PITTSBURGH & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As part of its commitment to reduce natural resource needs and manage overall environmental footprint, The Kraft Heinz Company today announced the expansion of its environmental stewardship strategy to include time-bound targets for achieving greater packaging sustainability and setting science-based goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Specifically, Kraft Heinz supports the move toward a circular economy and aims to make 100 percent of its packaging globally recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. This announcement, a complement to its Growing a Better World strategy released in last year’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, supports the Company’s broader efforts to improve the sustainability of its supply chain.
“Our collective industry has a massive challenge ahead of us with respect to packaging recyclability, end-of-life recovery and single-use plastics,” said Bernardo Hees, CEO at Kraft Heinz. “Even though we don’t yet have all the answers, we owe it to current and future generations who call this planet ‘home’ to find better packaging solutions and actively progress efforts to improve recycling rates. That’s why Kraft Heinz is placing heightened focus on this important environmental issue.”
Kraft Heinz will aggressively pursue technical alternatives while also collaborating externally to advance its commitment to deliver 100 percent recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging by 2025. The Company will partner with packaging experts, organizations and coalitions to explore technical, end-of-life and infrastructure solutions, and is already collaborating with Environmental Packaging International (EPI) for consulting, tracking and other specialist services in the packaging space. The Company also will work toward increasing the usage of recycled content in its packaging and decreasing the overall volume of packaging used.
While the global packaging target is new, Kraft Heinz is no stranger to advancing the sustainability of its packaging. Evidenced by previous work in this space, the Company has been working for years to optimize its high-volume packaging. For example, Kraft Heinz recently exceeded its commitment to reduce the weight of its global packaging by 50,000 metric tonnes. Additionally, Kraft Heinz Europe is working to make the recyclable Heinz Tomato Ketchup PET plastic bottle fully circular by 2022, by using recycled material that can be made back into food-grade packaging.
Kraft Heinz will further outline its strategy and timeline for achieving this commitment in its next CSR Report, expected to be issued in 2019.
In addition, Kraft Heinz is doing its part to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy by joining the Science Based Targets Initiative and working to set science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals in its supply chain. Adoption of these particularly aggressive targets is aimed at helping avoid a global temperature increase of more than two degrees Celsius.
Added Hees: “We found that most of our emissions are coming from areas outside our direct operations. To truly succeed as champions of sustainability, we will look at our full value chain and determine where we can make the greatest impact for our planet.”
The Company plans to announce these new science-based goals when their current commitments expire in 2020.
For more information on sustainable business practices at Kraft Heinz, please visit: http://www.kraftheinzcompany.com/sustainability.html.
ABOUT THE KRAFT HEINZ COMPANY
The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ: KHC) is the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world. A globally trusted producer of delicious foods, The Kraft Heinz Company provides high quality, great taste and nutrition for all eating occasions, whether at home, in restaurants or on the go. The Company’s iconic brands include Kraft, Heinz, ABC, Capri Sun, Classico, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Lunchables, Maxwell House, Ore-Ida, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Planters, Plasmon, Quero, Smart Ones and Velveeta. The Kraft Heinz Company is dedicated to the sustainable health of our people, our planet and our Company. For more information, visit www.kraftheinzcompany.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements. Words such as "expect," "will," “aim” and variations of such words and similar future or conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's plans and expectations. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and beyond the Company's control.
Important factors that affect our business and operations and that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, operating in a highly competitive industry; changes in the retail landscape or the loss of key retail customers; our ability to maintain, extend and expand our reputation and brand image; the impacts of our international operations; our ability to leverage our brand value to compete against retailer brands and other economy brands; our ability to predict, identify and interpret changes in consumer preferences and demand; our ability to drive revenue growth in our key product categories, increase our market share, or add products; an impairment of the carrying value of goodwill or other indefinite-lived intangible assets; volatility in commodity, energy and other input costs; changes in our management team or other key personnel; our ability to realize the anticipated benefits from our cost savings initiatives; changes in relationships with significant customers and suppliers; the execution of our international expansion strategy; tax law changes or interpretations; legal claims or other regulatory enforcement actions; product recalls or product liability claims; unanticipated business disruptions; our ability to complete or realize the benefits from potential and completed acquisitions, alliances, divestitures or joint ventures; economic and political conditions in the United States and in various other nations in which we operate; volatility of capital markets and other macroeconomic factors; increased pension, labor, and people-related expenses; volatility in the market value of all or a portion of the derivatives we use; exchange rate fluctuations; risks associated with information technology and systems, including service interruptions, misappropriation of data, or breaches of security; our ability to protect intellectual property rights; impacts of natural events in the locations in which we or our customers, suppliers, or regulators operate; our indebtedness and ability to pay such indebtedness; our ownership structure; the impact of future sales of our common stock in the public markets; our ability to continue to pay a regular dividend; restatements of our consolidated financial statements; and other factors. For additional information on these and other factors that could affect our forward-looking statements, see “Risk Factors” disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 30, 2017. We disclaim and do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement in this press release, except as required by applicable law or regulation.
