From May 22, DS Smith officially announced the partnership with Ellen MacArthur Foundation. It will accelerate the company’s circular economy drive and support innovation across the business, including recycling and carbon-efficiency in e-commerce.

Collaboration between DS Smith and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation will strengthen the company’s Sustainability strategy. This program is underpinned by nine long-term sustainability targets, which include manufacturing 100% reusable or recyclable packaging by 2025 and reducing its CO₂e emissions, relative to production, by 30% by 2030.

The partnership will support innovation in DS Smith’s business model, to include projects on packaging design for a circular economy; and improving collection systems in urban areas. These pilots will build on the company’s recent efforts on recycling throw-away consumable items such as coffee cups and radically reducing the amount of fibre in its cardboard packaging.

Separately, DS Smith is making available over £1 million from its Charitable Foundation to invest in sustainability or education initiatives. This program will kickstart local projects across DS Smith’s global footprint and support innovative new programmes that will make a real difference to the communities in which it operates.

‘Transforming the Supermarket Aisle’, was developed in conjunction with White Space, the leading growth strategy consultancy. It identifies plastic packaging, such as fresh produce punnets and shrink wrap, which supermarkets can replace with alternative, renewable materials. The five categories identified account for over 70 billion individual units of plastic (over 1.5 million metric tons) per year and are highlighted as targets for reduction and replacement by the packaging brand.