GlobalData reported that 35 percent of companies changed behaviours to meet environmental, social and governance goals this year, amid pressure from customers, investors and governments to be more sustainable; Coca-Cola entered a glass bottle recycling partnership and created paperboard packaging in the USA, Nestle SA invested $5 million into innovative packaging solutions, Pepsi Co and Carlsberg group agreed to minimise reliance on single-use packaging, and Danone SA moved the entire polystyrene cups portfolio in the UK to PET.
“As we step into a post-COVID-19 pandemic world, consumers are reassessing their purchases, and manufacturers are aligning their products to the 4Rs of sustainability–Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover–given the target date for various ESG standards edge closer. Sustainability seems to have outgrown corporate social responsibility (CSR) tokenism to stand at the top of manufacturers’ business agenda, thus accelerating the shift towards a circular economy,” said Kiran Raj, Practice Head of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData.
“Although recycling is a step that companies are heading in the right direction, it is not the ultimate solution to sustainability as many recyclable plastics are simply not recycled, and considerable energy is required to turn those used products into new ones. As plastics remain in circulation and recycling waste ends up in landfills, the focus is shifting more towards green packaging materials,” said Shagun Sachdeva, Project Manager of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData.
“Even though key FMCG players have sustainable goals in place for the next 5-8 years, there are still complexities in terms of scaling, long-term planning, and slow market adoption, making it hard for them to execute the sustainability promise with ease. However, in the long run, it will be interesting to watch how companies will make impactful changes on a global scale in the sustainability game.”
