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Sustainability at ALPLA

ALPLA – being a family-owned company – was built on the foundational principles of long-term thinking and conscious decision-making processes, sensitive to the needs of future generations. The company has had sustainability at its core from its very conception. Today, as a leading company in the plastic packaging industry, we recognise that we must share in the collective responsibility of taking steps in the right direction to address growing environmental concerns. In prioritising sustainability, we not only align ourselves with our customers, their needs and their vested interests in sustainable practices, but also enhance our competitiveness in the market by learning and innovating consciously. We attempt to uphold the three pillars of sustainability at ALPLA – People, Planet and Profitability – in our decision-making processes and actions.

In this section, we introduce the teams working on pushing sustainability at ALPLA, our sustainability strategy and goals, and offer some insight into our performance, projects and awards.

Sustainability governance at ALPLA

At ALPLA, the corporate sustainability targets are determined by the Sustainability Steering Council. This body includes representatives of various corporate departments, including HR, Sales, Recycling, Operation Management, Plant Engineering as well as Corporate Strategy, Sustainability and Circular Economy. Furthermore, it is of great importance for our CEO, Philipp Lehner, to be part of the Steering Council and stay involved in sustainability- and climate-related decision-making processes.

The Corporate Sustainability team assumes the responsibility of the continuous coordination and monitoring of sustainability-related topics, as well as the regular sustainability reporting activities. The team also manages ALPLA’s internal Sustainability Network, established in 2019 with the aim of accelerating the inclusion of sustainability into our operations globally and cross-functionally. Employees responsible for sustainability from all nine ALPLA regions are part of the Network.

People working for sustainability

To learn even more about the topic of sustainability at ALPLA, Roland Wassermann, Corporate Director Strategy, Sustainability & Circular Economy, and Aswathy Koottummel, Corporate Sustainability & Circular Economy Expert, were invited for an interview.

Governance structure and composition

Statement on sustainable development strategy

Aswathy Koottummel
Corporate Sustainability & Circular Economy Expert

‘It is imperative to adopt a holistic perspective on sustainability to seamlessly integrate environmental and social considerations across all operations at ALPLA. This must be achieved while navigating through diverse cultures and regulatory landscapes.’

Interview with Aswathy Koottummel and Roland Wassermann

ALPLA – sustainability goals and performance

In the reporting period of 2018 to 2022, sustainability at ALPLA was driven by goals based on specific key performance indicators (KPIs). These were formulated by the relevant departments and the Sustainability Steering Council in tandem. In this section, we discuss some of the most prominent sustainability goals and ALPLA’s related performance. The aspects highlighted below are the result of our most significant efforts towards sustainability. These particular goals also yielded quantifiable results, allowing us to be transparent and accountable. For a comprehensive list of our goals, please refer to the section ‘ALPLA’s Sustainability Goals 2018–2022’ in the Appendix.

We attained all our energy-related targets. By 2022, we were running our Austrian plants on 100% renewable energy, along with two of our recycling plants – Wöllersdorf in Austria and Radomsko in Poland. Our energy-efficiency rate increased well above the target too.

We also achieved our goal of producing 10% of HDPE from recycled material – in fact, since 2018, the share of post-consumer-recycled (PCR) HDPE increased from 4.4% to 13.2% in 2021 and to 15.7% in 2022 (compared to the total volume of HDPE). The other goal related to raw materials was to have PCR PET reach 25% of our PET portfolio. We continue to progress towards that goal: the share in 2022 was 21%.

When it comes to KPIs related to ESG ratings, the picture is mixed: while we surpassed our EcoVadis target, being in the top 5% of all companies assessed, our CDP climate change score dropped from B in 2021 to C in 2022. We associate this primarily to the changes in the CDP questionnaires and to the fact that ALPLA had not committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) at that time.

ALPLA had the goal of absolute CO₂e emission reduction of 10% across the scopes. While ALPLA hit the target for Scope 2 reduction with flying colours by realising a 15% reduction in emissions between 2018 and 2022, Scope 1 and Scope 3 emission reductions were limited to 3.7% and 7.8% respectively. We are actively working on setting new targets, based on the criteria set by SBTi.

The Sustainability Award

At ALPLA, sustainability stands for responsible conduct in the three areas of People, Planet and Profitability. We initiated the ALPLA Sustainability Award in 2021 to shine a spotlight on all the many different activities – environmental, social and technological – from across the spectrum of sustainability into which our employees all over the world put considerable effort.

For the second edition of the ALPLA Sustainability Award in 2022, 50 projects were submitted. Of these, three projects were hailed as winners, showcasing the variety of sustainability: ALPLA North America’s project focused on the smart monitoring of water losses, ALPLA India initiated several measures to advance women in the workforce, and our Dubai team developed an air leakage monitoring system on our machines, ensuring the elimination of downtime.