The aim of the alliance is to increase the share of fibre-based packaging in a circular and sustainable economy in order to minimise its environmental impact.
The 4evergreen alliance is a three-year long project and will begin in January 2020 bringing together companies and organisations across the value chain.
It is the first time an alliance on this scale will connect members across the entire value-chain in order to gain deeper insights into sustainable sourcing, material design, converting, recycling, re-use and waste management for fibre-based packaging. Mondi will collaborate and share expertise to gain insights on improving design and materials as well as packaging use, disposal, recycling and recovery of fibre-based solutions in order to better advise and meet the needs of its customers.
Mondi prides itself on playing an active role in driving sustainable packaging solutions and already works closely with a number of stakeholders including the WWF, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Forest Solutions Group, as well as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy initiative.
“Gaining better insights on the material choices being made by customers and helping them to understand the trade-offs is taking on new importance in order to provide customers with solutions that are indeed sustainable by design,” said Gladys Naylor, Mondi Group Head of Sustainable Development.
“When we speak of trade-offs, it means looking holistically at the situation and deriving the best option for a particular need, and we believe using renewable materials that are sustainably harvested – so do not contribute to deforestation – and are widely recycled can only be beneficial. We support a landscape approach to ensure that forests are protected and continue to function and provide benefits in the long-term. This landscape approach – a well-designed, multi-layered network of significant conservation areas, plus productive ‘wood harvesting’ areas, linked together in a mosaic landscape – is how we at Mondi practice forestry and it’s what we advocate for our industry and others.”
Mondi’s customer-centric approach, EcoSolutions, aims to support customers meet their sustainability goals and commitments in a fact-based manner that benefits end-consumers and the planet. Mondi provides customers with packaging that is fit-for-purpose using paper where possible, plastic when useful.
