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Pernod Ricard Commits to ‘Circular Making’

Believing that from grain to grass, there can be no conviviality in excess, the spirits giant commits to actions that move it toward a circular system for its packaging, with innovations around brands such as Absolut, Malibu, and Beefeater, among others.

The Absolut Company achieved the goal of 50% recycled content in its iconic clear glass Absolut Vodka bottle four years ahead of schedule.
The Absolut Company achieved the goal of 50% recycled content in its iconic clear glass Absolut Vodka bottle four years ahead of schedule.

When it comes to partaking of its products, France-based Pernod Ricard—the second-largest wine and spirits brand in the world—suggests consumers share with joyfulness, but without overindulgence. They espouse convivialité without excess.

In fact, this philosophy guides all aspects of the company’s business. Says Pernod Ricard—whose tagline reads “Créateurs de Convivialité,” or Creators of Conviviality—“We believe that there can be no convivialité in excess and strive to be sustainable and responsible at every step, from grain to glass.”

That’s no small task for a company of its size and structure. Pernod Ricard, with 94 production sites in 24 countries, is a decentralized group that comprises a global flagship in France, autonomous affiliates, brand companies, and market companies throughout the world. Its portfolio includes more than 240 brands of premium wine and spirits distributed in 160 countries. Among some of its most well-known brands are Absolut Vodka, Beefeater London gin, Chivas Regal Scotch whisky, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Malibu rum, Martell cognac, and Mumm champagne.


Read article   Read this Q&A with Lynne Millar, Director of Purchasing for Malibu and Kahlua. Pernod Ricard


In spring 2019, Pernod Ricard launched its 2030 Good Times from a Good Place: Sustainability & Responsibility (S&R) roadmap to address some of the biggest sustainability issues facing its business, its consumers, and the world. The overarching commitment expressed by Pernod Ricard in the roadmap is to reduce the overall intensity of its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050, in line with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Thirty-seven percent of the company’s footprint can be attributed to packaging.

The S&R roadmap is broken down into four key pillars that altogether set out 30 ambitious and concrete goals and targets for 2030. Guiding its strategy around packaging is the Circular Making pillar. The goals related to this pillar deal with circular packaging design, single-use plastics, recycled content, and a transition to recyclable, compostable, and reusable packaging, among others. Since the launch of the roadmap, Pernod Ricard has made several notable sustainability improvements to some of its most popular brands to help meet the goals outlined under the Circular Making pillar and to contribute to its carbon emissions reduction commitment.

Circular Making guides packaging improvements

The concept of sustainability is not a new one for Pernod Ricard. As Chief Sustainability Officer Vanessa Wright shares, across all its brands and affiliates, Pernod Ricard has a strong legacy linked to sustainability. “Our company founder, Paul Ricard, established the Paul Ricard Oceanographic Institute more than 50 years ago to advance ocean conservation.”

“Packaging is obviously hugely important to us,” Wright continues. “We’re a consumer-centric business; packaging is the point of contact with our consumer. We know that our consumers, among other things like transparency and provenance, want to make sure they can have an impact on reducing waste. So, that’s the mindset we adopt from the very beginning, from how we make a product, right through every step of our production, and then to considering what happens to the product at end-of-life.”

Under its Circular Making pillar, Pernod Ricard is working on packaging and promotional materials, both with associated commitments. In 2021, Pernod Ricard banned all promotional items made from single-use plastic, for example, festival cups, tasting cups, plastic bags, and balloons, and by 2025, it will be using 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable promotional materials.

Pernod Ricard is also committed to reducing the environmental impacts of its packaging and the waste it generates throughout each step of the production chain to the consumer. Through its S&R roadmap, it has set the following goals: 100% of its packaging will be recyclable, compostable, or reusable by 2025; it will pilot five new circular ways of distributing wine and spirits by 2030; and it will help increase recycling rates in the top 10 largest markets it serves that have low recycling rates by 2030.


Read article   Read abuout the limited-edition Absolut Comeback bottle, made from recycled broken glass


One of the actions attached to these commitments includes the adoption of eco-design principles to reduce the impact for all new product developments. In November 2019, Pernod Ricard launched new Sustainable Packaging Guidelines supported by a web-based assessment tool for all of its brands that contain detailed and exact information on what materials they can use, which ones to replace, and what they can be replaced with. Says Noémie Bauer, Sustainable Business Director for Pernod Ricard, “We want to change the mindset of our designers to make sure when they design new packaging that they use a lifecycle approach and optimize as much as possible.”

Other actions related to this goal include ensuring that 100% of the cardboard it uses by 2025 is certified as sustainable; using 50% recycled glass content by 2025; and increasing the recycled content of its PET bottles to 25% by 2030.

While these targets are certainly ambitious, Pernod Ricard is starting from a very enviable position. Given that the bulk of its packaging is glass, which is infinitely recyclable, at 90%, followed by PET and then paperboard, 99% of its packaging is already recyclable. Sustainability improvements in these areas include lightweighting, increased use of recycled content, and removing plastic from its labels, caps, and secondary packaging. 

But eliminating that 1% of packaging that isn’t recyclable is still “quite a challenge,” says Wright. These packages include the porcelain flacons used for whisky bottles in Asia, miniature and opaque PET plastic bottles, closures for PET bottles, gift boxes, and multilayer pouches, among others.

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