Tetra Pak (Thailand) Ltd

2019

Top Green & Community Care Companies In Asia

Tetra Pak (Thailand) Ltd

Top Green & Community Care Companies In Asia

2019

WORDS FROM THE JURY PANEL

With so many products competing for consumers’ attention, it is getting harder and harder to stand out. To develop a unique, winning combination of product, packaging and marketing positioning, producers need to adapt to the changing retail landscape and appeal to today’s connected consumers. Tetra Pak Thailand and Tetra Pak Indonesia have done this admirably, and have added economical, environmental and social benefits to their product offerings, making them good community citizens, and distinguished green advocates.

Words from the winner

Tetra Pak Thailand

Pak-ing It All In

Two regional counterparts ace the ACES.

For the first time in ACES Awards history, two regional counterparts have been lauded for their commitment to green business and community. Tetra Pak (Thailand) Limited, was established in Thailand in 1981, as part of the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company. Tetra Pak Indonesia began operations 19 years later in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Both companies adhere to Tetra Pak’s global Sustainability Reporting framework, with Tetra Pak’s core approach to sustainability being the recognition that its future success depends on its ability to provide safe, secure and sustainable products to consumers, while being socially responsible in the way it operates across the value chain. The approach to sustainability is shaped by the brand promise to ‘protect what’s good’ by making the food consumed by people in more than 160 countries safe, available and affordable.

Because much of the corporation’s cutting-edge processing and packaging equipment revolves around paper, Tetra Pak internationally places an emphasis on sustainable forestry commitments, with best practice partnerships promoting transparency, including Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex), CDP and EcoVadis Suppliers, which asks suppliers to disclose sustainability attributes, and conduct annual audits of key supplier operations and environmental performance. The company’s approach to responsible sourcing requires that all suppliers commit to its Business Code of Conduct, based on the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) principles around environment, labor, anti-corruption and human rights.

All the paperboard in Tetra Pak packages comes from certified or controlled sources. Globally Tetra Pak works with suppliers, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders to promote responsible forest management and strengthen traceability through certification and labeling.

In sourcing paperboard for liquid-based packaging, the corporation insists on wood fiber coming from forests independently certified as being managed in accordance with the principles of sustainable forest management.

As a corporation Tetra Pak’s global ambition is to utilize 100 percent renewable materials for all its packaging material, while also promoting consumer engagement in recycling. To this end, Tetra Pak Thailand together with the Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™), WWF Thailand, and the Mall Group organize global ‘FSC Friday’ annually to raise awareness on FSC labeling on beverage cartons, and its importance to environmental protection. The FSC Label guarantees that paper used to make cartons was sourced from responsibly managed forests.

Tetra Pak Thailand also initiated the Green Roof beverage carton recycling project for those in need, which gained nationwide publicity in 2008 when a popular TV program turned used cartons into educational supplies for underprivileged children. The campaign saw overwhelming participation by the public, and raised awareness on the recyclability of beverage cartons. Both campaigns invited consumers to send ‘cut-clean-collected’ used beverage cartons for recycling. The recycled cartons were then turned into classroom sets to be donated to underprivileged students. Over 6,000 classroom sets and 400,000 school notebooks were presented to schools nationwide.

In 2010 Tetra Pak Thailand, in partnership with the Princess Pa Foundation under the Thai Red Cross Society, initiated the Green Roof Project for Princess Pa Foundation to supply roof tiles for people whose homes were damaged or lost in natural disasters. Used cartons were transformed into roof sheeting by Fiber Pattana Company Limited and presented to the Foundation. In eight years, over 60,000 roof sheets were provided to local communities. In 2019 Tetra Pak Thailand distributed roof sheets to more than 100 households in communities affected by Typhoon Pabuk in southern Thailand. The company plans to continue to support natural disaster victims and other disadvantaged communities nationwide.

Tetra Pak Indonesia always weighs the broader impact of its operations on the environment and society. To this end the company believes that post-consumer recycling is an investment in the future, and so works closely with its customers and consumer organizations to manifest change on a vast scale, by creating socio-economic value through the use of its recycled cartons to make new products.

A circular economy depends on sustainable recycling value chains, which ensure cartons are collected, sorted and recycled so they keep delivering value. Tetra Pak Indonesia has been working with four collection partners for UBC collection in Bali, East Java, West Java, and greater Jakarta since 2007, and is looking to develop a collection network in Central Java and Yogyakarta in 2019. It is also working with Yapsi (Indonesian Resource Development Foundation), ecoBali Recycling, Waste4Change, Armada Kemasan Nusantara, and Bina Usaha Mandiri on an educational program which will expand and strengthen the UBC collection network.

It leads the recycling charge by supporting quality improvements to UBC (used beverage cartons) collected, by providing proper weighing scales, pressing machines, and by expanding the collection network to five post-consumer waste collection partners located in Java and Bali. Tetra Pak Indonesia’s assistance in upgrading partner recycler plants resulted in the post-processing of 10,338 tons annually (2018) of UBCs. The recyclers are now also able to recycle the plastic and aluminum (PolyAl) from used beverage cartons to produce polyal roof sheets and polyal boards. The value chain approach to recycling taken by Tetra Pak Indonesia means the company works on everything from consumer awareness, collection and sorting infrastructure, through to expanding market opportunities for recycled materials. Tetra Pak Indonesia helps and supports the promotion of recycled end-products (notebooks, paper bags, roof tiles) by creating market demand, and also by developing an innovative promotion strategy for roofing tiles in Indonesia. Tetra Pak Indonesia built two mini libraries for two elementary schools in 2018 and 2019 using recycled used beverage cartons as roofing tiles.

