Water
conservation, restoration and reduction
Climate Change
reduce our carbon footprint across our entire value chain
Packaging
only use what’s necessary and design for reuse
Sustainability is at the core of Suntory’s company culture
Our strong belief in Growing for Good means that we will keep working together to improve our environment
Michelle Norman – Director of Sustainability,
Suntory Beverage and Food Europe
Respect water
At SBF GB&I, water sustainability flows from our farm to our factory. Protecting this precious resource for future generations is a key part of our Mizu To Ikiru promise. To fulfil this promise we are constantly innovating to develop sustainable water management practices.
In 2020, we installed a £13 million high-speed filling line at our factory in Gloucestershire, which requires up to 40% less water to bottle each one of our drinks.
We also rely on water to grow our delicious blackcurrants, which is why our 35 UK blackcurrant growers have biodiversity action plans in place that include water conservation.
Reduce emissions
We’re committed to tackling climate change by reducing our carbon emissions across our whole value chain. We have set clear, science-based targets to reduce our emissions from both our factories and our supply chain, with the objective of having net zero carbon emissions by 2050. We track our carbon footprint annually to measure our progress against those targets and to be transparent in our reporting.
Since 2015, we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by a quarter[1]. This is thanks to our new energy and water-efficient bottling line at our Gloucestershire factory, continued investment in warehousing and operations efficiencies and using increasing amounts of recycled plastic (rPET) in our primary packaging.
Less and more sustainable packaging
Our global company ambition is to only use 100% sustainable plastic bottles by 2030. Quite simply that means we will no longer use plastic bottles that have been made using plastic derived from fossil fuel. To achieve that we have set ourselves the objective of using a minimum of 50% recycled plastic content in all our bottles by 2025 or sooner, and by 2030 we will only use recycled plastic. Ribena already use containers made with 100% recycled plastic (rPET).
We are designing our products for circularity, and making sure that 100% of our packaging is recyclable by 2025 or sooner. We also want as many of our drinks’ containers collected and recycled – and that’s why we fully support effective deposit return schemes or best-in-class alternatives.
We're also reducing our use of packaging across our supply chain, and where we can we're changing to more sustainable alternatives. And we're working on new reusable drinks containers, so people can still enjoy our drinks time and time again.
Less waste
We want our production facilities to be zero waste to landfill, as part of our ambition to eliminate waste across the entire value chain by implementing circular economy principles. Our efforts in increasing the amount of recycled and recyclable materials in our bottles and packaging also contribute to this objective.
Reducing food waste from our production is another of our objectives. For example, we redirect surplus product to food bank charities and community organisations to support vulnerable people in need. Since partnering with FareShare in 2018 – an incredible charity which help redistribute surplus drinks to frontline charities– we’ve donated more than 425 tonnes of our drinks that would otherwise go to waste - the equivalent of 2 million meals!
Procure sustainably
Climate change and non-sustainable farming practices harm our environment and have an impact on biodiversity. As a business that works closely with farmers and suppliers for the fruit for our soft drink brands, we want to have a positive influence. We have developed biodiversity plans, and are working with local suppliers and developing sustainability and environmental guidelines for our supply chain to improve water and energy use and minimise our carbon footprint.
Procure sustainably
Climate change and non-sustainable farming practices harm our environment and have an impact on biodiversity. As a business that works closely with farmers and suppliers for the fruit for our soft drink brands, we want to have a positive influence. We have developed biodiversity plans, and are working with local suppliers and developing sustainability and environmental guidelines for our supply chain to improve water and energy use and minimise our carbon footprint.
Promoting Biodiversity
There’s nothing our growers don’t know about blackcurrants, who in some cases are fourth and fifth generation farmers whose knowledge stems beyond even our own. As guardians of the ground, our growers play a key role in helping to bring our growing for good vision to life by, well…. growing!
Take a look at how they collectively protect the 4,000 acres of British countryside where our blackcurrants grow.