International Confectionery Editor Caitlin Gittins talks with Steve Jordan, Global Packaging Director at Mars Wrigley about the challenges facing sustainability in packaging today.
Please introduce yourself and what you do?
As Global Packaging Director at Mars Wrigley, I am responsible for leading the strategic direction and delivery of packaging across our regional portfolio of brands. The region covers the majority of Europe, CIS and Turkey plus global travel retail, and is the home to many households’ favourite brands such as Snickers, Maltesers, and Mars.
It’s a varied role, and I lead a great team of people who do everything from exploring and developing how we design and create packaging, to ensuring that sustainability and innovation sits at the heart of all packaging decisions to ensure the best for our consumers, customers and our planet.
What drew you to the industry you work in today?
I’ve been working in packaging for over a decade and at Mars Wrigley for around a year now, and I’ve always had an interest in working in the confectionery industry.
I love the impact that the products in our portfolio are having on people’s lives every day, getting real moments of joy from their favourite sweet treat. So, joining the world’s largest confectionery company in the world was a no-brainer, having the opportunity to work with some of the best-loved brands, and grow their packaging strategies across Europe.
What is your stance on sustainability?
Sustainability is integral to everything we do at Mars Wrigley. Now more than ever, we know how crucial it is as a business to take real action in tackling the climate challenge. Five years ago, we launched our global $1bn Sustainable in a Generation Plan, a guide on how we create a healthy planet and thriving communities, and we continue to track our progress against these goals.
We are acting now and have set ambitious targets to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across our full supply chain by 2050, including Scope 3 emissions. However, we know that setting deadlines into the future cannot be an excuse for inaction and delay. Which is why we have five-year milestones to track progress and have made a great start – cutting our full value chain greenhouse gas emissions by 7.3% since 2015 despite business growth and reducing direct operation emissions by a third.
Most recently, we announced the opening of our first factory which runs 100% from renewable energy. The ice cream factory now uses electricity that comes completely from renewable energy (wind, hydro and solar) and no longer uses energy from fossil fuels. This is the first factory in the Mars Wrigley network to reach this goal, and we now hope to roll it out across additional sites.
To read more see our latest issue here.
Media contact
Caitlin Gittins
Editor, International Confectionery
Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 920
Email: editor@in-confectionery.com
