SustainabilityOnline recently published its inaugural ‘Ambition Into Action’ report, featuring interviews with senior leaders about how they are turning sustainability vision into business reality at the mid-point of the decade.
Gerald Rebitzer is Vice President of Sustainability Operations & Advocacy for EMEA and Asia-Pacific at Amcor, where he is responsible for implementing sustainability initiatives and external advocacy across rigid and flexible packaging, including plastics, aluminium, and paper.
He has held various senior sustainability roles at Amcor since 2010, and also sits on several boards, including CEFLEX, the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, and IGORA.
How has Amcor moved from ‘ambition to action’ in terms of turning sustainability into a core value driver – in other words, how have you made sustainability ‘good for business’?
Amcor has focused on actionable ambitions for a long time and doubled down on implementation. For instance, we started our GHG reduction programme – focusing on the complete scope 1, 2, and 3 – over 15 years ago with significant progress over time and are on-track with the accelerated ambition of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).
On circularity, Amcor has advanced design for recyclability to a new level, both improving the share of Amcor packaging that is already recycled today in many geographies, as well as providing new packaging innovations such as mono-material solutions for flexible packaging that are the basis for recycling systems to succeed everywhere in the world. These are two aspects that have moved from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must’ for many of our customers.
And with these proactive initiatives, we are also getting ahead of emerging and existing regulations such as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) in Europe, which will make packaging recyclability a market access requirement for our customers by 2030.
We’re now at the mid point of the decade. What do you see as the single biggest barrier for businesses in moving from ambition to measurable action – and how can it be overcome?
Currently, the biggest barrier is uncertainty in terms of regulation and market developments. In the current economic climate, there is clearly some inertia in the system, which sometimes slows down progress of the industry.
In that environment, more than ever, it is important to hold the course and focus not only on the short-term, but pursue the medium- and long-term strategy for the coming years. I truly believe that businesses who take this longer-term view, while also managing the short-term priorities, are set up for success in making sustainability a fundamental value driver.
What role can (and should) leadership play in ensuring sustainability commitments actually deliver results, rather than remaining aspirational? And how can you ensure buy-in from all stakeholders?
Sustainability is successful if it becomes business-as-usual for all functions and operations, building the relevant aspects into their long-term focus as well as day-to-day activities.
If the leadership follows a visible longer-term strategy and communicates consistently on targets and performance – including successes as well as failures – this creates the required credibility when engaging with customers, employees and investors.
Sustainability needs to be part of the value proposition of the organisation and its products and services and should not be an ‘add-on’ function. I believe at Amcor we have made sustainability a clear part of our value proposition, and there is much more to do going forward.
Learn more about Amcor’s sustainability commitments at www.amcor.com/sustainability.
