Flint Group launches 2023 Sustainability Report

According to the recently published comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, paper-based single-use products provide significant key environmental advantages when compared to reusable tableware for in-store dining in Quick Service Restaurants (QSR). These advantages are primarily driven by the carbon emissions related to the amount of energy required to wash the tableware as well as the amount of freshwater used in the washing process in a multi-use system. A recent study conducted by Ramboll, a leading global engineering, design and consultancy company and certified by TÜV, one of the world’s leading testing service providers, compares the environmental impact of paper-based single-use packaging to that of reusable tableware in an in-store dining setting in Quick Service Restaurants in Europe. The full environmental impact was scientifically measured for both applications across multiple criteria and scenarios. Importantly, the results showed that: • For climate change, the single-use system shows very significant benefits. In fact, in the baseline scenario, the polypropylene-based multi-use system was responsible for generating 2.7 times more CO2-e emissions than the paper-based single-use system. The single main contributor to climate change impact in the multi-use baseline scenario is the electricity demand of the washing process. Overall, the use phase accounts for 83% of the total aggregated impact. • For Freshwater Consumption, there are also very significant environmental benefits to the single-use system. The multi-use system used 3.6 times the amount of freshwater in the baseline scenario.

Biodiversity is declining faster than at any other point in human history, and the risk of biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse was identified as one of the top five global threats of the next decade by the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report. The decline of biodiversity will have far-reaching economic and societal consequences, as it underpins all natural ecosystems and is an essential element of human wellbeing – sustaining Mondi’s packaging and paper business, as well as our economies and societies in which we are located¹. Ecosystems provide essential services that can impact livelihoods, income, local migration and even political conflict². In addition to all this, over half of the world’s GDP is either moderately or highly dependent on nature - $44 trillion of economic value generation³. And yet, nature continues to decline at unprecedented rates. Not only was COP15 an essential reminder of the role governments and businesses must play in conserving our natural ecosystems, but it also highlighted the importance of sustainable business models – like Mondi’s.

Sonoco announced new commitments to advance its environmental progress by setting ambitious goals to reduce its global greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement – to limit global temperatures to warming to well-below 2° C above pre-industrial levels. These emission reduction targets have recently been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Sonoco has committed to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2030 from a 2020 base year. The Company has also committed to reduce absolute scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 13.5 percent from a 2019 base year by working with its customer and suppliers to develop innovative packaging solutions that reduce packaging waste and improve recyclability. In addition, the Company is actively studying necessary operational changes, technology developments and market changes that would be required to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050.