In August this year, Chris Foley stepped into the CEO role at the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), at a time when creating a roadmap for packaging circularity is crucial. PKN asks him about APCO’s progress and his plans.
You have served APCO in other capacities, including as non-executive director on the board. What attracted you to the CEO role?
I was attracted to the CEO role given the opportunity that it presents to build on the legacy of Brooke Donnelly during a time of change and move Australia’s packaging system towards a circular economy by 2030.
In your previous role at Kmart Group, you led strategic and transformational change in sustainability. What learnings can you bring to your role at APCO.
Kmart Group consists of Kmart and Target – both with their own philosophy and strategy. Combined, this is a complex organisation designing, sourcing and selling over 150,0000 SKUs, more than a billion items (sold annually), with a couple of thousand suppliers located across the globe, 50,000 team members in a dozen countries, and hundreds of stores online and across Australia and New Zealand. Achieving sustainability outcomes within these operations, products and packaging has taught me the following:
You need a systems approach to achieve change when you have so many interdependent activities and stakeholders that need to be engaged and choreographed.
Listen to your customer (for APCO this is our members, governments and industry stakeholders).
Well executed sustainability strategies and programs deliver long term (shareholder) value.
You can’t do it on your own and need the best team around you and a collaborative approach to garner the support of stakeholders.
Let’s talk 2025 Targets. There is concern that the targets are not achievable in the timeframe. How are we progressing?
APCO recently conducted its annual review into Australia’s performance in the 2025 National Packaging Targets and it’s clear that significant barriers remain. The latest figures (covering 2020-21) show little progress and it is unlikely we will achieve the Targets in the timeframe.
For all industries in Australia, Covid-19 has posed real and significant challenges at every stage of the packaging supply chain. It’s clear that despite increases in packaging design for recycling, changes in materials used, and increased collection and recycling capacity, the rate of packaging growth has exceeded these improvements and means we need to do more and work differently together.
Findings from the review of the Targets are already being used to help reset our strategy and ways of working, re-focusing on the work that needs to be done beyond 2025. It’s clear that system transformation is required to achieve stronger packaging sustainability outcomes in the coming years.
When you engage with APCO members, what is their most pressing concern?
The review process included a series of town hall-style meetings across the country and has been a really timely way for me to meet with over 450 members and packaging system stakeholders to discuss the status of the Targets, the changes that they have driven, and the challenges being faced.
The overriding concern members expressed is the achievability of the Targets within the timeframe. Clearly Covid has had an enormous impact on businesses across Australia and throughout the supply chain which could not have been predicted when the Targets were devised in 2018. Members are working hard to reach the Targets in what is a very challenging environment and we must be conscious of this.
The next three years to 2025 are going to be frenetic, what will be your key focus?
Looking forward, the focus for APCO is about system transformation. We will create taskforces operating under our existing Collective Action Group to address systemic challenges and gaps, drawing on expertise throughout the value chain. This will enable us to come together as an industry and work together across the whole system to spearhead the development of a circular economy for packaging in Australia.
My focus has been to embed a holistic systems approach, starting with appointing Esther Bailey as our Head of Systems Transformation, to lead our engagement and activation of the entire system including those in the waste, sorting and recycling sectors.
Supporting systems thinking, there are a number of activities underway and planned to improve our technical packaging support for members, strengthen the integrity of the Australasian Recycling Label, elevate our advocacy for members and the packaging system and boost data analytics and visualisation capabilities.
Additionally, we are in close contact with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DEECCW) on how the recommendations of the National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM) review will be brought to life, both in delivering the 2025 Targets and putting in place a reformed framework from 2025.
This article was first published in the November-December 2022 print issue of PKN Packaging News, p34.
