Sustainability
Sustainability is a major consideration in all our business decisions. From our overall vision to our corporate strategy, sustainability underpins and shapes our core philosophy and our day-to-day business decisions.
At Pact, we recognise that our business activities have a direct impact on a wide range of stakeholders and the communities in which we operate.
For us, sustainability is an ongoing process of considering our material issues and seeking to improve our sustainability performance.
- Sustainability
The Circular Economy
A Circular Economy is a systemic approach to economic development designed to benefit businesses, society, and the environment. It is regenerative and aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources.
The Circular Economy transforms the linear consumption model (Make-Take-Waste) into a circular one that keeps products and services in use for longer to reduce environmental impact and protect precious natural resources. Since 2002, the Pact Group has been a driver of the Circular Economy through Packaging, Reuse and Recycling solutions.
More About the Circular Economy
Our People
At Pact, we’re committed to providing a safe, respectful, and values-led workplace for highly motivated and engaged talent.
The success of our business is linked to the accomplishments of our people. We have a culture of high performance, and we attribute this to the fact that our employees feel empowered within the organisation. Our culture is centred on diversity and inclusion, and this enables us to attract, engage and retain talented people.
Explore Careers at Pact
Safety is first
At Pact, we make safety our priority. We’re always on the lookout for risks and take pride in our workspace in the interests of keeping us all safe and well.
We win when our Customer wins.
We believe we win when our customers win so we deliver when we say we’re going to deliver. This helps build strong partnerships, to benefit us now and in the future.
We have Integrity as we strive for results.
While we strive for results every day, we always do it with honesty and integrity, respecting one another and the world we live in. These are the Pact values we live by in our factories, warehouses, offices, and the world around us. This one Pact mindset helps us contribute to a better and more sustainable world all around.
Our Innovation drives the circular economy.
Being innovative, curious, bold, and resourceful is part of our DNA and what drives a circular economy. We welcome diverse thinking that challenges the status quo as we work together to bring great ideas to life.
We Respect & collaborate with colleagues & communities
When we respect and collaborate with colleagues and the community, we are creating a better performance workplace. At Pact, the key to building trusting relationships is to listen, value and understand each other’s opinions.
Our Planet
We’re reducing our environmental impact.
In line with our vision to lead the Circular Economy through Packaging, Reuse and Recycling solutions, we have an unwavering focus on ensuring our products, services and all related activities minimise harm to the environment and consider the needs of future generations.
Our End of Waste strategy encompasses three aspirational targets to enable ourselves and our customers to make the most sustainable choices.
End of Waste: A White PaperOur 2025
End of Waste Targets
Reduce
Eliminate all problematic packaging that we produce.
Our Progress:
Since 2018 we’ve reduced our consumption of problematic resins by
79%
or more than
7,022 tonnes pa.
Completely ceased production of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS).
Reuse
Have solutions to reduce, reuse and recycle all single-use secondary packaging for retailers.
Our Progress:
Since 2018, Pact has increased the use of Returnable Produce Crates (RPC’s) by
63%
Pact Retail Accessories reuses
>877 million
garment hangers, accessories and size clip each year through global fashion retailers.
Recycle
Average 30% recycled content across our plastics portfolio.
Our Progress:
Pact is currently recycling
>60,000 tonnes of plastic pa.
This represents an increase of 10% from FY23.
By the end of FY23, the average amount of recycled content across our plastics portfolio was
12% pa.
Our 2030 Emissions Targets
Pact has committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in Australia and New Zealand by 2030
Our business activities have a direct impact on the environment and as a leader of the circular economy, it is our responsibility to ensure we contribute positively to the global action on climate change. It also means we are aligning ourselves with the expectations of our suppliers, customers, and society.
Our target relates to the emissions we emit directly and indirectly: Scope 1 emissions which we generate directly and includes the gases we emit from our furnaces, boilers, company cars and LPG forklifts; and Scope 2 emissions which are indirect emissions from purchasing electricity from the grid to power our facilities.
Our Partnerships
Customer and industry waste collection and hard recycling services.
drumMUSTER
Every year Pact collects 550,000 plastic drums (approximately 547 tonnes of material) as a participant in the national drumMUSTER recycling program. drumMUSTER is an Australian product stewardship program that is supported by chemical manufacturers and industry stakeholders to collect and recycle eligible containers.
Prior to the program, these containers were typically sent to landfill or burned/ buried on farms. Since its inception in 1998, drumMUSTER has recycled more than 35.6 million containers. These hard to recycle products are either impractical or too expensive to collect via traditional networks. By diverting this waste from landfill and reprocessing it, we’re minimising the loss of valuable resources.
