Verallia, a world leader in glass packaging for food and beverages, announced its purpose: “Re-imagine glass for a sustainable future”.
Developed in close collaboration with all of its internal and external stakeholders over the last ten months, this purpose encapsulates Verallia’s ambition for the company and is fully integrated into the Group’s long-term strategy.
Commenting on the launch of the purpose, Michel Giannuzzi, Chairman and CEO of Verallia said, “In December 2019, Verallia’s teams launched a reflection on the company’s purpose with all our stakeholders. I would like to thank our employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and local community representatives for their commitment and contribution. At the end of this collective work, as rich as it was demanding, I am proud to share it today: “Re-imagine glass for a sustainable future”. This purpose is both authentic and ambitious: authentic, because it is in line with our business, our history and our values; ambitious, because it places the circular economy and the transition towards a carbon neutral system at the heart of our strategy and our actions.”
Strengthening Verallia’s commitment to society
Verallia’s purpose is guided by the conviction that glass can be the most sustainable packaging material. The way people consume and the waste they generate every day pose an unprecedented challenge for our society, and packaging is a major component. In addition, the climate emergency requires the mobilization of all stakeholders to better protect natural resources and accelerate the transition to carbon neutrality. It is in a safe and inclusive work environment that Verallia proposes to meet these challenges.
Mobilizing stakeholders around shared ambitions
Verallia wants to collaborate with all of its stakeholders around three main working areas:
- Accelerate innovation in our value chain: Verallia is committed to integrating increasingly innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions from design to product transportation, thereby helping the Group’s customers reduce their own environmental impact.
- Make reuse a win-win solution for the planet and glass packaging: Verallia wants to promote and sustain the reuse of glass packaging in local loops in order to meet the increasingly high expectations of its customers and consumers in this area.
- Mobilize for more recycled glass: Verallia wants to work with its partners to strengthen recycling systems in all of its markets.
Commenting on “re-imagine glass”, Michel Giannuzzi said: “In a world transitioning to a carbon-neutral society, we want to play a leading role in the transformation of the packaging sector. By going even further and faster, we will reinforce the circular and virtuous dimension of glass packaging. We will be able to re-imagine glass by accelerating our collaborative efforts with our partners in these three main working areas, and by defining together a timetable of actions based on common objectives.”
Verallia’s purpose in full
At Verallia, our purpose is to re-imagine glass for a sustainable future. The way people consume and the waste they generate every day pose an unprecedented challenge for the world, and packaging is where this is most acute. As one of the leading glass packaging manufacturers in the world, Verallia has a major role to play in accelerating the transition to sustainable packaging.
We want to redefine how glass is produced, reused and recycled, to make it the world’s most sustainable packaging material. Recycling and reuse are already built into our business model, but to make glass fully sustainable we need to do more and act beyond our business to strengthen recycling systems and encourage reuse. That’s how we will help to make the circular economy a reality.
The world is on a journey towards a carbon neutral system, so we need to find ways to contribute. That’s why we are innovating to significantly improve our performance on CO2 emissions right across our business – from the energy consumption in our furnaces, to the use of raw materials and cullet, and the design and transport of our products.
At Verallia, we are experts at designing, producing and recycling glass. We provide healthy, attractive, and sustainable packaging solutions to more than 10,000 businesses around the world – from the local family-run producers to the large multinational household brands. Across the world, we manufacture and recycle locally, very closely to our customers, which means that we are well placed to solving their challenges, every single day.
Excellent service means working ever more closely with our customers, to create the solutions that help them reduce environmental impact and meet evolving consumer expectations. Openness about the progress we are making and the challenges we are facing must be the foundation we build on. And for our people to continue to rise to new challenges, Verallia has to be a safe and inclusive place to work.
The change needed is systemic, and we only ever hold part of the answers. Progress will be made by defining clear targets and working in common cause with our customers, suppliers, peers, and other partners across the value chain to develop new healthy and sustainable solutions for all. This is how we aim to raise the bar for the packaging industry and set out on this exciting journey to re-imagine glass.