Colep Packaging

POWERED BY INSIDE SUSTAINABILITY

reating a USTAINABLE

packaging culture

A member of the RAR Group, Colep Packaging has almost 60 years’ experience supplying metal and plastic packaging. Sustainability and Continuous Improvement Director Raquel Passos Miranda outlines the company’s sustainability credentials.

Packaging plays an important role in rein forcing sustainability, as it solves various issues and responds to important challenges. The purpose of packaging is to enable the safe transit of items from the producer to the consumer.

“Who can imagine a sustainable world without packaging?” asked Sustainability and Continuous Improvement Director Raquel Passos Miranda. “When moving an item from the producer to the consumer, packaging assures the safety, hygiene and quality of the contents. Packaging ensures logistical security, efficiency and effectiveness. Finally, it guarantees trust, and the transparent presentation of information to allow consumers to make better decisions.”

Based in Portugal, Colep Packaging is part of the RAR Group, and the company is one of the most important players in the European aerosol market as well as the Iberian leader in general line packaging. Colep Packaging is a global partner in the development, production and trading of metal packaging solutions. The company has a turnover of €119 million and employs approximately 700 people in Portugal, Poland and Spain.

Growth continues at Colep Packaging with the acquisition of a 40% stake in Spanish aluminium aerosol producer ALM Envases. This addition enlarges Colep Packaging’s portfolio with options for aluminium aerosol cans and a wider range of sustainable packaging solutions based on permanent materials.

“Aluminium and steel are perfect for circularity,” Raquel Miranda said. “Packaging made of steel or aluminium, being fully recy clable, maintains its original properties without loss of quality, no matter how many

times it is recycled. Metal is excellent at pro tecting contents from external elements, preserving the products’ original properties, avoiding waste and prolonging shelf life without refrigeration, therefore saving energy.”

Integrated sustainability

The ambition at Colep Packaging is to prosper in the long term, integrating sustainability at the core of the company’s strategy and activities. This includes considering social and environmental issues in decisions as an opportunity for the organisation.

“Today, companies are aware of the risks that sustainability challenges pose to their operations,” explained Raquel Miranda, “along with the opportunities for long-term resilience presented by addressing these risks.

“The main sustainability-related challenges we face are interlinked and global, and similar to most of the brand owners and retailers in our value chain: material scarcity, packaging waste and climate change.”

Responding to the scarcity of materials at the production stage, dealing with packaging waste at both the manufacturing and the post-consumer stages (as well as addressing climate change with mitigation and adaptation measures) is crucial to bus i ness success in the long-term.

Colep Packaging is responding to these challenges by focusing on projects that use less material, less resources, less water and less energy and increase recyclability and recycled content.

• Reinvent – being creative towards a more environmentally friendly business

• Refuse – eliminate what is not needed and does not add value

• Reduce – use less materials and less resources whenever possible

• Reuse – repair before replace, reuse or repurpose

• Recycle – increase recyclability and recycled content

“We believe that a systemic approach to circular economy, in collaboration with other organisations, is an excellent response to these challenges,” continued Raquel Miranda. “At Colep Packaging, we consider sustainability issues as opportunities to prepare for and look after the future of our business, focusing our attention on what matters most and differentiate products and services as solutions to these challenges.”

The result of Colep Packaging’s culture is a broad portfolio of sustainable products. Boosted by the acquisition of ALM

Respecting the Planet –Colep Packaging emphasises:

Envases, the range of tinplate and aluminium aerosol cans is available with various effects and decoration options to enable customers to develop unique products. The Colep Packaging portfolio reinforces the company’s position in the market – as a preferred supplier to the main players operating in the paints, coatings and chemical sectors.

This portfolio also includes food cans: Colep Packaging works with multinational and local customers, offering a wide range of formats and sizes. The company guarantees customers the most attractive cans on the shelves. Finally, Colep Packaging supplies blow and injection moulded plastic bottles and caps, working with propylene and HDPE.

Weaving together innovation and sustainability has netted the company an award for Sustainability in the Aerosol Industry from AEDA – Asociación Española de Aerosoles. “Colep Packaging developed Light Weight Can solutions,” Raquel Miranda said. This new type of product decreases material consumption by reducing its thickness, cutting up to 29% of the weight of aerosol cans – lowering the carbon footprint by up to 27%.

“Our design philosophy is to reduce materials and the consumption of resources. We focus on reusing when -

ever possible, increasing recyclability and recycled content.

“At Colep Packaging, we pursue circular economy solutions,” continued Raquel Miranda, “as industrial symbiosis, allowing the reuse of waste, by-products and energy, increasing competitiveness, reducing risk, creating new business opportunities and adding value.

“This requires action inside and outside Colep Packaging's sphere, namely collab orating with customers, suppliers, partners and communities and reinforcing cooperation with innovation institutions and universities.”

Sustainability commitments

Colep Packaging is leading the way in demonstrating that packaging reinforces sustainability by pursuing solutions to the challenges the world is facing. “We aim to understand sustainability-related challenges and tensions within our network,” said Raquel Miranda, “developing solutions to respond to these challenges and turning them into business opportunities.”

This approach will enable the company to thrive and will contribute to the prosperity of nature and society. Colep Packaging is committed to developing and empowering its workforce and to assure that safety is

the number one priority. This commitment aligns with the company’s community development programme, fostering initiatives with the purpose of improving people’s life with a strong focus on health, safety, wellbeing and continuous education.

“We believe that it is possible to develop and grow our business, within the safe limits and with respect to the Earth system,” explained Raquel Miranda. “We focus on continuously improving our activities and processes in order to have a positive impact on our planet.”

Finally, Colep Packaging is committed to being a responsible player along the value chain. The company encourages collaborative relationships with suppliers, customers and other partners, with the aim of building a more accountable business and a more sustainable value network.

From the inside out Colep Packaging’s roadmap towards a more sustainable business runs through the organisation and fosters interaction with the outside world, considering all

stakeholders. This process begins with clever design, including sustainability at the core of every product. The philosophy then filters out into the company, its organisation and workforce. In turn, sustainability then spreads to the world at large.

“It is only possible to embark on this journey successfully by incorporating sustainability into business functions,” Raquel Miranda said, “closing the gap between words and actions.

“Although it is impossible to recreate our culture at other companies, it is possible to duplicate the process to design, develop and implement a sustainable approach in line with each company’s culture.

“While sustainability is a huge chal lenge,” Raquel Miranda concluded, “it is also a privilege to take the company lead on such a challenging, global and important topic for all of us.”