Innovative food packaging to help use resources efficiently

With an innovative lightweight packaging solution that promotes resource efficiency, Ecolean – a global packaging company with its headquarters in Sweden – is helping the world to use fewer resources.

Ecolean packaging not only uses less material and energy, but it also helps to minimise food waste and ensure food safety. In short, the lightweight packaging solution ensures more food with fewer resources.

“Since Ecolean was founded in 1996 with our lightweight philosophy, we have challenged the food packaging industry and saved resources along the way,” explained CEO Marie Samuelsson. “This has been our guiding star, and we continue to provide the world with our lightweight and resource-efficient packaging solution that minimises food waste and ensures food safety.”

Today, Ecolean is a rapidly growing packaging innovator that provides lightweight food packaging to more than 30 countries. China, Pakistan, and Vietnam are the company’s largest markets and production facilities are seated in Sweden, China, and Pakistan.

The company’s Sustainability Roadmap 2030 is a cornerstone of its commitment to becoming a more sustainable business. The roadmap includes ambitious targets to not only minimise environmental negative impacts, but to also optimise the positive benefits of light-weight packaging on society.

“I firmly believe Ecolean has an important role to play in creating a more sustainable world,” said Samuelsson. “This is reflected in our business strategy and our six sustainability focus areas.”

Circularity and safety

The first focus area revolves around circularity. To create a more circular future, recycling must become a central part of everyday life.

Ecolean already sends more than 95 per cent of its own waste to material recycling and is working to ensure all packages are designed for recycling by 2030. It also works proactively to support and establish partnerships to develop recycling infrastructure in its markets.

“We understand that we can only minimise the full environmental impact of packaging by addressing its entire life-cycle and continuously striving to close resource loops,” said Samuelsson. “We promote life-cycle resource efficiency by reducing the amount of packaging material used, transported, and also disposed.”

The second focus area is climate action. Ecolean strives to minimise its climate impact and has reduced the direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80 per cent since 2018.

“Our climate targets were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative in 2020,” explained Samuelsson. “In 2022, we achieved two out of our three climate targets for 2030 – eight years early. These were related to our operations, such as by sourcing 100 per cent renewable electricity at all our production sites.”

The next focus is on safe food for all. With almost 600 million people falling ill after eating contaminated food each year, according to the World Health Organization, food safety is a key area where Ecolean can make a difference.

Its aseptic system draws on an advanced and rigorous sterilisation process as well as a system that minimises the risk throughout the value chain. Continuous audits and quality inspections within the company’s operations also help promote food safety.

“Our aseptic packages prolong shelf-life and help our customers bring safe food to people all around the world – regardless of local distribution channels and climatic conditions,” said Samuelsson. “This can help save lives and avoid foodborne disease.”

Life-cycle transparency

Less food waste is another top priority. With one-third of all food produced globally wasted, Ecolean’s lightweight squeezable packages can make a huge difference. Ecolean packages are designed to allow the user to easily squeeze out every last drop, no matter how viscous a product is.

“As much as 10 per cent of a conventional one-litre yoghurt package may go to waste as it cannot be squeezed out the packaging,” said Samuelsson. “Our packages can help waste less food as they are easy to empty and allow consumers to completely empty the package.”

Transparency through a life-cycle approach is also crucial. Ecolean is the only packaging supplier with environmental product declarations (EPDs) for the entire packaging system, including both packages, filling machines and production plants. These EPDs provide the ability to measure and compare different packaging solutions – and to ultimately optimise life-cycle sustainability.

“Our EPDs are part of our work to shift the focus to the entire life-cycle of a product and not just the materials used in the product itself,” said Samuelsson. “We believe that full transparency from cradle to grave contributes to innovation, sustainability and trust.”

Meanwhile, Ecolean is also a company with high ethical standards – another key focus area. By being a responsible company with fair, equal, and inclusive workplaces, it can help to contribute towards the creation of stronger societies. Zero corruption and zero breaches of human rights is one of the company’s 2030 targets.

“We continuously work to promote career development opportunities, diversity and inclusion and the health and safety of our employees through various training and initiatives,” said Samuelsson. “I believe that an open and transparent value chain is key to building a fair, equal and inclusive business.”

In 2023, Ecolean received the EcoVadis Platinum medal for the third year in a row. This meant that Ecolean was rated in the top 1 per cent of the 130,000 assessed companies globally. EcoVadis conducts annual independent assessments into sustainability performance, and the certification helps Ecolean identify potential sustainability improvements as well as benchmarking its performance against other companies.

“The 2023 EcoVadis rating gives valuable third-party recognition of our ongoing sustainability work in a broader sense than just the performance of our products,” said Anna Svensson, chief marketing officer at Ecolean.

“We are of course very proud of this – as are our customers and supply chain partners. Together, we can ensure more people around the world benefit from light-weight food packages that minimise resource use, help waste less food, and guarantee safe food for everyone,” Svensson added.

“ We understand that we can only minimise the full environmental impact of packaging by addressing its entire life-cycle and continuously striving to close resource loops. We promote life-cycle resource efficiency by reducing the amount of packaging material used, transported, and also disposed. ” Marie Samuelsson, CEO, Ecolean

Ecolean Vietnam honoured with prestigious sustainability award At the annual conference on sustainable development "Taking the lead in dual transition for a greener Vietnam" on November 12, Ecolean was one of 45 enterprises in honoured for sustainable development in Vietnam. The award was a recognition of Ecolean’s lightweight food package.