Posted on abril, 26 2011

 A different package, a different packaging company

Unlike most manufacturers participating in GFTN, Tetra Pak does not purchase timber or any other raw forest materials. Instead, its food and liquid containers, which offer an alternative to traditional glass and metal containers, require timber fibre that has already been converted into paperboard.

Large quantities of paperboard at that. According to Tetra Pak Environmental Specialist Lena Dahl, the company currently sources nearly two million tons of paperboard each year from conversion mills around the globe. The resulting Tetra Pak containers are used by hundreds of millions of people in more than 170 countries.

It is good news for the world’s forests, then, that Tetra Pak is committed to responsible sourcing and forest management. Since the late 1990s, the company has kept its eye on forest conservation. “The idea behind Tetra Pak’s business model is to protect resources both for future generations and the future of our business,” said Dahl.


At home in the Network

By the time they joined forces with GFTN-Sweden in 2006, Tetra Pak had proven itself a natural match for the stepwise approach, adopting and implementing GFTN policy to procure known and legal—and, eventually certified—wood fibre. In 2007, Tetra Pak produced its first FSC-certified package, and within that year sold 2 million FSC-certified packages. By 2009, that number had jumped to 2.3 billion. To date, since 2007, Tetra Pak, now also a member of GFTN-NA and GFTN-UK, has sold a total of 11 billion FSC-certified packages.

According to Dahl, establishing traceability along the supply chain has been crucial to Tetra Pak’s sustainability journey, helping to ensure the exclusion of unwanted wood and fibre from their supply base. Tetra Pak sets clear guidelines for its suppliers, explaining expectations and employing a rating system that scores companies on certification or other standards they have in place.

That process, Dahl explained, not only helps each supplier locate problem areas, but also fosters healthy competition. “The fact that some move ahead of others and get a higher score is a good trigger for others to do the same.”

Having reached almost 100 per cent traceability along its supply chain--a major step in reaching the goal of 100 per cent FSC chain of custody certification--Tetra Pak is well on its way to its other goal, that of producing only credibly certified packages.

So why is this not yet happening?

The problem said Dahl, lies in the supply of FSC-certified wood fibre—or lack thereof.

Into the future: addressing a limited supply

“Procuring enough FSC-certified material has been one of our biggest challenges, and that has to do with certification of private forest owners and small holders. Even though we have certified supply, it’s not enough, and what we do have isn’t evenly spread out over the world.”

Still, in the face of certified-supply shortage, Tetra Pak is hardly waiting idly by, but instead is finding ways to help smaller forest owners and managers in more and more places around the world achieve FSC certification. The company has funded a wide variety of projects, from the development of multilingual materials explaining how to administer environmental impact assessments, to the creative exchange of information at parties and meetings, to seminars about FSC group certification in China.

“As a leading consumer of certified material, we believe we need to be part of making those changes happen,” said Dahl. “If you make sure that standards are adapted to smallholders and have good guidance documents that work on a global level, it’s going to impact the uptake in areas where we need to increase supply. We have seen progress and believe we will see continued momentum.”