5 minute read
Sustainable packaging solutions in the food industry
Sophie Schwinghammer
In recent years, the food packaging business has changed dramatically in response to rising environmental consciousness, and a global push for more sustainable production methods. Companies are increasingly looking for creative packaging solutions that minimise environmental effect or are designed to enhance energy and media efficiency while preserving product quality and safety. At the same time, the industry faces enormous obstacles, including the need to quickly deploy climate-conscious tactics, reduce packaging materials, and comply with a complicated web of international regulations governing carbon emissions, plastic usage, and recycling obligations. These challenges are fueling a wave of innovation and adaptation as firms strive to match their operations with both environmental aims and regulatory requirements.
ENVIRO IS GAINING GROUND
To ensure its objectivity and effectiveness, the enviro sustainability programme at Krones AG — a German packaging and bottling machine manufacturer — must undergo regular audits, with third-party verification and very precise requirements. The latest certification round, from June 2024, marked a pivotal change to the bid preparation process.
Krones’ enviro sustainability program was launched in 2008. It is based on a certified management system, and steers the entire product development process towards sustainability. Only those products that meet the following criteria can carry the blue enviro label:
• Conform to the EME standard* defined by TÜV SÜD
• Contribute substantially to achieving production that is energy and media-efficient, and environmentally sustainable
• Having both of the above criteria verified in a certified, transparently documented, testing procedure
To ensure the objectivity of the testing procedure, a mandatory benchmark has been defined for each enviro-relevant aspect of a product, such as compressed air and thermal energy consumption.
* EME = Energy and Media Efficiency, Environmental Sustainability
HOW THE AUDIT SYSTEM WORKS
The enviro management system prescribes three types of audit, each of which is to be repeated at regular intervals. All three are monitored by the independent verification organisation TÜV SÜD. The most comprehensive of these audits is performed every three years and serves to re-certify the program.
Besides the related systems and processes, this audit focused on the underlying sustainability strategy. “We had to show the auditors several things, including what we have achieved so far and what our goals are going forward,” explains Christopher Urbansky, product sustainability expert at Krones. “To ensure that our targets are plausible, they were also checked for measurability.”
Verification likewise included checking how reliable and accurate forecasts were for machine consumption, which tools were used to measure consumption, and how the data is validated. In this audit, particular attention was paid to two of our process technology solutions: the EquiTherm energy recovery system, and the low-temperature brewery. The results evidently impressed the auditors, because the programme was recertified through to 2027. However, this doesn’t mean that the enviro system now gets a three-year break from audits. Between the big audits, there are annual monitoring audits at different sites.
“Our management system also provides an additional safeguard in the form of regular internal audits,” explains Urbansky. “They are conducted by the experts in our central product sustainability team, and we run three of them each year, on different product lines. The focus here is on our enviro machines and systems, which we continuously evaluate with respect to energy and media efficiency and environmental sustainability. Each one is reviewed every three years.”
The product lines are organisational units that have specialised in a particular type of product, such as filling technology or plastics technology. In order to systematically promote the enviro targets, each product line now has its own expert commission for the purpose, each consisting of one enviro specialist, one product manager, and one person with expertise in energy and media. The team meets at least once every six weeks to discuss and learn about new developments, with the aim of deepening the dialogue across disciplines, and to identify together the potential for improvements.
MAKING EASIER FOR CUSTOMERS TO CHOOSE ENVIRO
Krones’ climate goals include reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in the upstream and downstream supply chains by 30 per cent by 2030. The majority of these Scope 3 emissions are generated in the use phase of products, at the customers’ plants. This means that enviro plays a crucial role in the group’s climate strategy, because the more customers choose technologies with higher resource efficiency (thus permanently cutting their own carbon emissions), the more that Scope 3 emissions are reduced, which is ultimately good for the climate.
In order to make this choice as easy as possible for customers, Krones has updated the bid preparation process. Customers inquiring about a solution will now receive a bid that includes a clear breakdown of the energy and media-efficient features offered for each application and, in particular, what media and energy savings can be achieved.
For customers, that means they can see how quickly an investment in an enviro solution will pay for itself. As an additional piece of information and aid to decision-making, a sample calculation for each enviro feature is also included. These calculations show both the specific CO2 and media reductions and the associated operating cost savings.
The large, underlying goal is to establish energy and media-efficient enviro technologies as the standard – to the advantage of everyone involved. An investment in an enviro machine doesn’t only mean a faster return on investment for customers, it also helps Krones meet its group-wide Scope 3 emissions targets and thus contribute substantially to mitigating climate change.
Krones enviro - Top technology for ecologically efficient production
Sophie Schwinghammer
Krones Specialist Corporate Sustainability
Contact details:
Christopher Urbansky
Product Sustainability
Krones AG
