Intertape Polymer Group Inc. (IPG) recently published its 2019 annual sustainability report, titled “We Package, We Protect & We Sustain.” The report provides an overview of the company’s sustainability progress in 2019 and highlights IPG’s sustainability opportunities in the years ahead. The report was prepared with reference to certain Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, with details provided in the index section of the report.

“Sustainability is a core pillar of our long-term strategy and we believe it is a key component to meeting the needs of our stakeholders as well as the growth of our business,” said Greg Yull, president and CEO of IPG. “While this year’s report is published as society is dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, our approach to sustainability is a long-term initiative that requires consistent and continuous support. In fact, the ingrained culture of health and safety within our daily operations at the plant level underpinned our ability to maintain ongoing operations in the face of the pandemic.”

According to IPG, the 2019 report builds and expands on the work done in the company’s inaugural report, which was published last year. The report outlines the IPG’s framework to embrace sustainability by focusing on: product and material innovation, circular economy solutions, the company’s operational footprint, and people and communities. As part of its sustainability strategy, IPG has adopted cross-functional sustainability value network (SVN) teams and processes to help it be more deliberate in its approach to sustainability, with a greater emphasis on governance, metrics, and reporting.

“We believe our customers and end users will increasingly pursue sustainable solutions and practices in their choice of packaging and protective suppliers,” said Yull. “By embracing sustainability throughout our organization, we are positioning IPG’s solutions in key markets like e-commerce and others with sustainable solutions for tapes, mailers, cold chain packaging and protective packaging to meet the needs of our end users. Earlier this year we established our reinforced water-activated tape (WAT) as recyclable and we are in the process of launching a new curbside recyclable protective mailer. Product innovation is only one element of a successful program. The SVN teams are also establishing objectives for continuous improvement of our day-to-day operations to demonstrate to our stakeholders that sustainability and transparency are core tenets throughout our organization.”

Highlights from 2019 include:

• Awarded the 2019 ENERGY STAR^® Partner of the Year, Sustained Excellence designation
• Adopted the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ product standard for certain products to drive and measure the company’s product innovation process
• Achieved a 3.7% reduction in energy intensity in 2019 compared to 2018
• Achieved an approximately 6% reduction in carbon intensity in 2019 compared to 2018
• Achieved a 6.5% reduction in water usage in 2019 compared to 2018, primarily driven by decreases at the Truro, Nova Scotia, manufacturing facility
• Signed the United Nations Global Compact, agreeing to adopt the 10 principals governing Human Rights, Labor, Environment and Anti-Corruption; as a result, IPG expects all of its suppliers to support the compact’s principals

In 2020, IPG reports progress such as:

• Certified the recyclability of non-reinforced WAT through the Western Michigan Old Corrugated
  Cardboard Equivalency protocol
• Committed to the Association of Plastic Recyclers to be a Demand Champion in 2021 by reporting the company’s impact on the demand for post-consumer resin
• Awarded 2020 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year, Sustained Excellence designation
• Initial donor of the University of Florida’s Waste-to-Syngas initiative

The full report is available at www.itape.com/sustainability.