SmartCarbon sat down with Isobel Candy, Sustainability Lead at Aegg Creative Packaging, to find out more about how a food packaging company approaches its responsibility to sustainability and how partnering with SmartCarbon has helped the business take meaningful steps towards carbon reduction and a Net Zero commitment.
A quick visit to Aegg’s website reveals the packaging organisation’s clear intention to “do the right thing”. With a sustainable development strategy revolving around People, Planet and Prosperity, Aegg’s focus is on “meeting today’s needs while protecting tomorrow’s”. It is this commitment that led the business to engage with SmartCarbon.
In 2024, the company’s entire senior team went through the 2-day ISEP certified CPD Carbon Accounting course run by Northumbrian University and delivered by SmartCarbon. Isobel explains,
“The two-day CPD course was extremely valuable to Aegg as an organisation because it got the engagement of the senior team and created an immediate sense of mutual responsibility. It made sustainability a corporate goal rather than just the remit of the sustainability lead.
“Not only did our leadership team come away with an important accreditation and greater knowledge, they also possessed a renewed support for the environmental direction we were taking as a business.”
Getting strategic about carbon reporting
Following this, Aegg have worked with SmartCarbon to complete the measurement of Aegg’s full Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in line with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Standard. To do this, the company has collaborated with manufacturing partners around the world to obtain high quality data for the majority of Scope 3 supply chain emissions. While this proved to be a significant undertaking, it represents an essential part of any serious commitment to accurate carbon reporting and, ultimately, a meaningful carbon reduction plan. As Isobel says,
“Reporting on Scope 3 emissions is a lot of work and it means bringing suppliers along on a journey with us. We can’t work in isolation and neither can they.
“It is crucial to place resource where it will make the most difference and that’s how we’ve approached our own reporting. We set out to report emissions from our largest suppliers and then work through to smaller suppliers over time. We’ve aligned our target of auditing 80% of suppliers with our commitment to seven UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“Our approach to supply chain engagement was to pull an educational pack together and an audit framework that was easy to follow. Working with SmartCarbon we’ve had the tools at our disposal to engage with suppliers and make it as straightforward as possible for them to account for their emissions. Through this collaborative approach with our manufacturing partners, 99% of the emissions from purchased goods have been measured using the product footprint rather than spend data.
“As a manufacturer of recyclable plastic containers and an importer of glass from around the world, we have to accept that the vast majority of our emissions come from further down the supply chain. There’s no getting around the fact that manufacturing glass is an energy-intensive process. But as a business looking to take sustainability seriously we have to be able to put numbers to this and know where carbon reductions can be made.”
Carbon reduction planning
In tandem with this rigorous carbon reporting, the Aegg team have worked closely with SmartCarbon on the development of the organisation’s Net Zero plan – which kicked off with a dedicated planning workshop to develop tailored deliverables and timescales for reductions. The process involved modelling scenarios based upon Aegg’s specific commitments to strategic business activity over the next decade. Isobel comments,
“Our desire to have SBTi validation led us to go through the Net Zero planning process. What we took from the process was a clearer idea of the strategic decisions required as a business to get to where we need to be over the coming years. Only with a Net Zero plan in place can we expect sustainability efforts to become part of broader business planning.
“For example, we know we need to embrace the adoption of electric trucks but we must balance investment, evolving technology and delivering excellent customer service goals. Knowing where we need to get to means that they can be built into the budget over the coming years. It’s that kind of insight that drives you towards taking certain actions.
“Our Net Zero plan also has to account for wider industry and geo-political factors. We simply aren’t going to hit Net Zero in the glass industry until the grid is decarbonised and there is a wholesale move towards electric furnaces. We’ve already switched to a 100% renewable electricity energy contract in the UK but our strategy has to revolve around taking meaningful steps within the context of what we can do to prepare for future improvements to infrastructure.”
The hard work of the Aegg team gained the company Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) validation for its short term Carbon Reduction commitment, as described on the company’s website:
Aegg is committed to reducing our company’s absolute scope 1&2 emissions by 58.8% by 2034 from a 2023 base year, and to measure and reduce our scope 3 emissions. Aegg has also developed a Net Zero plan to achieve by 2050 with the support of our partner, SmartCarbon.
Beyond carbon reporting, Aegg have also committed to achieving ISO 14001 Environmental Management certification by 2030 and also committed to seven UN Sustainability Development Goals, including Climate Action and Affordable Clean Energy.
A sustainable working relationship
Having worked closely with Isobel and Aegg’s senior team since 2024, SmartCarbon’s Lee Jackson says,
“Aegg is a business that has made rapid progress in terms of carbon reporting and we’ve been delighted to support the team in starting their Net Zero journey. Already, Aegg has achieved Steps 1, 2 and 3 on the SmartCarbon awards programme – our comprehensive framework designed to help organisations measure, manage and dramatically reduce their carbon footprints.”
Asked about the value of working with SmartCarbon, Isobel says,
“The team at SmartCarbon have been extremely supportive. They are willing to educate us as well as working with us – it’s a very educational process, which helps to create buy-in from our team. We’re coming up to our third year of working with Lee and the SmartCarbon team and they’ve always been there to hold our hand through the process without making us feel like we’re asking stupid questions. That customer service is invaluable to us.”
She continues,
“Achieving SmartCarbon Level 3 underscores Aegg’s commitment to decarbonisation and it’s part of our ongoing journey towards a more sustainable future for the packaging industry.”
Ready to take the climate emergency seriously as a business but not sure where to start? Or are you simply looking to improve your current reporting? Get in touch with the SmartCarbon team today and let us help you make a start on calculating, reporting and reducing your greenhouse gas emissions.