Brambles Limited, parent company of CHEP in the UK and Ireland, has released its annual Sustainability Review, which reports on its material Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) achievements for the financial year ending 30 June 2021.

The global supply chain solutions leader achieved carbon neutrality for its own operations and launches its first pallet made of 100% post-consumer plastic on the path to a regenerative future

Brambles, the global supply chain solutions company operating in 60 countries through the CHEP brand, has released its annual Sustainability Review, which reports on its material Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues and achievements for the financial year ending 30 June 2021.

Having successfully completed its 2020 sustainability strategy, meeting its key objectives, this time last year, Brambles announced its new 2025 Sustainability targets and ambition to ‘Pioneer Regenerative Supply Chains, based on a ‘Planet Positive, Business Positive and Communities Positive’ strategy. Just 12 months into the programme, Brambles’ Sustainability Review highlights tangible achievements which show great progress toward a net-positive future:

• Brambles is now a carbon-neutral operations business: the company’s net CO2 emissions have been offset across scope 11 and scope 22 by investing in reforestation projects and procurement of renewable electricity. This milestone supports Brambles’ commitment to a 1.5-degree climate future, aligns with the highest level of ambition on the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and demonstrates early action on its decarbonisation pathway3. As part of the Planet Positive targets, Brambles has also maintained 100% sustainable sourcing of timber and has enabled the transformation of more forestry markets to Chain of Custody (CoC) certification;
• The first closed-loop, upcycled plastic platform is now on the market: as part of its Waste Positive commitment to using waste plastic in its platforms, the first-ever Brambles product made from 100% post-consumer plastic waste, the wheeled Q+, was launched in Europe this year;
• Brambles achieved 32% of women in management roles: Workplace Positive targets include rolling out inclusivity, wellbeing-at-work and accessibility initiatives, as well as a commitment to at least 40% of management roles being held by women and doubling the number of women in its plants by 2025;
• Brambles are Top Employer® in 17 countries: progress towards Workplace Positive targets was also achieved with Brambles being recognised as a Top Employer® in 17 countries and across four regions, illustrating the company’s commitment to its staff and to creating an inclusive and rewarding work environment. Brambles’ ambition is to extend this certification to as many countries as possible and be recognised as Global Top Employer; and
• Brambles continues to deliver to communities when they need it most: Communities Positive is the third pillar of the 2025 sustainability strategy and is essential for Brambles’ wider, positive contribution to society. Brambles’ in-kind equipment donations helped provide more than 17,400,000 people with meals via its food rescue partners across the globe in FY21. Finally, around 100,000 people were positively impacted through the company’s circular economy communications, training and advocacy efforts.

  1 Scope 1 carbon emissions refers to direct emissions generated from the burning of fuel.
  2 Scope 2 refers to indirect emissions resulting from the production of electricity that is purchased.
  3 Brambles will provide an update on its commitment to a Science-Based Target, which addresses emissions in our supply chain, predominantly third-party transport and subcontractors’ operations and new timber for pallets, in the lead up to the COP26 Climate talks in November.

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In the words of Graham Chipchase, Brambles’ CEO, “In our new five-year sustainability strategy, Brambles charts a clear course towards a truly regenerative supply chain, with reuse, resilience and regeneration as our core tenets. This pioneering vision has enabled our business to create value in an environment where change is an ongoing certainty. These early results show that our strategy is not just about words, but about actions. Every achievement is a concrete step closer to a net-positive future.”

Brambles’ ‘share and reuse’ model already offers many environmental savings to customers’ supply chains in comparison to single-use alternatives. In the last year, Brambles’ solutions have helped its customers achieve the following savings4:

• 2.4 million metric tonnes of CO2 – equivalent to the CO2 emitted by 454,500 homes1 in one year;
• 3,160 megalitres of water – or approximately 1,240 Olympic sized pools;
• 3.1 million cubic metres of wood;
• 3.2 million trees; and
• 1.4 million tonnes of waste.

  Brambles is recognised as a global sustainability leader

  Brambles’ sustainability credentials and performance continue to be recognised as world leading. Barron’s Magazine, published by Dow Jones, named Brambles the second most sustainable company globally in 2021, and Corporate Knights rated the company 18th in their Global 100 list of most sustainable corporations in the world. MSCI awarded Brambles the maximum AAA rating in its ESG assessment and ranked the company in the top 4% of all companies assessed. Equally, the CDP gave the company a A- in its Forests submission.

  The Group also achieved an overall A- rating in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy Assessment Tool, Circulytics, and is notably one of the major private sector partners instrumental in developing the tool and promoting the many business benefits of transitioning from a linear to a circular model.