Syntegon unveils debut company sustainability report
pic: Syntegon
A landmark debut sustainability report by Syntegon packaging and processing technology has focused on delivering continued efficiency gains with its equipment, reducing emissions and improved packaging solutions, reports Neill Barston.
The German-based company, which emerged from its previous guise as Bosch Packaging in 2020, has made transparency a key goal for its operations, noting that improving its environmental performance remained at the core of the business.
This was reaffirmed by CEO Dr Michael Grosse speaking recently at the key Interpack event, in which the business made a major launch of its SVX vertical form, fill and seal series of machinery.
He explained that it had been an important goal of the business to reduce its carbon impact by 25% in terms of emissions volumes between 2019-2025, which has been enabled as it has continued to experienced improved performance, growing the business last year from €1.2 billion in value, to €1.4bn.
As the business noted, Syntegon shaped its report for fiscal year 2022 in recognition of sustainability reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which addresses companies’ environmental, social and responsible corporate governance practices.
“With the publication of this first report, we are underscoring the significance of sustainability as part of our corporate strategy and demonstrating our commitment to environmental, social, and responsible corporate governance practices,” says Dr. Michael Grosse, chief executive officer of the Syntegon Group, who noted that the company is committed to greater diversity within its ranks
“Our strategy is centred on our products: With our resource-sparing machines, we are doing our part to shrink the ecological footprint of pharmaceuticals and food production. And we are helping to make packaging more sustainable with our technologies and services,” adds Grosse.
“What’s more, we are working hard to reduce our carbon footprint. To this end, we are increasing our energy efficiency, sourcing more electricity from renewables, and reducing our emissions,” says Dr. Peter Hackel, chief financial officer of the Syntegon Group.
“Sustainability is not just a moral obligation; it is also a business imperative. With our strategy, we are laying the foundation for sustainable corporate management while also securing our financial development.”
UN goals
As the business noted, as a partner to the food sector, it moved to play its part in safety standards, contributing to several of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, such as ending hunger and ensuring healthy lives for all.
Notably, its packaging solutions effectively protect products from dehydration and humidity to preserve their nutritional value, freshness, and flavour. The company’s technologies help ensure medicines are produced and packaged to the highest safety standards. This is how Syntegon contributes to the global supply of medicines and vaccines to people.
A renewed focal point of its efforts in 2022 have revolved around transitioning from conventional plastic packaging to paper and more recyclable mono-materials.
The new PMX packaging machine for ground coffee and whole beans is a case in point: It processes recyclable mono-materials and enables condition monitoring to save energy and conserve materials. Syntegon also integrated lock-style technology in its proven Sigpack TTM cartoner platform in 2022. This tech serves to curb energy and material consumption.
Furthermore, last year, as part of a life-cycle assessment, the company developed a method of calculating the carbon emissions of equipment in its portfolio. It can now offer food and pharmaceutical manufacturers a totally transparent view of the deployed technologies’ carbon footprint.
Significantly, the company stated it is aligned with the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement on climate change. In 2022, the company reduced its total energy consumption by 11 percent and its emissions by 17 percent compared to the previous year.
Syntegon intends to increase the share of renewables in its total energy consumption from 41 percent in 2019 to 55 percent by 2025. Renewables had already accounted for a 49-percent share in 2022. The company installed new photovoltaic systems at five sites that same year.
In terms of training, it is committed to high-quality professional development for all its employees. With the Syntegon Learning World, the company offers its workforce a demand-driven training portfolio currently consisting of more than 300 courses and over 6,500 digital training opportunities. Employees devoted eleven hours on average to training and professional development in 2022. Syntegon aims to increase per-employee training hours to 35 a year by 2025.