There are far too many suppliers out there who talk a big game about going green. Fewer, however, are willing to share the hard numbers around what they've done to make a real difference. For this reason, IPG has gone the extra mile, delivering a 2024 sustainability report that we are seriously proud to share with you.
Read on to discover:
- The results of our push to meet high recyclable or reusable revenue goals
- Products and green packaging we're proud to headline in the next year
- How much we've reduced emissions and energy use
- The awards and successes we're pleased to have achieved in the past year
New Benchmarks in Safety Achievements
Our performance-measuring system is a serious undertaking, embedding safety as a core concept in every facility we oversee through a range of clear benchmarks and central tenets. As such, we are very proud to say that we have achieved zero life-changing injuries or events company-wide in 2024.
Our Total Case Incident Rate (TCIR), which is the number of injuries in total per 100 full-time workers, dropped to 1.18, having dropped byalmost a quarter this year. Eleven facilities even logged no incidents at all.
One of the key drivers of this was our "Safety March Madness", a healthy competition we use to help people take active steps to be safer by offering "points" towards a contest. The camaraderie and positive reinforcement for acting more safely then led to real improvement.
We have also pushed our leadership to be more proactive when it comes to safety, with regular audits that help them coach their team on taking preventative measures moving forward.
Other steps we took included:
- Doubling the safety walks we took around the facilities
- Ongoing coaching in sites above targets until sites are measurably safer
- Continuous monitoring and clear TCIR levels for facility leadership
- Understanding of industry benchmarks to compare ourselves to
Meeting Targets with Green Packaging Initiatives
We have become more aware over the years that people are willing to spend more for sustainable packaging solutions, with 25% of millennials even stating this outright, according to McKinsey & Company. As such, it is our pleasure to mention that we have reached our milestone of having 75% of our packaging products (by revenue) classified as recyclable, reusable, or compostable in 2024. Long ahead of our 2025 timetable.
As some examples of areas where we have succeeded:
- Our Cradle to Cradle-certified product revenue has grown to 68%
- We now offer 16 separate cradle-to-cradle certified products
- Many of our products use 100% recycled paper fiber · Boosting durability in products such as our G7 stretch film to reduce overuse
Carbon Reduction and Increased Energy Efficiency
Over 2024, we have managed to cut our total carbon emissions, both from direct and indirect sources, by over a quarter. In total, that is almost 300,000 metric tons of carbon removed from our processes, which translates to around 150,000 passenger cars coming off the road, based on their average emissions.
We have also grown our use of renewable energy from 5.8% to 10% by the end of the year. Much of this is due to green power contracts and new solar installations we are proud to have sourced.
In terms of general power use, we have also been finding areas where we can reduce energy consumption without reducing output. As such, we have dropped our energy use by 2.5% per metric ton of output we produce.
One of the main ways we did this was by running energy "treasure hunts" at multiple plants, which uncovered over 9,000 metric tons of CO2 savings through such installations as:
- Flame ionization detectors
- New plastic processing lines
- Motion sensors for utilities
- Energy-efficient air compressors
- LED lighting
- Compressed air leak detectors
We also used new energy management techniques alongside these to further boost our savings.
Certifications and Awards in 2024
This year, IPG is exceptionally proud to have won the 2024 ENERGY STAR Award for Sustained Excellence. We have once again proven that our efforts are not a one-time thing and that we plan to continue these gains moving forward. We have also seen similar excellence in many of our sites, with four of our manufacturing locations having achieved TRUE Zero Waste certification, and our ability to keep our waste out of landfill, or "waste diversion," now sits at around two-thirds of all solid waste.
At the same time, the Manufacturing Leadership Council awarded us the "Large Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year" this year, proving that our continued drive for stronger sustainability and success in using factory practices to curb energy use is becoming more recognized across our industry. We hope to be leaders in this area for years to come, encouraging eco-responsible manufacturing in as many corners as possible.
Continuing to Espouse Our Ethical Tenets
In 2024, we expanded our efforts to assess our performance in terms of labor and human rights, as well as business ethics and environmental impact. Combining this with training our managers on how to recognize and respond to problematic practices, we managed to audit many of our processes. We also used third-party audits to cover concepts such as:
- Discrimination
- Hiring practices
- Wages
- Working hours
We will continue working to support our workers, internal and external, and to collaborate with our communities to ensure we maintain the core moral focus of our operations.
Join IPG's Eco-friendly Journey
Every effort has gone into ensuring that IPG met our own standards for sustainability, ethics, and green packaging in 2024, and we are proud to say we've succeeded with flying colors. However, it's not the end, and we need to keep moving forward. The near future looks challenging, but we are confident that with IPG's discipline, we can meet that challenge.
We also stand ready to talk to potential partners about how we can work with you to provide our products while retaining the core of what makes us unique. So, get in touch and let's start talking about that goal moving forward.