Our Principles
We conduct our business responsibly and invest in programs that positively impact the communities in which we operate.
Pact is committed to the highest levels of governance and ethics. We strive to build a culture that is focused on compliance and risk-awareness.
A spirit of generosity is encouraged at Pact. Initiatives we support align with our core product and service offering, as well as our geographic footprint. As a multinational company we believe in the value of community engagement at a local level and focus on supporting causes that create meaningful change.
External Signatories, Accreditations & Industry Memberships
Pact operates in line with the spirit of following External Signatories and Accreditations; United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), Australian Packaging Covenant (APCO), ANZPAC Plastics Pact, UK Plastics Pact, New Zealand Packaging Products Stewardship Scheme (NZPPSS), International and Australian/New Zealand Standards and Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX). We also lead and influence through membership to numerous industry bodies and Government working groups.
United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)
The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
Pact Group is a signatory to the UN Global Compact. To maintain status as a signatory, the business is required to report out activities against the ten principles annually.
Our profile, click here
For further details on the UNGC Principles, click here
Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA)
WGEA is an Australian Commonwealth government agency established by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.
The Act requires employers with 100 or more employees to report annually against six gender equality indicators. In 2022, the application of the Act was extended to the Commonwealth public sector.
Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO)
Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO)
Pact is a signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO). APCO is tasked with bringing Government, industry and community groups together to fund projects that assess packaging sustainability issues.
APCO is a co-regulatory, not-for-profit organisation partnering with Government and industry to reduce the environmental impact of packaging in Australian communities. APCO sets sustainable packaging activities including sustainable design, recycling initiatives, waste to landfill reduction and Circular Economy projects.
As a member of the APCO, we are continually working to improve the sustainability of our packaging through better collaboration, improved design, and the use of more environmentally friendly materials.
To view Pact’s 2023 Report and Action Plan, click here
APCO Woking Groups and Advisory Committees
- Technical Advisory Committee
- Collective Action Group (which is addressing the Federal Government’s 2025 Packaging Targets)
For further details on APCO, click here
ANZPAC Plastics Pact
Pact is a member of the ANZPAC Plastics Pact, a collaborative agreement that brings together industry stakeholders to take action in creating a circular economy for plastics. Alongside the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), Pact will lead the way in implementing solutions to include more locally sourced recycled content into packaging, eliminate non-recyclable plastics and improve the recyclability and reusability of plastic packaging.
For further details on the ANZAC Plastics Pact, click here
UK Plastics Pact
The UK Plastics Pact, led by WRAP, is the first of a global network of Pacts, enabled by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative.
For further details on the UK Plastics Pact, click here
New Zealand Packaging Products Stewardship Scheme (NZPPSS)
The NZPPSS is a voluntary industry initiative, developed by the New Zealand Packaging Council, which demonstrates industry’s continued willingness to act responsibly to reduce the environmental impact of packaging. The PPSS has three key goals:> Improving packaging design and systems to reduce packaging waste,>Increasing reuse and recycled content of packaging, and>Enhancing consumer awareness and understanding of sustainable packaging.Pact Group is committed to the goals of PPSS, and many businesses are members of the scheme.
For further details on NZPPSS, click here
International & Australian / New Zealand Standards
Pact is committed to providing our customers with good quality, safe and reliable products. We deliver this through continuous improvement of our processes and benchmarking against “best-in-class” standards.
Our sites operate in line with the principles set out in ISO Quality Management Systems, ISO Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and HACCP (where applicable).
Many of our sites have gained certification to acknowledge compliance with the requirements of International and/or Australian/New Zealand Standards, including:
- ISO 9001: Quality Management Systems
- HACCP: Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points
- ISO 14001: Environmental Systems
- ISO 22000: Good Manufacturing Practices
Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX)
Sedex is a not-for-profit membership organisation dedicated to driving improvements in ethical and responsible business practices in global supply chains
Several Pact businesses sites are members of Sedex, which enables sharing of ethical supply chain data, and improvement in our supply chain activities.
For further information on SEDEX, click here
Industry Membership Groups
- Society of Plastics Engineers, Australia and New Zealand
- Plastics, New Zealand
- WasteMINZ, New Zealand
- Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR)
- Chemistry Australia
Working Groups
- Recycling Working Group for the Container Return Scheme, New Zealand
- Priority Product Status Working Group, Agrecovery