Brambles, global supply chain solutions company operating through the CHEP brand, has released its annual Sustainability Review, which reports on its material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and achievements for the financial year ending 30 June 2022.
Brambles’ new report, titled 2025 Sustainability targets and ambition to ‘Pioneer Regenerative Supply Chains’ is based on its Planet Positive, Business Positive and Communities Positive’ strategy.
Two years into the programme, Brambles’ Sustainability Review highlights tangible achievements, which it claims show great progress towards a regenerative future, including:
- Despite global supply chain disruptions and scarcity of lumber supply, Brambles has maintained 100 per cent sourcing from certified sustainable forests, and has also increased its sustainable chain-of-custody by three points to 72 per cent.
- Progress towards Brambles’ new decarbonisation targets, which the company announced in June this year, includes a 4.52 per cent emissions reduction (versus FY20) for its science-based targets across its value chain (Scopes 1, 2 and 3), and a pathway to achieving net-zero emissions by 2040, a decade earlier than the deadline set by the Paris Climate Agreement.
- Women now hold 33 per cent of management roles at Brambles, demonstrating progress against its Workplace Positive targets, which includes rolling out inclusivity, wellbeing-at-work and accessibility initiatives, as well as a commitment to at least 40 per cent of management roles being held by women, and doubling the number of women in its plants by 2025.
- Brambles is also independently rated as a top employer in 21 countries and across five continents, illustrating the company’s commitment to its staff, and to creating an inclusive and rewarding work environment. Brambles’ ambition is to be recognised as a global top employer.
- Brambles continues to deliver to communities. Communities Positive is the third pillar of the 2025 sustainability strategy, and is essential for Brambles’ wider, positive contribution to society. Its global collaboration with food banks helped 16 million people in need, through equipment donations and volunteering activities. The CHEP Poland Communities Positive volunteers supported Ukranian refugees, by organising shelters and gathering suppliers.
- Brambles continue to improve efficiencies and reduce environmental impact through collaboration. The company collaborated with 370 customers during the year, across a range of 1400 initiatives, showing significant progress against the target to double the number of customer collaborations from 250 to 500 by 2025.
“Two years ago, we started a new phase of our sustainability programme, one based on an inspiring and challenging vision, to create a regenerative supply chain,” said JJ Freijo, Brambles’ chief sustainability officer.
“Today, we can proudly announce that, step-by-step, this vision is becoming a reality. The regenerative ambition is now being adopted by a community of companies leading on sustainability, who recognise the need for a positive approach, and believe that damage reduction is no longer enough.
“In challenging times like these, the key to achieving a regenerative supply chain is integration. By working together with all the functions in our business, our suppliers and our customers, we have been able to remove barriers and improve agility, helping us to progress even further towards our 2025 targets.
“Therefore, it is essential that we keep putting sustainability on the agenda to create new value for our business and customers, while protecting the planet.”
Brambles says its share and reuse model already offers many environmental savings to customers’ supply chains in comparison to single use alternatives.
In the last year, Brambles says its solutions have helped its customers achieve the following savings:
- 2.5 million metric tonnes of CO2 – equivalent to the CO2 emitted by approximately 47,300 homes in one year;
- 4470 megalitres of water – or approximately 1788 Olympic sized pools;
- 3.2 million cubic metres of wood;
- 3.1 million trees; and
- 1.5 million tonnes of waste.
Brambles says its sustainability credentials and performance continue to be recognised as world-leading, with the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index ranking them the second most sustainable company in its industry category, and Corporate Knights rating them 10th in its Global 100 list of most sustainable corporations in the world.
The Group achieved an overall A- rating in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy Assessment Tool, Circulytics, and was an inaugural recipient of the Terra Carta Seal, which recognises global corporations that are demonstrating their commitment to the creation of genuinely sustainable markets.
