Tetra Pak Jurong awarded by NEA

Tetra Pak Jurong Pte Ltd was honoured with the 10th Anniversary Special Achievement Award by Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) acknowledging the most outstanding performance by individual signatories of the ¹Singapore Packaging Agreement (SPA). This award, presented by Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, along with nine Distinction Awards and seven Platinum Awards received from the SPA over the past 10 years is a demonstration of the company’s strong commitment towards sustainability, for Singapore and the region.

(Left/right) Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, presents the 10th Anniversary Special Achievement award to Tetra Pak, represented by Mr Otso Toikka, VP Supply Chain, Tetra Pak South Asia, East Asia & Oceania

Tetra Pak joined the SPA as one of the key signatories in 2007, and since then has been working closely with the Singapore’s government implementing practices that help to minimize environmental impact. The efforts ranged from optimizing work flow to investing in new equipment that enables in-house recovery and re-usage of packaging waste from the production line, which resulted in a cumulative reduction of 15,000 tonnes of packaging waste. The company has also been actively educating the public about waste minimization and recycling through its outreach at Clean and Green Singapore carnivals, and used-beverage carton recycling programmes in Singaporean schools. For example, a family that consumes 300 liters of milk a year can ensure that their used beverage cartons of around 7.7 kg can be fully recycled.

“It’s an absolute honor to receive this award, marking our decade-long commitment and involvement with the SPA. By applying World Class Manufacturing (WCM) principles, we can reduce waste, minimize water loss, improve efficiency and reduce energy consumption across all our operations. Our goal is to ensure that food is protected to the highest standards with the lowest possible impact on the environment and the society,” says Mr. Otso Toikka, VP Supply Chain Operations, Tetra Pak South Asia, East Asia & Oceania.

The award is another testimony of Tetra Pak’s mission to drive environmental excellence across the entire value chain. Other efforts included signing Paris pledge² in 2015 and RE 100³ in 2016, as well as making a commitment to cap the company’s climate impact by 2020 at 2010 levels despite considerable business growth.  Tetra Pak has also recently announced that it now uses renewable electricity for more than a third of its total annual consumption worldwide and that by 2030, the greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations will be at least 40% lower than in 2015.

¹The SPA was developed as a means for the NEA to work in partnership with the industry to reduce packaging waste through better design and production processes and facilitate the reuse or recycling of used packaging materials. Tetra Pak was one of first 162 signatories to join the agreement.

²Tetra Pak Signs Paris Pledge for Action at COP21 CLICK

³Tetra Pak has joined RE100, committing to increase its use of renewable electricity from 20% today to 100% across all global operations by 2030.   CLICK