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Leadership

At Sonoco, we're bringing our sustainability journey full circle, starting with our leadership.

Leadership

At Sonoco, sustainability starts at the top.

Our packaging begins its sustainability journey as the product of an ethos. We envision a cradle-to-cradle product life cycle that’s better for our planet and better for you and your customers. That’s why we’ve made sustainability a part of everything we do.

Elizabeth Rhue, Vice President, Global Environmental, Sustainability & Technical Services

Bringing Sustainability Full Circle

We believe in approaching sustainability ethically and holistically. That’s why we build sustainability into every area of our business and choose to explain our practices in terms of circularity. Explore this site to see how we’re bringing our sustainability journey full circle from leadership thought process to packaging design to end-of-life.

A Team Serious About Sustainability

Some of Our Areas of Focus:

Partnerships

Breakthroughs in sustainability can’t happen in silos. At Sonoco, we partner with industry associations that are experts in specific areas of sustainability. We integrate these viewpoints into our strategies and share our own expertise for the greater purpose of building a more sustainable future.

Product

Packaging might be a common part of daily life, but because it’s so commonly used, we see every sustainability breakthrough as vastly meaningful. Our technology teams find purpose in creatively engineering sustainable packaging. Hear from those leading packaging innovation.

Infrastructure

At Sonoco, we look at sustainability holistically. We don’t just care about developing more sustainable packaging – we’re also developing more sustainable systems and practices.

Elizabeth Rhue, Vice President, Global Environmental, Sustainability & Technical Services

Scott Byrne

Director, Global Sustainability Services

Scott Byrne

Director, Global Sustainability Services

“Sonoco is fairly unique in the breadth of packaging formats we manufacture as well as the diverse role we play in the packaging recycling value chain. This means we have a lot to keep track of in terms of industry trends and developments. It also means we can offer a diverse viewpoint for industry associations and partnerships where we participate. As we grow our sustainability leadership, these partnerships are a key area where we can highlight knowledge and capabilities and help move the industry forward."

Laura Buen Abad

Senior Director, Technology & Marketing

Laura Buen Abad

Senior Director, Technology & Marketing

“Since I started my career, I had a clear vision to work with products that make a positive impact on people’s lives. I have always been quite aware of global society problems and care about doing the right thing for people and the planet. It is important to me to work on something that has a purpose. I like to be where I know I am making a positive contribution to solving global problems. Developing packaging with overall positive environmental impacts allows me to see the direct results of my work.”

Ed Harrington

Director, Global Environmental Services

Ed Harrington

Director, Global Environmental Services

“Sonoco is continually investing in our paper mill water systems to reduce the amount of water used and to improve the quality of the water being discharged. Major wastewater treatment upgrades have recently been completed in several plants across Europe and North America, and we have projects currently underway to increase the amount of water being internally recycled within the paper making process in a couple of South American facilities.”

Peter Görlitz

Sustainability Manager, Europe

Peter Görlitz

Sustainability Manager, Europe

“Together with our trusted partners in sustainability, we aim to provide customers resourceful and collaborative solutions to further enhance the performance of our products and services and ultimately to meet our common sustainability goals and deliver the best environmental outcome for a circular economy.”

Glenn Jordan

Director, Global Technology

Glenn Jordan

Director, Global Technology

“The way we do product development now centers around making packaging more sustainable.  It’s one of the key product attributes.  From the very first conversation with the customer, we are incorporating sustainability in the design, material selection and functionality of the packaging.”

Palace Stepps

Vice President/General Manager, Paper Products & Fiber Supply

Palace Stepps

Vice President/General Manager, Paper Products & Fiber Supply

“Every day I get to see our packaging design teams working hard to develop packaging products that meet customer performance needs, are easier to recover in the recycling process, and are reusable in new packaging.  I also see our paper mills making use of the latest technology to maximize the yield and reuse of the fiber Sonoco Recycling provides to them.”

Sustainability Unpacked

Our video series helps demystify sustainable package design, assessment, and considerations for recycling different materials.

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Understanding EPR

Whose responsibility is it to help reduce waste and increase the amount of packaging that gets recycled? For the most part in the US taxpayers finance waste management. But that is starting to change. A growing number of states have considered legislation known as extended producer responsibility or EPR laws.

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PET Thermoforms

Can you believe only about 9% of PET thermoforms are recycled today? There’s a lot to consider when it comes to this packaging format. In this episode of Sustainability Unpacked, we discuss how we make PET thermoforms easier to recycle and reclaim to make into new packaging.

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Unraveling the Paper-Based Product Recycling Process

Depending on where you live and the product type in question, the process for recycling paper-based products varies. See how the industry thinks through technical challenges, economic realities, and consumer behaviors to keep more unique paper products out of landfill and into productive post-consumer recycled content.

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Since 2009

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Down 25%

We are committed to advancing our environmental progress by setting ambitious new targets to reduce our global greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement—to limit global temperatures to warming to well-below 2° C above pre-industrial levels. Specifically, Sonoco is committed to reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030 from a 2020 base year.

We have also committed to reduce absolute scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 13.5% from a 2019 base year by working with our customers and suppliers to develop innovative packaging solutions that reduce packaging waste and improve recyclability. All emission reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative.

Science Based Targets logo

Committed to Going Much Further

Sonoco strives to develop our own sustainability credentials and to help promote environmental awareness and decisive action in the wider packaging industry through a variety of industry partnerships.

  • 4evergreen
  • Flexible Packaging Association
  • NAPCOR
  • SPC
  • The Recycling Partnership
  • Incpen
  • Ameripen

Award-Winning Sustainability Practices

Sonoco has been repeatedly recognized for our sustainability practices within the industry. Some of these accolades include being selected in 2021 to Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the U.S. for the third consecutive year. Selection involves a rigorous review by Calvert Research and Management of 230 indicators of 1,000 companies to arrive at the Barron’s list. Sonoco has also earned an "A" rating on the MSCI ESG Rating, which measures a company’s resilience to long-term, industry material environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks.

A few of our sustainability recognitions:

  • Barron's Most Sustainable Companies 2022
  • MSCI logo
  • Fortune World's Most Admired Companies 2022
  • Gold 2022 Ecovadis Sustainability Rating
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We think about the future of packaging and how it impacts our planet. We work every day to make better products.