The impact of what we do and how we behave is far-reaching. Production on a scale such as ours brings enormous environmental responsibilities, and we take these seriously, both globally and locally. That is why we identify, control and measure all our activities, and work hard to reduce their environmental impact. We aim to keep energy consumption and emissions to a minimum, maximise our recycling rates, optimise the use of secondary packaging materials and manage waste appropriately, by avoiding use of landfills and limiting water usage.

Glass and metal are both permanent materials. They form part of the ‘circular economy’ – where materials can be infinitely recycled in a closed loop without any loss of quality. As a result, metal and glass are regarded as ‘permanently available’. The materials are not lost as long as they are recycled into another metal or glass product. Ardagh initiatives that focus on recycling – both of our source materials and within our facilities themselves – showcase our commitment to energy efficiency. Effective environmental management systems are in place across all Ardagh sites.

We recognise that emissions, ecology and social sustainability are closely linked and that the long-term economic performance of Ardagh has an impact on our employees, local communities, customers, suppliers, investors and other stakeholders. That’s why we continually invest in systems and processes that improve the efficiency of our operations, reduce costs and increase competitiveness. One initiative, for instance, promotes customer and supplier partnership programmes in order to strengthen relationships along the supply chain.

Another initiative led us to develop a sophisticated process of preheating our glass raw materials to give energy savings of up to 15%. The system, which heats the batch to 300°C, cost in the region of €2m per site and so far has been introduced in five facilities, with a further three planned over the coming years. This investment in environmentally friendly systems forms part of our long-term sustainability strategy.