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Customer Story
Read more about Haleon
Better everyday health – with renewable packaging Haleon is home to several household health brands such as Sensodyne, Centrum, Voltaren and Panadol – with a strong focus on sustainability.
Sami Anteroinen, photos: Hanne Manelius
T he company aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions – from source to sale – by 2040. For example, Haleon also wants to sustainably source trusted ingredients and to integrate water stewardship and waste circularity into its operations. Increasingly, however, Haleon is turning its attention to packaging solutions. “We’re committed to making our packaging more sustainable,” confirms John Litwak , Procurement Manager at Haleon. “This means eliminating plastic where we can and turn- ing increasingly to sustainable board solutions,” he says, adding that the transition to more sustainable packaging is progressing very well. Overall, Haleon is moving to a more circular model in its operations. “We’re working with strategic partners such as Metsä Board to bring new solutions to consumer health prod- uct packaging and to pioneer the use of alternative ma- terials for healthcare packaging, including using pulp- based alternatives to plastic,” he says, crediting Metsä Board for being “very generous” in sharing their knowl- edge with Haleon. It does appear that plastic is making a hasty exit: with 2020 as its baseline, Haleon aims to reduce its use of virgin petroleum-based plastic by 10 per cent by 2025, and by a third by 2030. What’s more, Haleon is currently developing solutions for all product packaging to be recycle-ready by 2025, as part of its goal to make all packaging recyclable or reusable by 2030. The company is closing in on its tar- Team effort required But we can’t do it alone, Litwak points out.
gets rather nicely: in 2022, 65 per cent of its packaging was recycle-ready.
Gaining momentum The most recent news comes from Febru- ary 2024, as Haleon joined the constituents of S&P’s Dow Jones Sustainability Index Eu- rope for the first time and was recognised as a leader among constituents. Haleon was also added to S&P’s 2024 Global Sustainabil- ity Yearbook, a distinction intended to high- light top performers within the index. A tangible Haleon achievement from last year: the Haleon site in Cape Town in South Africa was the first to achieve water neutrality. “In addition, we are very much pursuing wind and solar parks to power our opera- tions. Regarding our transport fleet, we are using more e-vehicles, turning away from diesel,” Litwak says.
Tale of two markets Litwak feels that in some respects, Europe is more pro- gressive in the Green Transition, with the USA following behind somewhat. “In the States, the volumes and distances are so great that it’s difficult to change things overnight. However, many companies are seeking reductions in their carbon footprints one action at a time.” What about the end-consumers, then? Are they con- cerned about issues such as more sustainable pack- aging? – Litwak replies that the customer feedback
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