Amcor's FY23 renewable electricity projects: Accelerating progress toward net zero 2050

Sustainability

September 4, 2023

Reading time: 3 minutes

Related regions: North America, Latin America, EMEA, Asia Pacific

In January 2022, Amcor took an important step in our journey to more ambitious GHG emission reduction goals by committing to set science-based targets, which will provide a clear path to achieving net zero GHG emissions by 2050. This commitment ensures we are moving forward to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming. We worked throughout FY23 to develop our proposed science-based targets and in June 2023, we submitted our proposal to the Science Based Targets initiative for approval. We expect to confirm our final targets in FY24.

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As part of our science-based targets commitment, we have already started making the most of new opportunities brought about by renewable energy and efficiency savings to reduce GHG emissions, while continuing to advance our ongoing engagement with suppliers to reduce the carbon footprint of our raw material purchases.

We were proud to bring many new renewable electricity projects online across our global business in FY23, leading to a 244% year-over-year increase in our renewable electricity use. Many additional projects are scheduled to come online over the coming year.

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To date, the broad steps we have implemented to reduce GHG emissions include lowering energy consumption at our facilities, increasing our sourcing of renewable electricity, more efficiently managing our operational waste and water use, engaging with our supply chain to reduce the environmental footprint of the materials and services we buy, designing packaging that uses fewer and less carbon-intensive materials, optimizing product and material transport, and supporting the development of a lower carbon waste infrastructure.

Scope 1 2 3 emissions

Much of our progress toward our 2030 EnviroAction goals has resulted from the reduction of Scope 1 and 2 emissions within our own manufacturing sites. Our Operations and Plant Management teams have focused on site-level projects to reduce energy consumption, including energy efficiency projects such as LED lighting retrofits, optimizing chiller systems and other equipment, and implementing Energy Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems to better track and control site-level energy usage.

Our Amcor Rigid Packaging business group also collaborates closely with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Energy Star Partners program focused on reducing energy use within large businesses. As we continue on our ambitious path to further reduce GHG emissions and achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050, we anticipate that much of the remainder of our work will focus on increasing our sourcing of renewable energy and collaborating with our suppliers to reduce our Scope 3 emissions from raw materials.

In FY23, Amcor sites around the globe took additional steps to reduce their GHG emissions. For example:

  • Amcor teams in China initiated a project focused on dryer optimization for printing and laminating machines. They assessed the dryer ventilation performance of printing and laminating machinery at all Amcor China sites, identifying several modifications to the machinery that helped improve drying performance and speed, increase solvent retention and reduce energy use. This is anticipated to lead to an estimated 4,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions reduction annually.

  • Teams across Amcor's Flexibles Europe, Middle East and Africa business groups collaborated to initiate a "Full Power" project across their sites. This brought focus to the 25 basic energy savings tips identified in Amcor’s EnviroAction Toolkit. As a result of actions taken through this project, the team achieved a heat reduction of around 23%.

  • Our site in Londrina, Brazil installed a solvent recovery unit, reducing the amount of hazardous materials generated as well as the amount of virgin solvent purchased. This new equipment led to a reduction of 3,600 metric tons of CO2.

  • At our Oshkosh North site, a compressor upgrade led to annual savings of 594,000kWh/yr and 516 metric tons of CO2e.

  • Amcor’s Specialty Cartons site in Izmir, Turkey implemented a SCADA project that led to annual savings of 840 metric tons of CO2e. Energy efficiency project applications included the substitution of pumps with high-efficiency variants, automation projects integrating energy efficiency principles, the use of high-efficiency motors and fans, analysis of machine air consumption and the elimination of leaks, and the replacement of conventional fluorescent lighting fixtures with LED alternatives.

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Read more about Amcor's sustainability progress in fiscal year 2023 under https://www.amcor.com/sustainability-report