Berry Global has announced the company received an A- rating for its action on climate change from CDP, the global not-for-profit charity that runs a leading environmental disclosure platform.

The new rating places Berry in the top ‘Leadership’ band and underlines meaningful actions the company is taking to meet its sustainability goals. Only 12% of companies in the Plastic Product Manufacturing group, of which Berry is part, have reached leadership level. Berry’s A- rating is also higher than both the North America and global averages across the 13,000+ companies that participated in the CDP rating process as part of their commitment to environmental transparency.

“Our CDP A- rating confirms Berry is on a successful pathway to support the transition to a net-zero economy while helping our customers meet their ambitious sustainability goals,” comments Tom Salmon, chairman and CEO of Berry Global. “This is another significant milestone in our continuing drive to create innovative, sustainable packaging and engineered products that make life better for people and the planet.”

Among Berry’s sustainability advances over the past year, which can be found in its latest Impact Report outlining progress against the company’s Impact 2025 environmental strategy, the CDP report recognized the third-party verification of Berry’s Scope 1 & 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Berry’s introduction of Science-Based Targets earlier this year, validated by the Science-Based Target Initiative, included a commitment to reduce absolute operations emissions (Scope 1 & 2) by 25% and supply chain emissions (Scope 3) by 8% by 2025 from 2019 levels.

In its operations, Berry achieved a 7.5% reduction in market-based GHG emissions and purchased over 165,000 MWh of renewable energy. Its product development program continued the company’s commitment towards 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable solutions by 2025, with several innovations including a refillable version of its Magic Star airless dispenser and a range of tethered closures that reduce waste and increase recycling rates for plastic closures.

Through its lightweighting program, Berry emphasized the importance of reducing the use of virgin, fossil fuel-based plastics. The company’s continued expansion of incorporating post-consumer resin (PCR) into new products was further strengthened by securing access to 600 million pounds of PCR content by 2025, while ISCC Plus certification for many of its sites provides full traceability of circular resins.