Feeding a growing global population is becoming increasingly complex as environmental risks intensify. The World Economic Forum recently identified extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, and critical changes to Earth systems as the most severe long‑term global risks, with natural resource shortages and pollution also in its top ten. All present significant threats to global food systems. At the same time, the WEF also highlighted in January that addressing these risks can also unlock value and support sustainable growth.
At Tetra Pak we too recognise risk management and value creation as twin imperatives of sustainability. We are firmly committed to protecting food, people and the planet across our own operations and our value chain. These priorities guide how we strengthen food system resilience, mitigate and adapt to climate change, and deliver value for customers, partners and society. Our double materiality assessment, refreshed in 2025, continues to guide our identification and management of material impacts, risks and opportunities, and ensures that our actions remain focused, measurable and aligned with long‑term value creation.
Food Systems
Climate‑related extreme weather and global uncertainty reinforce the urgent need for resilient food systems and enabling infrastructure. Our four interconnected food systems pathways address access to food, food loss and waste, new food sources and more sustainable dairy. Through these pathways, we focus our efforts where we believe we can make the greatest contribution.
With 2.3 billion people lacking access to safe nutrition,6 we remain committed to using our technologies to protect food quality and safety, extend shelf life and reduce food waste. In 2025, we supported customers in delivering over 70 billion litres of food globally in our cartons and processed 10.5 million tonnes of food through our solutions. Our solutions also contributed to 174 billion food and beverage packages, serving a sector with an estimated sales value of €2.6 trillion and relied on by hundreds of millions of people every day. This included nutritious beverages for 68 million children in 52 countries through school feeding programmes. We also expanded our Dairy Hub support to customers reaching 89,200 smallholder dairy farmers, providing them access to a formal market and reinforcing their income security.
We are equally committed to collaboration, recognising that systemic challenges require collective action. In 2025, we renewed our partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) through a new MoU, signed at COP30, strengthening collaboration for the “hidden middle” of food value chains, including processing, logistics, storage and packaging.
Innovation remains central to our long‑term strategy. In 2025, we made acquisitions and strategic investments to support new food sources and alternative proteins, and opened a Product Development Centre (PDC) in Cholet, France, a Customer Innovation Centre (CIC) in Bangkok, Thailand, and a New Food Technology Development (FTD) centre in Karlshamn, Sweden. With 12 PDCs and 6 CICs globally alongside our new FTD, we continue to invest in the capabilities needed to bring to scale commercial products and processes that create sustainable growth and value for our customers.
Circularity
The primary purpose of packaging is to protect perishable food, but the way we design, collect and recycle it plays an important role in keeping materials in use for as long as possible and in lowering the overall carbon footprint of our cartons. In 2025, we invested approximately €100 million into the research, development and industrialisation of new carton technologies, and a further €42 million to expand collection and recycling infrastructure globally. We will continue to work with partners and policymakers to support the building of high‑performing recycling value chains by combining improved design, effective legislation and stronger demand for recycled materials. We do this because our cartons are made from high‑quality materials.
This includes the paper fibres as well as the polymer and aluminium layers, all of which retain value beyond their first use. Recycling enables these materials to be recovered and reintroduced into new applications, reducing reliance on virgin resources. The particular mix of short‑ and long‑fibre used in cartons is valuable for specific advanced fibre applications. The non‑fibre polymer‑aluminium fraction, often referred to as polyAl, can also be transformed into durable, high‑value products such as transport crates, pallets and other logistics solutions, for example, demonstrating the importance of further scaling polyAl recycling as part of a circular value chain.
Climate & Nature
Addressing climate change and nature loss remains a clear priority for our business and leadership. In 2025, we reduced GHG emissions by 56% in our own operations and by 34% across our value chain compared with a 2019 baseline.7 Renewable electricity reached 97% at our sites, and we remain firmly on track to achieve net‑zero emissions in our own operations by 2030, guided by targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
At the same time, our packaging solutions play an important role in reducing emissions across food systems. Life cycle assessments consistently show that cartons can offer a lower climate impact compared to other packaging format options that primarily use fossil‑fuel materials. By protecting perishable food and enabling ambient distribution with predominantly fibre‑based structures, thereby enabling food safety without the need for refrigeration, cartons help reduce food loss and waste and the associated emissions, while supporting access to safe nutrition, even in regions with limited cold‑chain infrastructure.
We recognise that climate and nature are deeply interconnected. In 2025, we completed our first integrated climate and nature risks and opportunities assessment. The results informed updates to our Approach to Nature framework, launched in 2024, which includes measurable targets focused on halting and reversing nature loss, restoring ecosystems and enhancing water security. We strengthened the framework further in 2025 to ensure continued alignment with science and to prioritise actions with the greatest long‑term impact.
Social Sustainability
Food chains depend on people, and we are committed to respecting human rights across our operations, value chain and communities. We take a people‑first approach, underpinned by clear expectations, due diligence and continuous improvement.
Across the value chain, we strengthened our human rights due diligence approach, reviewed priority impacts and established a measurement framework with targets and KPIs. Through our Join Us in Protecting the Planet initiative, we also strengthened expectations of our suppliers, expanding human rights disclosures and supporting commitments to nature protection and validated climate targets. These partnerships are essential to achieving progress at scale.
Since 1 January 2025, all employees receive one paid volunteering day annually. In 2025, sustained safety efforts reduced our total recordable accident rate by 25% versus a 2022 baseline, and our Workplace Experience Survey score increased by 10.8 points compared with 2023.
It starts with food
I thank our customers, suppliers, partners and colleagues for their continued commitment and trust. Building resilient food systems requires collaboration, discipline and sustained leadership. Because food is fundamental to the human experience, and that’s worth protecting. This conviction underpins our purpose and our actions. It is why we remain committed to making food safe and available everywhere, while protecting what’s good – food, people and the planet.
Adolfo Orive
President and CEO of Tetra Pak