Sustainability
“Being a leader in our industry gives us a responsibility to address environmental challenges”
Enhancing the Circularity of Glass Packaging
The circular economy is emerging as a major societal trend. Both markets and consumers are seeing how relevant it is to saving natural resources and energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This principle is being promoted at a European level, with one illustration in France being the adoption of the Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law (Loi AGEC). Verallia has made this a major focus of its sustainability and climate change policy, along with the decarbonisation of its industrial sites.
Glass recycling is obviously a key area for action. As an example, by increasing the volume of external cullet integrated into its production by 11% between 2020 and 2021, this is almost 81,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided. The reuse of glass containers is also making significant progress as well as the eco-design of products, which is already a commercial success story.
Our actions to enhance the circularity of glass packaging:
- Maximise the use of cullet in our products
- Expand glass reuse
- Help raise awareness and expand glass recycling
- Develop eco-design for sustainable products
- Optimise water use and reduce our waste
Find our detailed action plans in our CSR report.
Decarbonising our activities
As a material that can be reused and recycled over and over again, glass is an ideal material for a circular economy.
However, it still has to be melted down to produce new bottles or jars. Today, this operation is the main cause of CO2 emissions from our Group’s activities.
Determined to act to make our activities increasingly streamlined and respectful of the environment, we have embarked on a policy of investing in the technology, resources and industrial equipment used in our plants. We are giving ourselves the means to achieve our ambitions and are positioning ourselves as pioneers in our sector.
To reach Net Zero by 2050, our goal is to reduce our CO2 emissions by 46% (1) by 2030 on scopes 1 & 2 in absolute value (compared to 2019).
Since 2021, we have also been working on reducing our scope 3 emissions to keep them below 40% of our total emissions, and we will work closely with our suppliers and clients to achieve this.
Finally, we contribute to the carbon balance of ecosystems by pursuing actions in favour of soil regeneration and biodiversity.
Our actions to decarbonise our activities:
- Increase the proportion of low-carbon raw materials
- Optimise the energy consumption of our industrial facilities
- Develop and invest in low-carbon furnaces
- Develop renewable or low-carbon forms of energy
- Reduce our indirect emissions
- Contribute to soil regeneration and biodiversity preservation
Find our detailed action plans in our CSR report.
