How can businesses create positive change towards sustainable and resilient food systems?

In recent decades, food systems have delivered major human development benefits through massive increases in productivity. Yet, today’s systems are no longer fit for purpose as we battle mounting hunger and challenges around obesity. Food systems are currently failing to deliver healthy diets, whilst at the same time bearing high hidden costs - amounting to some $12 trillion each year₁ - and having a detrimental impact on our environment. They generate about 1/3 of global greenhouse gas emissions and are the single largest contributor to biodiversity loss.

At this year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, we saw the first ever Food Systems Pavilion. It is a positive recognition of the need to relook at how our current global food systems operate, and an opportunity to develop actions and solutions to create more sustainable and resilient food value chains.

As world leaders, governments, businesses, and changemakers gathered for COP27, the focus needs to be on how system thinking, science-based decisions and collaborative innovation can help drive the decarbonisation of food systems for the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals.

Moving from discussion to implementation isn’t enough. A long-term, collaborative approach needs to be at the heart of all pledges, initiatives, and agreements to make this transformation happen. We need to reinvent how we source, produce and process our food, its transportation and the materials we use to package it. Examples of positive change is in the preservation of the world’s biodiversity as well as reducing our reliance on carbon-heavy materials, processes and sources of food.

Protecting and preserving our ecosystems

Biodiverse, healthy ecosystems provide us with oxygen, regulate weather patterns, pollinate our crops, and produce our food, feed, fibre and essential raw materials – all of which are at serious risk if we fail to act with speed, impact and scale.

According to the World Economic Forum, half of the world’s GDP is either moderately or highly dependent on nature – equivalent to $44 trillion₂. Biodiversity in our soil, crops and animals must increase to improve the food system’s resilience to external shocks and enhance long- term food security. And this is best achieved through responsible sourcing practices and strategic partnerships.

It is crucial for private sector companies to seek external expertise and skills, to guide restoration and, in turn, enhance credibility and visibility of their social responsibility. In 2022, we launched with Brazilian NGO, Apremavi, the Araucaria Conservation Programme, a pioneering land restoration initiative in Brazil.

The project intends to restore up to 7,000 hectares of land – equivalent to 9,800 football pitches – by 2030, to protect biodiversity in the region and generate positive economic and social benefits for the local communities. Apremavi, which has extensive experience in conservation and restoration projects, is helping us target an area of particular risk, the Forest of Araucarias, which today only has 3% of its original area preserved. It’s one example of how a company with a global reach can work with a local partner for the benefit of many. As part of the pilot, we have already planted 38,000 seedlings of native trees – including araucaria, maritime pine and mountain guava.

Driving down carbon across packaging materials, processes and sources of food

Packaging plays a vital role in protecting food, while helping to reduce food waste and improve access to nutrition even in remote areas of the globe. However, materials for packaging alone cause more CO2 emissions than global aviation pre-COVID. If we do nothing, the sourcing and processing of packaging materials will account for nearly one third (~32%) of all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20503. Focusing on an innovation pathway driven by renewability and recyclability is key.

At Tetra Pak we are already on this journey. In 2021 alone, we sold 17.6 billion plant-based packages4 and 10.8 billion plant-based caps, which saved the equivalent of 96 kilo tonnes of CO25, compared to fossil-based plastic. More recently, we have tested a fibre-based barrier replacing the thin aluminium layer in our aseptic cartons, a first for food carton packages under ambient conditions. Early results suggest that the package with a fibre-based barrier will offer substantial CO2 reduction when compared to traditional aseptic cartons, while being more attractive for paper mills; thus, this concept presents clear potential for realising a low carbon circular economy for packaging.

While negative sentiment around packaging has vastly increased in recent years, many still fail to grasp how protecting our planet and contributing to food security go well beyond innovating ‘solely’ in this specific area. We need to take a holistic environmental approach, one encompassing all steps between food sourcing and end of life. Here, Tetra Pak is partnering with several innovative companies, such as Swedish start-up EnginZyme, to transform potential food waste into sources of nutritious food. In addition, we recently joined forces with Mycorena to build a greenfield production facility for fungi fermentation. Along with a lower carbon footprint, alternative protein-based food applications proteins offer scope for significantly reduced land and water use, compared with traditional sources. We are also working to reduce the biggest chunk of GHG emissions across our value chain, generated by processing and packaging equipment operating at our customers’ sites. We have committed to halve food waste, water consumption and carbon footprint in our best practice processing lines by 2030 compared to 2019.

Looking to the future

While the preservation of ecosystems and decarbonisation are pressing issues that require the industry’s full attention, we must go even further. As a global company with thousands of suppliers around the world, we have an opportunity – and a responsibility - to promote responsible sourcing practices. We believe that collaboration is key to driving sustainability across the supply chain. All of this combined is paramount to conserving and restoring biodiversity, while advancing in our net zero journey. The risk of inaction today is a world we won’t recognise tomorrow.

That’s why we’re excited to be part of Sweden’s COP27 Business Delegation this year, using our global footprint and food industry expertise to accelerate actions and enable a shift towards resilient and sustainable food systems and healthier diets. Our progress depends on being able to embrace a mindset which drives both growth and sustainability for a better future.

Source: 1 FOLU. Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use. The Global Consultation Report of the Food and Land Use Coalition, https://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FOLU-GrowingBetter-GlobalReport.pdf  (2019)

2 World Economic Forum, Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy

3 Material Economics analysis; IEA - Energy Technology Perspectives 2017. https://www.iea.org/etp/

4 Plant-based packages refer to packages made with plant-based plastic versus fossil-based plastic (external layer, lamination layer and internal layer).

5 Based on climate accounting internal calculations considering 59 kilo tonnes of plant-based plastic purchased in 2021.