3 Strategies for 2 crises: Tackling carbon emissions and packaging waste together

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on Trellis or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: A new perspective is gaining traction: companies can tackle carbon emissions and packaging waste simultaneously by integrating these efforts into a unified sustainability strategy
• In a recent analysis, Olga Kachook outlines three strategies — alignment, rethinking trade-offs, and prioritizing reduction — that can help companies make significant environmental gains while simplifying fragmented ESG efforts

🔭 The context: Packaging is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, with plastic production alone accounting for more emissions than the aviation and shipping industries combined
• Despite this, packaging waste and carbon emissions are often treated as distinct challenges
• Companies like Unilever and Diageo (see sustainability performance) are demonstrating that packaging initiatives — when measured for carbon impact — can meaningfully support broader climate goals, including Scope 3 emission reductions

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Viewing packaging design and materials through a climate lens enables companies to reduce upstream resource use and downstream waste simultaneously
• By embedding packaging into climate strategies and embracing circular models, businesses can avoid emissions, reduce landfill dependency, and accelerate the shift toward a low-waste, low-carbon economy
•This integrated approach also aligns with growing investor and regulatory expectations around full-scope environmental accountability

⏭️ What's next: As sustainability strategies mature, more firms are expected to adopt tools like Life Cycle Assessment and embrace reduction and reuse models over incremental material swaps
• Upcoming events such as Circularity 2025 will further spotlight these holistic strategies
• Key players in consumer goods, food, and beverage sectors are likely to lead the next wave of innovation by tying carbon metrics directly to packaging decisions

💬 One quote: “Right now, we’re wasting our time in transit… folding our packaging and climate goals together is how we reach a future with reduced waste and carbon emissions,” — Olga Kachook

📈 One stat: The plastics supply chain generated 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 — more than the aviation and shipping industries combined, according to the OECD

See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability performance of PepsiCo and its peers Coca-Cola, and Diafeo

Click for more news covering the latest on ESG and corporate sustainability