Head of Packaging at Woolworths, Bryan McKay is the newly crowned Sustainability Champion for 2023 as announced at the APCO Awards in November. PKN spoke to him shortly after the win about the importance of taking a leadership approach to bring others along on the sustainability journey.
Bryan McKay, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Packaging, has been at the forefront of packaging sustainability in the FMCG and retail industry for more than two decades. At Woolworths Food Company (WFC) McKay has developed and implemented the WFC Packaging Sustainability Strategy, leading the delivery of this across Woolworths Group.
Under his leadership, Woolworths’ own brand packaging has had problematic plastic materials such as PVC and polystyrene removed in many categories, two years ahead of the 2025 targets. McKay’s efforts to scale sustainable packaging initiatives has materially contributed to packaging circularity within the FMCG industry.
How do you feel about winning this prestigious award?
I’m very honoured to have won the award – it is the highlight of my career. It’s a nice reward for 20-plus years of packaging sustainability work in retail and FMCG. I’m also grateful for all of the hard work my team does and the support I get from my leaders. Without them this would not be possible.
Does the Woolworths leadership support your sustainable packaging ideas and initiatives?
Woolworths is truly a leader in sustainability, with over 40 commitments to sustainability encompassing People, Planet and Product, including packaging sustainability. The commitment and progress Woolworths has made was acknowledged though our win of the Gold Banksia Sustainability award last year. The leadership team at Woolworths are very supportive of our packaging sustainability strategy and plan. Our ethos is all about working towards a better tomorrow, so when we identify opportunities to do that through sustainable packaging improvements, there’s a lot of support to make those positive changes happen.
Woolworths is the largest employer in the country, how has this impacted your sphere of influence?
Woolworths’ size and reach means that the initiatives we implement can make a significant positive impact. For example, we have reduced virgin plastic in Woolworths Own Brand products by over 14,000 tonnes since 2018. We have also taken a leadership approach on packaging sustainability, with many of the commitments made being more ambitious than the 2025 APCO targets. We sell over 5000 Own Brand products and have already achieved greater than 95 per cent ARL (Australasian Recycling Label) on pack.
How do you see the work you do as being part of the solution to solve industry-wide challenges?
By taking a leadership approach we help to bring others along on our journey. To make real and impactful progress on packaging sustainability we must partner with stakeholders across the whole supply chain, and work together. It cannot be achieved in isolation. We have diligently worked with our supplier network, and have also formed a strategic partnership with the Pact Group to collectively improve the sustainability of our packaging across the supply chain. Woolworths Group is also a co-founder of Samsara, an innovative start up that has developed technology to take used PET packaging and enzymatically break it down to its building blocks, so that new PET packaging can be made – again and again.
This article was first published in the November-December print issue of PKN Packaging News.
