Driven by purpose
Our approach to sustainability is embodied by our purpose “we commit to making food safe and available, everywhere and we promise to protect what’s good - protecting food, people and the planet”.
Our purpose guides our business decisions, unifies our people, and continues to be the driving force behind our innovations. It is central to our Strategy 2030 and its four pillars of quality, sustainability, integration and optimisation, and innovation.
Our approach to sustainability takes into consideration the expectations of our stakeholders, and the environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics that are most material to our industry. At the heart of our sustainability approach, we consider the interconnections and interdependencies of five focus areas, which are aligned with our purpose and where Tetra Pak can contribute the most: food systems1, nature, climate, circularity, and social sustainability.
Our sustainability priorities
Tetra Pak remains committed to monitoring, managing, and reporting on our five focus areas. As part of this commitment to openness and transparency, we regularly conduct a formal, materiality assessment to ensure we are addressing those topics of greatest relevance, for our customers, business, society, and the environment.
In 2023 we conducted our first Double Materiality Assessment (DMA) with the support of a third party, in line with guidance from the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the underlying European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The DMA was conducted in four phases: understanding, identification, assessment, and determination. Read more about the objectives and key activities performed within each phase below.
Our DMA resulted in a list of material impacts that Tetra Pak has on people and the environment (impact materiality) as well as material risks and opportunities that various ESG topics have on Tetra Pak’s business (financial materiality). These material impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs) have been grouped under 21 material topics in connection with Tetra Pak’s sustainability agenda which help structure our sustainability statements within our FY23 Sustainability Report.
In 2024 we plan to refine our DMA methodology and assessment considering our learnings from our first assessment and the draft ‘Implementation Guidance’ published by EFRAG in December 2023.
Process of our double materiality assessment
Phase 1
Understanding
Objectives:
1. Build an overview of previous and existing sustainability-related assessments or projects.
2. Develop financial materiality scoring methodology in line with Tetra Pak’s existing Enterprise Risk Management framework.
3. Map Tetra Pak’s key activities along its value chain(s).
Key activities:
- Extract impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs) identified through previous assessments (e.g., Human Rights Salience Exercise, Water Value Chain Analysis, Biodiversity Impact Assessment).
- Identify stakeholders already engaged with during previous sustainability assessments and through Tetra Pak’s ongoing Due Diligence processes.
- Build on existing knowledge from engagement of affected stakeholders.
- Hold a workshop to map Tetra Pak’s value chains (upstream, own operations, downstream) and identify where impacts Tetra Pak has on people and the environment through own operations or due to business relationships may be found.
- Review Tetra Pak’s risk register and leverage for financial materiality assessment.
Phase 2
Identification
Objectives:
1. Identify impacts (actual/potential, positive/negative) Tetra Pak has on people and the environment.
2. Identify risks and opportunities the prescribed ESRS sustainability matters (ESRS 1, AR 16) pose for Tetra Pak’s business.
Key activities:
- Allocate internal experts to each topic to be included in the DMA (e.g., list in ESRS 1 AR 16 and Tetra Pak specific topics).
- Conduct deep-dive interviews with internal experts to identify impacts along Tetra Pak’s value chains.
- Identify risks and opportunities in Tetra Pak’s Risk Framework and Tetra Pak’s Strategy mapped to ESRS topics.
- Validate list of actual and potential, positive and negative impacts and risks and opportunities with internal subject matter experts.
Phase 3
Assessment
Objectives:
1. Quantify IROs identified in previous phase
Key activities:
- Allocated internal experts conduct an assessment of respective IROs using the developed scoring methodology.
Outcomes:
- Each impact has an ‘impact materiality score’ based on ratings along criteria of ‘scale’, ‘scope’, ‘irremediability’ and, for potential impacts, ‘likelihood’.
- Each risk and opportunity have an identified potential financial effect that has a ‘financial materiality score’ based on ratings along criteria of impact and likelihood, in alignment with the Tetra Pak Enterprise Risk Management framework
Phase 4
Determination
Objectives:
1. Define material topics based on a set of thresholds for impact and financial materiality.
Key activities:
- Set topic category impact materiality thresholds for topics under E, S and G.
-Set financial materiality thresholds by grouping identified IROs into categories in-line with Tetra Pak’s existing risk taxonomy.
- Thresholds were defined considering Tetra Pak’s risk appetite.
- Identify IROs that exceed thresholds and are therefore material.
Outcomes:
- A list of material IROs (where topics above the prescribed thresholds are considered material).
- Consolidate IROs into material topics.
Our material topics
The DMA process involved identifying and assessing the material impacts that Tetra Pak has on people and the environment – called impact materiality – and the material risks and opportunities that various ESG topics have on our business, referred to as financial materiality. These material impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs) were grouped under 21 material topics related to the five areas of our sustainability agenda.
How we verify our sustainability approach
Verification is essential to our sustainability process. Our practices and performance are externally verified, and Tetra Pak’s scopes 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission data have received limited assurance by a third party since 2013. Our 2023 direct operations water data have also received limited assurance by a third party. Our FY23 Sustainability Report is prepared using the latest ESRS as a foundation for our disclosures.
See our GHG and Water Inventory report
We are working with our financial auditors on building confidence in our approach to sustainability reporting to gain limited assurance on our first CSRD reporting in 2026.
We also have an Advisory Panel, formed in 2020, to provide independent strategic insight, guidance and assistance focused on sustainability and innovation in pursuit of Tetra Pak’s purpose. The panel comprises independent external advisors, who were selected based on their range of experience and expertise deemed necessary to shape and inform a pioneering sustainability agenda that will help us achieve our sustainability goals, including our ultimate ambition to create the world’s most sustainable food package2.
Tetra Pak's Sustainability Leadership
Tetra Pak’s overall sustainability direction, including ambitions, targets and commitments, is led by the Sustainability & Communications Leadership Team, chaired by the Executive Vice President of Sustainability and Communications of the Tetra Pak Group, and governed by the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), chaired by the President and CEO of Tetra Pak.
1The term ‘food systems’ refers to all the elements and activities related to producing and consuming food, and their effects, including economic, health, and environmental outcomes (OECD, https://www.oecd.org/food-systems, 2023).
2This means creating cartons that are fully made of renewable or recycled materials, that are responsibly sourced, therefore helping protect and restore our planet's climate, resources and biodiversity; contributing towards carbon-neutral production and distribution; are convenient and safe, therefore helping to enable a resilient food system; are fully recyclable.