Avery Dennison reported advancements against its 2025 sustainability goals intended to transform the company and the industries it serves.
The 2014-2016 sustainability report, All of Us, Every Day , highlights how the company is leveraging its size and scale to drive change across its operations, industry, and communities.
Key achievements include:
A reduction of location-based absolute CO2 emissions of 3.2% in 2016 and market-based absolute emissions (includes renewable energy instruments) by nearly 12%.
78% of total volume of paper procured in 2016 held either an FSC or PEFC claim.
A 2016 world class safety record, with a recordable incident rate (RIR) of 0.25.
Mitch Butier, President and CEO of Avery Dennison, noted, “As materials science innovators committed to making a meaningful difference, we see sustainability not only as a responsibility but also as an opportunity—to lead, to invent and to build a more resilient and profitable company. We’re building momentum toward our goals by engaging our employees and business partners up and down the supply chain.”
Avery Dennison’s increase in its use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper, as described in the report, can have important ramifications throughout the labeling and packaging industry. As one of the industry’s largest global purchasers of paper, spending over $1 billion annually, the company’s actions can encourage greater availability, use, and cost parity industry-wide of FSC-certified paper, which in turn can foster more sustainable forestry.
Butier also noted the company’s success in its goal to achieve at least a 3% absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions year over year beginning in 2016. To do so, Avery Dennison is pursuing reductions through a variety of means based on the different needs of its facilities.
This includes reducing energy intensity (7.2% reduction from 2015), sourcing renewable power and procuring renewable energy certificates. Together, these efforts reduced market-based absolute emissions by nearly 12% in 2016.
In the report, the company also discusses how it is working to facilitate the creation of a global recycling infrastructure network with customers, recyclers and other stakeholders in the regions where it operates to address the challenge of label waste throughout the value chain.
Reducing waste is a key focus of Avery Dennison’s 2025 goals both inside the company and throughout the industries in which it operates. As of the end of 2016, 59 of Avery Dennison’s 180 sites worldwide were operating landfill-free and the company had succeeded in diverting 91% of solid waste from landfills.
