Tetra Pak sustainability efforts in Vietnam pay off

Jeffrey Fielkow, managing director, Tetra Pak Vietnam received the VBCSD’s Award of Top 10 Sustainable Business in the manufacturing sector

Sustainability as a trend

Nguyen Thi Dinh (35), who lives in Hanoi, has a habit of reading product packages carefully before buying any product. She prefers plant-based products and those that are friendly to the environment.

Mai Thi Hoa (45), from Ho Chi Minh City, rarely uses plastic bags from supermarkets as she usually takes her own canvas bags instead, because she understands that it will take hundreds of years for plastic bags to completely decompose.

These examples show that the world is moving towards sustainability, which is reflected in consumers’ behaviours. This is also what is happening at Tetra Pak Vietnam.

Tetra Pak Vietnam’s factory in Binh Duong, one of the first factories in Vietnam to achieve the globally-recognised LEED Version 4 Gold certification

In mid-2019, the Sweden-based FDI released its sustainability report, which highlighted its strong commitment to build a low carbon, circular economy and a sustainability approach that covers the entire value chain. In Vietnam, nearly 100 per cent of its cartons are made from FSC labelled packages.

Sustainability as a priority

The Swedish giant is now pioneering initiatives to drive sustainability in the industry. As evidence, in 2019, the company inaugurated its manufacturing hub in Binh Duong that is amongst Vietnam’s first factories to apply the latest, most-demanding environmental standards set by the globally-recognised LEED certification which enables up to 36 per cent reduction of energy and over 21 million litres of water reused a year.

Another evidence lies in the company and its partners’ efforts to develop initiatives to collect and recycle used cartons in Vietnam for the past twelve years.

In 2019, Tetra Pak expanded the School Recycling campaign to more than 1,400 kindergartens and primary schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

In 2019, these efforts went into a plan to expand the carton packaging collection campaign of School Recycling to more than 1,400 kindergartens and primary schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to instill the good habit of classifying and collecting used cartons among schoolchildren and the public.

Currently, Tetra Pak holds a network of nearly 30 drop-off stations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This is the very result of its active engagement with community organisations to establish and expand the chain of public drop-off stations so that consumers can bring their used cartons for collecting and recycling.

By the end of November 2019, this network has added another four drop-off stations as a result of Tetra Pak’s co-operation with LOTTE Mart and NHC to launch the Carton House campaign in LOTTE Mart in South Saigon.

These carton houses are made from recycled cartons and serve as a destination for consumers to bring their used cartons for collection and recycling.

Under the driving ambition that all packaging materials put into the market by Tetra Pak will be collected for recycling by 2030, the company aligned with other eleven leading food and beverage and packaging businesses to establish Packaging Recycling Organization Vietnam (PRO) to promote package collecting and recycling in Vietnam.

Thanks to Tetra Pak’s remarkable efforts, the company was honoured with the Best Sustainable Business Initiatives Award and was officially recognised by the VBCSD under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry as the top 10 manufacturing firms in the Top 100 Sustainable Businesses 2019.

In the long run, Tetra Pak is committed to reducing its operational greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent and to have 100 per cent of its operations supplied with renewable electricity by 2030 and a vision to deliver a package made entirely from plant-based packaging materials. Tetra Pak Vietnam is dedicated to have its part in making such a vision happen.