German speciality films producer Klöckner Pentaplast (kp, Montabaur; www.kpfilms.com) has launched a new sustainability strategy called “Investing in Better”, which sets 10 targets grouped around three objectives: close the loop, work smarter, and act responsibly. “For the last three years, our ‘Positive Plastics Pledge’ initiative helped advance our sustainability agenda and this new strategy serves as a roadmap to build and expand on the progress we’ve already made,” said kp’s CEO Scott Tracey.

Group director of sustainability at kp, Adam Elman, said, “Going forward, our commitments now include the continuation of work to raise awareness and collaborate with key stakeholders on recycling for a circular economy, as well as reducing our carbon footprint, supporting the communities where we live and work, becoming more diverse and inclusive as a company, and ensuring a safe environment where all kp colleagues can thrive.”

Targets to be achieved by the end of 2025 under the “Close the Loop” programme include using at least 30% post-consumer recycled material in packaging, with at least 30% of recycled material comprising kp’s “Tray2Tray” rPET, and also ensuring that 100% of packaging is recyclable. The company aims to increase its use of tray flake and has developed its Tray2Tray programme to close the loop for trays and rigid films. However, kp says it cannot achieve this on its own and is working with recycling companies to pull more PET trays back into its operations, while at the same time collaborating with customers to generate more demand for trays made from rPET tray flake. The company added that it is also investing a multi-million-dollar sum to expand its post-consumer recycled PET extrusion and thermoforming capacity across three locations in North America (see Plasteurope.com of 25.08.2020).

Under its “Work Smarter” initiative, kp has set three goals. These include increasing energy efficiency by 17% and reducing Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 50% (all compared with a 2019 baseline), by the end of 2025. It then wants to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 20% of product sold by 2030. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, while Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling. Scope 3 emissions are the result of activities that kp does not own or control but are part of its wider value chain.

The final “Work Smarter” goal is to send zero waste to landfill or incineration without energy recovery by the end of 2022. The “Act Responsibly” objective, to be achieved by end 2025, seeks to cut its lost time accident rate to zero, lift the percentage of women in kp’s management to above 30% and improve its employee engagement score to over 80%. In addition, by the end of 2022, all kp plans will complete at least one impactful community project annually, doubling that by the end of 2025.