Lees - Product Stewardship at Tetra Pak

©John Lees / infraharmonic LLC 1October 25, 2011

Product Stewardship

at Tetra Pak

©

A global packaging producer’s strategies and tools

©John Lees / infraharmonic LLC 2

Tetra Pak A global producer…

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Tetra Pak A global producer…

… of carton packaging for food and beverage.

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Markets, and Products Packed Global, and Eurocentric Dairy-dominated

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Vision

Mission

“…We believe in responsible industry leadership, creating profitable growth in harmony with environmental sustainability and good corporate citizenship.”

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“A package should save more than it costs.”

“We make food safe and available everywhere.”


Product Strategy

Value proposition:The ability to sell almost-fresh milk anywhere

High technology materials and machines Minimal packaging – maximum efficiency Absolute lowest system cost Environmentally preferred over plastic bottles

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Environmental Strategy

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Eco-efficiency goes hand-in-hand with basic product strategy

Target: 100% renewable materials

Engage: with EPR and voluntary stewardship


LCA – A Critical Stewardship Tool

Life Cycle Assessment – Estimation of the cumulative environmental impact of all

activities associated with a product over its lifecycle

Critical for identifying the main causes of impacts, and prioritizing stewardship efforts

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Using LCA to put phases in perspective

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Using LCA to put lifecycle phases in perspective Where are the hot spots? Improvement opportunities?

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Using LCA to put lifecycle phases in perspective

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Raw Material Sourcing

Engaging with suppliers– Sustainable forestry guidelines– Source certification: FSC

Engaging with NGOs– Accountability and credibility:

Long-term strategy: renewable biopolymer substitutes for polyethylene and aluminum foil

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End of Life

Complexity– Multiple materials– Multiple technologies– Multiple players– Multiple regulations– Consumer behavior

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No two cities the same.

Ouch! Diversity

– Geography– Infrastructure– Policy– Economy


End of Life: It’s Hard

To set targets To prioritize and budget actions To know what partnerships to seek

… what technologies to back… which policies to advocate

Need good strategies and tools!

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End of Life Stewardship Management Strategy

Local autonomy and accountability: Market Companies– Engage local authorities and waste-management

industry– Responsible for action plans and results– Self-funded

Central coordination: Global Environment team– Cascade goals, aggregate results– Share best practices, coordinate messaging– Provide technical support: LCA, recycling technology

evaluation

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Recycling Strategy

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Stewardship models

Legislated EPR Voluntary stewardship

Tetra Pak lives with both. What can we learn from comparing them?

How would we compare them?

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Spain: Legislated EPR

46M people 5B cartons, 140k tonnes Legal target: 62% (recycling + waste-to-

energy) Industry-operated stewardship NPO

– Invests in infrastructure– Contracts with WMOs for collection and sorting– Owns collected material and sells to recyclers

“Yellow Bin” stream: beverage cartons, plastic bottles and aluminum cans

Producers pay material-specific feeOctober 25, 2011


Beverage Carton End of Life: Spain

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Industry Network Economic-Environmental Analysis

“Secondary collection”

“Secondary collection”

Cheaper than yellow-bin

stream

Profitable recycler

EPR fees to WMOs


Beverage Carton End of Life: Spain

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Industry Network Economic-Environmental Analysis


Brazil: Voluntary Stewardship

São Paolo Area: 30M population 84k tonnes No legal recycling requirement Tetra Pak’s voluntary stewardship activities:

– Recruiting paper mills and other recyclers– Giving technical assistance– Recycled-product development

Single-stream recyclables collection

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Beverage Carton End of Life: Brazil

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Private brokers

control most material

Profitable, non-

competing paper mills

PolyAl recyclers profit as

alternative to landfill


Beverage Carton End of Life: Brazil

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Comparing Spain and Brazil

Spain Brazil Recycling+W2E rate 50% 31%

Recycling rate 34% 31% Recycled products/consumption18% 29% CO2 footprint 0.99 0.88

Recycled-product tonnage / €M infrastructure475 744

Net economic value added -€25.5M€4.8M

(Value of recycled products – all costs)

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Here in the US

Tetra Pak joins with competitors in the Carton Council

To communicate the value of beverage carton recycling to– Municipalities– MRFs– Recycling paper mills– Consumers

To motivate and support infrastructure investment

And grow recycling access and rates

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Strategy Success Factors

Anchor stewardship strategy in company strategy

Collaborate locally, continentally, and globally– With suppliers, customers and competitors– With the public sector and waste-management

industry– With credible, independent NGOs and certification

organizations Take the lead and earn freedom

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Tool Reflections

LCA is a critical starting point

Some key decisions are difficult without considering how economics affect environmental impacts

Visualizing and quantifying system relationships helps make collaboration effective

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Questions?

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infraharmonic

Thank you!

Lees - Product Stewardship at Tetra Pak

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