance (TFSA), an initiative of Ocean Conservancy consisting of a collective of organizations aiming to reduce the amount of plastic waste entering oceans by 50% by 2025. As an active member of the TFSA Steering Committee, we share technical and financial support to develop and propose solutions to governments and other organizations. We proudly contributed to The Plastics Policy Playbook: Strategies for a Plastic-Free Ocean. The in-depth guide – released in October 2019 and produced collaboratively by Ocean Conservancy and the TFSA – builds on data and insights from previous TFSA reports to develop an action-led response to marine debris. The Playbook focuses on financing waste collection, preventing debris, and describing the most impactful public and private sector interventions.
Earthwatch
Since 2001, Amcor has partnered with Earthwatch Institute, a non-profit environmental organization that connects our co-workers with top scientists to participate in research expeditions around the globe.
This partnership is focused on promoting understanding of environmental issues among Amcor co-workers and contributing important scientific research to the collective body of knowledge related to leakage of waste into the environment. For the last five years, expeditions have focused on research related to the issue of marine debris.
Marine debris is a global problem that affects oceans, land, wildlife, and food chains. Not enough is known about the build-up of waste on land and how it subsequently enters ocean environments, so the objective of these expeditions is to increase the available data.
In October 2019, 16 Amcor co-workers from around the world visited the shores of Bali, Indonesia along with a team of scientists from Southern Cross University’s National Marine Science Centre. Following in the footsteps of Amcor’s 2016 Earthwatch expedition, the team traveled around the island on a 10-day expedition and completed research at many of the same sites visited by the 2016 team.
Research sites consisted of different types of beaches located around the island of Bali. At each site, the group split into smaller teams to complete marine debris surveys. Each team was assigned a segment of beach, called a transect, and collected every piece of waste they found within that segment. After collecting the waste, the teams categorized each item according to type and size.
In total, our 2019 Earthwatch participants collected and categorized over 24,000 pieces of trash from just seven beaches.
The scientists leading the expedition then analyzed the data from each beach to learn how the amount and types of waste had changed from 2016 to 2019. In the time between the two expeditions, the Indonesian government had made major changes to environmental policies, including a ban on single-use plastics. Additionally, many communities had started to implement local plastic management approaches. Data from the expedition has helped scientists understand how effective these efforts have been and identify additional opportunities for action.
During the 2019 trip, Earthwatch participants also visited with Balinese organizations working to improve waste management in their communities and toured local waste “hotspots” such as open-air landfills and highly polluted beaches to see the scale of the problem firsthand.
“Our program with Amcor provides the opportunity for research to be specifically targeted around a real-world issue, with acompanywhoisvery wellplacedtomakea difference.”
Viki Nathan, Learning and Engagement Manager, Earthwatch Institute
Outcomes from these meetings included a project to improve safety practices at one of the community recycling facilities the team visited and discussions with customers about the design barriers to recycling the team experienced while visiting recycling workshops.
Holding Ourselves Accountable
In addition to sharing purchasing and production data through WWF ReSource: Plastic and the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, Amcor also discloses sustainability-related data through other initiatives.
Throughout the year, we share data at the request of customers, investors, ratings agencies, and the broader public.
CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, is a global disclosure system to enable companies to measure and report their environmental impact. Amcor completes the CDP Climate Change, Water Security, and Forest assessment modules annually. We also help our customers better track their own environmental footprints through our participation in the CDP Supply Chain initiative. Investors and customers use such data to inform decision- making, reduce risks, and identify opportunities.
EcoVadis is a platform for corporate social responsibility (CSR) assessment, monitoring, and performance improvement. Amcor completes an annual EcoVadis assessment of our operations at a global level. It evaluates how well we have integrated the principles of CSR into our business and management systems and suggests areas for continued improvement. In our latest assessment, we achieved an EcoVadis Silver rating, placing us in the top 4% of companies assessed by EcoVadis in the manufacture of plastic products industry. We disclose these results to customers upon request.
Each year, Amcor completes the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment questionnaire, which reviews a mix of cross-industry and industry- specific questions. Based on our performance, we receive an overall score and percentile rankings for relevant sustainability criteria across economic, environmental, and social dimensions.
The CSA has become a reference tool for companies to gauge the financial materiality of their sustainability performance from an investor perspective. It also helps Amcor understand which sustainability factors are important to investors and serves as a sustainability roadmap to help prioritize initiatives that are most likely to enhance our competitiveness. Companies’ assessed industry rankings are published on the Bloomberg Platform, the S&P Spice platform, and the SAM Sustainability Yearbook online database.
Sedex is a global membership organization dedicated to driving improvements in ethical and responsible business practices in global supply chains. Amcor is a Sedex A/B member, which allows us to share and exchange data through the platform. We participate in Sedex in two key ways:
- Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQs):
The SAQ is a set of questions to help members self-assess their site on topics like company policies, safety standards, working conditions, and environmental impact. Amcor’s manufacturing facilities complete and review their SAQs annually. Additionally, Amcor’s customers who participate in Sedex may view our SAQ results, enhancing accountability for continued progress in improving our operational impact. - Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA): SMETA is an independent ethical audit methodology providing “best practice guidance and ethical audit techniques to help auditors conduct high-quality audits for responsible business practices.” Amcor sites complete SMETA audits upon customer request. Because the audits are standardized, the results are able to be shared with multiple customers using the Sedex platform.
