Sustainability at Leupold
The dynamic market constantly places new demands on packaging. A growing demand for different finishing methods and shorter lead times for fast-moving products are just two examples. In addition to these requirements for market-compliant packaging, there is another major and defining trend shaping the industry today – sustainability.
We see sustainable action less as a trend and much more as a responsibility for us as a company. That is why we have made it our mission to integrate sustainable solutions into our production processes along the entire value chain. We continue to live up to our sustainability promise – and Ecovadis has rewarded our efforts with the Gold Medal certifying our leading position in the packaging industry (top 5%) in the areas of environmental sustainability, labour and human rights, sustainable procurement and ethics. A further milestone is the awarding of the German Packaging Award 2020 in the Sustainability category, to our sister company, Strobel GmbH.
Our goal is to set new standards for sustainable production in the packaging industry.
To live up to this claim, we actively involve our suppliers/partners from the very beginning in order to organise our production in an environmentally-friendly manner by using non-hazardous raw materials and operating resources. For example, we are supplied exclusively with mineral oil-free dyes, chlorine-free bleached recycled paper and cardboard and chemical-free printing plates for a sustainable production process. In this way, as early as the procurement stage we are contributing actively to the environmental credentials of your product.
Moreover, we continuously invest in sustainable process optimisation. One of our goals is to significantly reduce the use of metallised PET films. That is why we want to invest in Step & Repeat technology in the future. By enabling the use of individual film strips in finishing processes, the technology leads to material savings of more than 55 percent. Each year this corresponds to a saving of around 717,000 m2 of PET film – roughly the size of 100 football fields. The innovative technology has another advantage: using it allows laminated board to be replaced by cold foil application in production, ensuring our process flexibility.
Last but not least, in general we use the great potential of our agile and flexible operating model to fulfil our commitment to sustainability. We have therefore set out to install a holistic environmental management system to optimise waste flows, reduce CO2 emissions from energy consumption of the entire production by 50 per cent by 2022 and become climate-neutral in the future.
With the Packaging Act (VerpackG) that came into force on 1 January 2019, the state is setting new standards in dealing with packaging waste and the associated impact on the environment. The focus is on producing recyclable or reusable innovative packaging solutions and avoiding or minimising packaging waste. Sustainable packaging is getting the necessary attention not only from consumers now, but also from politicians. There is now, for example, an obligation to register with a central organisation and get a license in the dual waste management system. Leupold supports its customers and partners in this.
As packaging experts, at Leupold we have a responsibility to continuously optimise our processes, production procedures and materials every single day with regard to sustainability. For this purpose, we use sustainable raw materials, for example, and use them as resource-efficiently as possible. Our packaging made of fine cardboard, cardboard and corrugated cardboard is a sensible and sustainable alternative to plastic and other non-recyclable packaging materials. Our product development specialists proactively develop environmentally-friendly paper-based packaging to minimise packaging waste and to replace plastic-based solutions with sustainable packaging material. We are also working on developing other alternative materials, such as paper made from grass. As your packaging experts with many years of expertise in sustainable production, Leupold will be happy to advise and work with you to find the perfect solution to your challenges.
