One of the first companies in the United States to recycle, Sonoco continues to set the standard for sustainability in the packaging industry.
We’ve established metrics to measure our progress toward a series of environmental, social and economic goals, and are working toward cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from our North American facilities by 15% by 2013. We’re also working with our international operations to develop broader GHG reduction goals.
We are aggressively pursuing zero landfill at our corporate headquarters and all of our plants, and have reduced energy consumption at our paper mills by 18% in the past decade. We’ve expanded our portfolio of sustainable packaging offerings and recycling services, and our innovative S3 waste reduction service continues to grow as we help large consumer product companies recycle their facilities’ wastes.
We’re a proud member of the prestigious 2011/2012 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and were awarded SAM (Sustainable Asset Management) Gold Class status for the 2011 improvement in the sustainability of our global operations. Newsweek magazine named us one of its 500 Greenest Large American Companies and the highest ranking U.S. packaging company in its 2011 Green Rankings for a third consecutive year. Green Business WORKS also listed us at number 12 in its Southeastern Corporate Sustainability Rankings for 2011.