As a global organization which focuses as much on people as it does on processes, both Tetra Pak Thailand and Indonesia are committed to making food more affordable and available to low-income households via school feeding programs and Dairy Hubs, and the company-wide Food for Development initiative.

Both Tetra Pak Thailand and Indonesia have dedicated departments and teams under which the Sustainability initiative is placed. Thailand’s Sustainability team espouses Circular Economy and Cluster Sustainability, and is responsible for driving activities with customers and other stakeholders. A Circular Economy expert identifies stakeholders and key activities to ensure Tetra Pack Thailand optimizes the use of resources in its packaging, processing and services solutions, since the principles of circularity are at the very heart of the Tetra Pak business. Thailand’s value chain approach and partnerships help to make its economy circular by using renewables, practicing responsible sourcing of materials, sourcing efficient products and processes, and increasing recycling.

At Tetra Pak Indonesia sustainability works cross-functionally with external and internal stakeholders. There the company focuses on securing leadership in sustainability in areas most relevant to its customers. Tetra Pak Indonesia strives for dedicated, successful, and sustainable recycling wherever its customers are. It also stresses Customer Sustainability, urging marketing teams to promote sustainability to customers, and to support deployment of sustainable products. Sustainability Communication at the global level and cluster operations provide continuous environmental communication interactions between departments and markets, so as to support the customer sustainability agenda.

Tetra Pak worldwide prioritizes the occupational health and safety of every one of its employees. Its offices around the world encourage diverse, inclusive workplaces with extensive learning and development opportunities designed to creatively engage and recognize talent. In 2019 Tetra Pak launched the Future Talent Program in Thailand. The global long-term initiative is aimed at harnessing and developing the next generation of talented employees by establishing partnerships with selected universities, hiring an annual cohort of promising graduates, and providing them with globally-structured training and development.

The program is based on the belief that learning on the job and from colleagues is the most effective way to develop talent. All Tetra Pak’s graduate-hires work in ‘real jobs’ while undertaking a comprehensive development program. The Leadership module is a 24-month program aimed at developing broad business knowledge in an international environment, while the 12-month technical program focuses on developing engineering capabilities in an accelerated way. On completion of the course, the company offers employment to all Future Talent graduates. The program particularly focuses on employees that representing minorities, including women from Asia. In Indonesia, the commitment of ‘Protecting People’ is realized by maintaining, supporting, and developing the ability of employees, as well as the surrounding community where employees and their families live.

In Thailand Corporate Social Responsibility is made relevant to staff by involving as many employees as possible via the promotion of projects internally by email blasts and during company meetings and quarterly interactive meetings. Tetra Pak Thailand also hosts internal activities where staff are invited to share the projects with their friends and families, collect used cartons for recycling, and visit the recycling plant, or take part in educational events and exhibitions. Tetra Pak Indonesia focuses on where the organization can make the greatest difference at a local level. Human resources and financial resources are then channeled to support initiatives such as child nutrition, sustainable livelihoods, youth employability, and consumer engagement in sustainability, which also covers donations or emergency relief. This is in keeping with its belief in responsible industry leadership, and the creation of profitable growth in harmony with good corporate citizenship and a sustainable approach to business.

Both countries agree that being socially aware has helped the company’s business and its policies on several levels. On the internal level, being socially responsible has helped the companies build a culture of vision and values that employees are willing to accept and identify with, thus significantly contributing to work satisfaction, loyalty and commitment to the company. On the external level, these projects helped to generate positive publicity, and overall contributed to building public acceptance and supporting the brand’s legitimacy. Together, these major impacts were instrumental to leveraging and amplifying the effects of other corporate initiatives from Human Resources to marketing.

Commitment to social responsibility is what guides and motivates Tetra Pak Thailand and Indonesia. Following the brand promise is the way the companies are consolidating long-term progress on sustainability in order to build momentum and lead the way towards a secure and sustainable future. In Indonesia results of initiatives are measured by the collective audience exposed to those initiatives, which have included FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council®) Label implementation rate with customers; and monthly reports for the volume of Used Beverage Cartons collected by Collection Partners and recycled by Recycler Partners.

Community based activities are also driven by the Circular Economy approach for Sustainability agenda, and led through environmental campaigns at FSC Friday, Hello Nature events, Recycle for Goods project, Dropbox activation, customer or brand owner engagement activities such as the Kalbe Junior Scientist award, Jagoan Clevo, Indomilk Go Green, Indomilk Pro Active Kids, and Clean Up Day.

Community awareness and initiative metrics are used to measure the impact of programs and activities as prime drivers for influence towards attitude. Community behavior metrics are the most reliable indicator of community response and actions, as they measure knowledge transfer and penetration, program diversity, interest level, deeper involvement in the project, shared responsibilities and co-funding among key stakeholders.

Tetra Pak Indonesia believes that being socially aware aligns with its consumers’ desire to know about the environmental footprint, origin and safety of the products they buy. The company has made driving environmental excellence one of its four strategic priorities, and believes that through its commitment, it will be able to play an active role in shaping a better future, support the long-term success of its customers’ businesses, and drive environmental excellence across its whole value chain.