PAPERBOARD

On average around 71 percent of a Tetra Pak carton is made up of paperboard. Although we don’t own or manage any forests, we apply our purchasing power to promote sustainable forest management.

Supporting sustainable forestry

As a major user of paperboard, we have a responsibility to ensure the world's forests are managed in a socially, environmentally and economically sound way. We ensure than 100% of the paperboard in our packages comes from FSC™ Forest Stewardship Council™ certified forests and other controlled sources and 100% of the packs that we produce globally are eligible to carry the FSC™ label on-pack. We do this by joining up with suppliers, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to promote responsible forest management and strengthen traceability through certification and labelling.

We have also achieved full FSC™ Chain of Custody certification for all our operations, meaning that we can now supply FSC™-labelled packages from anywhere in the world.

The FSC license code for Tetra Pak is FSC™ C014047.

In sourcing paperboard for liquid-based packaging, we follow two main principles:

- all the wood fibre in our paperboard should come from forests independently certified as being managed in accordance with the principles of sustainable forest management; and

- we should be able to prove traceability from the forests all the way to the packaging material we produce at our sites globally, which can only be achieved through independent certification of the total Chain of Custody.

The CDP A List

For the sixth year in a row, CDP – which sets the global standard for environmental disclosure – has included Tetra Pak on its 2021 Forests A List in recognition of our work in managing and mitigating risks associated with the sourcing and production of timber. CDP’s scoring for forests is conducted through the lens of the four commodities that cause most deforestation: timber products, cattle products, soy and palm oil. Companies need to score an A on at least one of these forest-risk commodities to earn a place on the Forests A List. We were also included in CDP's 2021 Climate Change A List.

The positive impact of certification

We have long recognised the value of independent certification in the transition to a sustainable future. During 2017, as founding members of the Value and Impact Analysis (VIA) initiative we collaborated with the likes of Kingfisher and IBH, to review the scientific evidence of the positive impact of the certification of forests and the application of sustainability standards. We found that when several companies commit to a sustainable forest standard – such as the FSC™ – it has measurable on-the-ground impact on protecting and securing biodiversity.

Read more about the value impact analysis initiative: The positive impact of certification

Taking ‘best practice’ action on tackling deforestation

Hundreds of companies worldwide are requested to disclose through CDP on their involvement in the production or sourcing of seven key commodities that drive the most agricultural deforestation globally: timber products, palm oil, soy, cattle products, rubber, cocoa and coffee. In 2021, only 1% of disclosing companies were identified by CDP as taking ‘best practice’ action to protect forests in their supply chains. Tetra Pak is one of the four pioneering companies performing at a level considered best practice in the newly launched ‘The collective effort to end deforestation’ report.

Read the report⁠

Case studies

FSC Certification, labelling and verification Milestone for FSC™-labelled packages