The challenge of social sustainability
Global value chains depend on people, often from poor and marginalised backgrounds, and people depend on global value chains for their income, livelihoods, and well-being. However, the rights of workers, communities and other people affected by business activity are at risk, with alarming rates of forced labour, child labour and extreme poverty, amongst other challenges.
The abuse of workers’ rights was severe in 2022, with only 3 out of 148 countries showing improvements in this area1. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this trend, leading to a rise in the number of people living in extreme poverty and an increase in the number of working poor2. Additionally, limited resources like land, water and energy are under increasing pressure, impacting our lives.
Tetra Pak’s promise to protect food, people and the planet is ever more relevant. By driving respect for people’s fundamental dignity and equality throughout our global value chain, we can affect transformative change in people’s lives – from communities affected by the extraction of raw materials for our products to the informal waste collection workers helping to increase packaging recycling rates. Social sustainability in practice means putting people first and implementing business practices that contribute to the human dimensions of sustainable development. It also includes building a culture of respect and inclusion within our workforce.
Our 2030 strategic ambitions
- Continue to deliver wellbeing programmes for employees, support a positive and open safety culture across the company, and work towards reducing accidents and work-related ill-health, with zero as the ultimate goal
- Continue focus on increasing the number of women in senior and factory positions
- Implement action plans to prevent and mitigate human rights risks in each of our priority categories in our supply chain
- Undertake human rights due diligence for workers in post-consumer packaging collection, across markets where we engage with informal waste collection to increase packaging recycling rates
- In 2024, develop and establish a measurement framework, metrics and targets for priority human rights risks for workers in the value chain and affected communities
1UN Global Compact: Labour and Decent Work. Source: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/our-work/social/labour
2Poverty, median incomes and inequality (2021). Source: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/936001635880885713/pdf/Poverty-Median-Incomes-and-Inequality-in-2021-A-Diverging-Recovery.pdf
3Sustainable development has been defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/glossary/sustainable-development.html
4Risky environments refer to: "At landfills, waste pickers work in hazardous conditions, are exposed to potentially hazardous materials and toxic fumes, lack personal protective equipment (PPE), and are at risk of severe injury from heavy machinery and vehicles." Source: https://faircircularity.org/fair-circularity-principles/
5Sustainable food systems mean growing, producing, processing, packaging, distributing and consuming food without negatively impacting the planet. Retrieved from OECD. (2019). Accelerating Climate Action. Source: OECD iLibrary