Sun Chemical Issues Latest Sustainability Report
As part of Sun Chemical’s ongoing process to achieve its goals to reduce carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2030 and to become net carbon neutral by 2050, the company’s latest sustainability report highlights initiatives and results built on three pillars of its business: operations, products and services, and collaborations. To guide its sustainability practices and roadmaps in each of the three pillars, Sun Chemical follows a strategic framework called the “five Rs” – reuse, reduce, renew, recycle and redesign – that supports a circular economy and reducing carbon footprint .
The operations portion of the report shows how Sun Chemical’s recent acquisitions and additional manufacturing facilities have impacted its overall energy and water usage. The data shows that despite the acquisitions, the amounts of non-energy recovered waste and landfill waste have continued to decrease since the last report.
“Sun Chemical’s ongoing efforts to continually strive for better results in reducing waste, water and energy drive decisions and actions across our operations,” said Gary Andrzejewski, corporate vice president, Environmental Affairs, Sun Chemical. “Our focus on reducing energy consumption, which over the past year has included investments in solar panels and heat recovery systems, is an important sustainable strategy that is particularly important as we integrate acquisitions into our operations.”
The Products and Services section of the report describes Sun Chemical’s sustainable development process, which includes the development of products or processes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change, conserve new resources, and/or reduce waste accumulation compared to traditional products or processes reduce replace them. Some of the featured offerings include:
- Copper-free blue inks for compostable packaging
- AquaHeat ovenable renewable inks with a high percentage of bio-renewable content
- Sustainability-enhancing ink and coating series for the narrow web, label and sleeve markets
- A new water-based varnish for commercial printing and folding boxes in sheetfed offset
- Moisture vapor barrier coatings for paper packaging applications
- Digital color management solutions that offer a range of sustainability benefits
- New functional black pigments that enable easier recycling of black plastics in recycling plants
“Sustainability is top of mind for many converters and brand owners, and they are looking for products that can help them achieve their sustainability goals,” said Michael Simoni, director, global sustainability, Sun Chemical. “Because Sun Chemical’s sustainability efforts in research and product development are rooted in our 5R framework, we are developing a wide variety of biorenewable, compostable and recyclable product lines across our portfolio.”
Collaborations and partnerships play an essential role in Sun Chemical’s sustainability efforts, particularly in shaping the future of a circular economy and strengthening sustainable value chains. Sun Chemical uses the EcoVadis rating platform to measure the sustainability performance of its suppliers. The report shows that more than 85% of Sun Chemical’s suppliers who participate in the EcoVadis scheme have achieved a corporate social responsibility score greater than 45/100, Sun Chemical’s acceptable threshold.
Other collaborations mentioned in the report include:
- The oneBARRIER project with Bobst and other partners to develop recyclable mono-material ultra high and high barrier flexible packaging
- Joining the Circular Plastics Initiative through the Dutch Institute for Sustainable Process Technology
- A partnership with UK-based company In2tech to develop a more sustainable approach to electronics manufacturing
For every sustainability report downloaded, Sun Chemical will plant a tree for every sustainability report downloaded through the well-established non-governmental organization One Tree Planted.
To download Sun Chemical’s latest sustainability report, visit www.sunchemical.com/sustainability.