Tetra Pak steps up sustainability game in 2021

Tetra Pak donated PCR test kits worth $86,960 to the Centre for Disease Control of Ha Nam province

The global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted food supply chains. Tetra Pak has worked in partnership with customers to guarantee continuity of supplies, equipment, and provided technical assistance to ensure customers' operation throughout the pandemic.

In 2020 alone, over 77 billion litres of products have been sold in Tetra Pak packages globally. In Vietnam, Tetra Pak worked with food and beverage (F&B) manufacturers to provide more than 1.71 billion litres of safe and nutritious drinks to Vietnamese consumers.

At the same time, Tetra Pak pursues high level worker safety and promotes the mental wellbeing of all colleagues throughout the pandemic. The company has received the “Great Place to Work” certification and was ranked leader by the global environmental non-profit charity CDP for the fifth year running for environmental transparency and action.

To respond to the fight against COVID-19 in Vietnam, Tetra Pak donated PCR test kits worth VND2 billion ($86,960) to the Centre for Disease Control of Ha Nam province and joined hands with Tuoi Tre (Youth) to donate a respirator system worth VND250 million ($10,870).

In 2020, more than 77 billion litres of liquid food were contained in Tetra Pak packaging globally

Tetra Pak Vietnam also launched an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in which employees and their family members can access counselling and other information on personal and work-related issues 24/7. The company has supported employees who have children with childcare cost via the Daycare of Children programme during the COVID-19 outbreak.

At the same time, Tetra Pak has continued to make progress in how the company protected the planet in 2020. Accordingly, the company achieved its 2020 climate goal with an outstanding 70 per cent greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction in its own operations from 2010 to 2020; being the first in the industry to introduce carbon reduced and carbon neutral package certification and labels; putting the first-generation of non-foil packages on super market shelves; recycling 50 billion carton packages and over 170 recycling facilities worldwide.

This very priority of protecting the planet is well presented in Vietnam as 98 per cent of Tetra Pak carton packages sold in have Forest Stewardship Council-certified labels. Tetra Pak Binh Duong was the first of its kind in Vietnam to achieve the latest and most-demanding LEED Version 4 Gold Certification. Meanwhile, the company helped save 17.6 million litres of water a year and recycled or salvaged 65 per cent of generated construction waste and decreased CO2 emissions by 4,000 tonnes.

Tetra Pak Vietnam has been pioneering a wide range of initiatives to recycle cartons: developing 45 drop-off stations in public places across Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to help community in selectively collecting their waste.

The company has joined forces with municipal authorities to collect and recycle used carton packages from more than 1,600 schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, thereby educating kids about waste segregation and beverage carton collecting and recycling, as well as collecting more than 632 tonnes of used beverage carton from local communities for the past three years.