1. What percentage of your current packaging materials portfolio is recyclable, compostable, biodegradable, or halogen-free, and how do you measure progress toward increasing this share?
We are actively increasing the proportion of our portfolio that supports lower-impact packaging, including recyclable, PVC-free, halogen-free, lightweight and biodegradable material platforms. We have developed sustainable alternatives for almost our entire conventional blister packaging portfolio, enabling customers to choose solutions that best balance product protection, regulatory compliance and sustainability.
Our progress is measured through a combination of portfolio development, material footprint, customer adoption, carbon impact and technical performance. We are also seeing significant year-on-year growth in demand globally, reinforcing the need to provide customers with a broader range of sustainable packaging options.
Recent innovations include our RecycloPod range, comprising recyclable PP and PET-based thermoforming solutions and SuperPod - an innovative laminate design, which reduces blister size and total material usage through deeper cavity design.
However, innovation alone is not enough. The greatest challenge is enabling adoption. We work closely with customers to support qualification, documentation, stability studies and machine compatibility, helping reduce the barriers to implementing more sustainable packaging while maintaining the high standards of product protection, machinability and regulatory compliance expected within the pharmaceutical industry.
2. How do you balance the need for high-barrier pharmaceutical packaging with reducing material usage and improving recyclability?
This is one of the central challenges in pharmaceutical packaging. The priority must always be patient safety, product integrity and regulatory compliance. However, this does not mean sustainability has to sit separately from performance.
We approach this through material science, laminate design, lightweighting, barrier optimisation and machine-compatible innovation.
In some cases, we use the design for recyclability (DFR) guiding principles for designing new materials in such a way that both performance and recyclability are not compromised. However, we don’t stop there. We have also focused on understanding how these new materials behave on the shop floor and how the end customers would react to the change.
Besides performance, the choice of material and the design of the product are also important when it comes to achieving the overall sustainability goals.
In some applications, reducing the amount of material used can deliver immediate carbon benefits. In others, the challenge is to develop alternative structures that provide the required barrier properties while improving recyclability or reducing dependency on conventional PVC-based formats.
The balance is not about compromising protection; it is about redesigning packaging so that performance and sustainability advance together. We are using the “fit for purpose” approach here to balance this need.
4. What specific actions are being taken to achieve SBTi-validated emissions reduction commitments across Scopes 1, 2 and 3?
Our SBTi-aligned strategy focuses on practical decarbonisation across our operations and wider value chain.
For Scope 1 and 2 emissions, we are increasing the use of renewable energy, including solar and wind power, replacing older coal-fired burners with cleaner LPG systems, improving heat recovery and insulation, and upgrading to high-efficiency motors and transformers.
Scope 3 requires close collaboration with suppliers. We are strengthening sustainability assessments across our supply chain, working with partners to reduce the embedded carbon in materials such as aluminium, plastics and coatings, and expanding our portfolio of lower-carbon packaging solutions. As part of our commitment to transparency, ACG now provides the carbon footprint for every reel of packaging material supplied globally.
Digital technologies are also playing an important role in reducing emissions. We use AI and machine learning to optimise production recipes and minimise waste, predictive analytics to maximise equipment utilisation and reduce downtime, and data analytics to monitor energy consumption and identify opportunities to improve efficiency. These capabilities are particularly valuable in our cleanroom manufacturing environments, where environmental controls are essential but highly energy intensive.
5. How do you manage sustainability performance within your raw material supply chain?
We have moved towards a model where sustainability is embedded into supplier evaluation, not treated as an additional consideration. Historically, suppliers were assessed primarily on quality, cost and reliability. Increasingly, emissions performance, renewable energy usage, waste reduction, recycling capability and material innovation are becoming part of procurement decisions.
This is especially important for high-impact materials such as aluminium and plastics. Progress depends on collaboration with suppliers, transparent data sharing and clearer supplier scorecards that help identify where the greatest carbon reductions can be achieved.
We frequently evaluate our suppliers to ensure supply continuity through multi-sourcing across global regions.
We also hold regular engagement sessions with our suppliers to assess their sustainability maturity, share best practice and support the adoption of lower-carbon technologies and processes. By working collaboratively, we can accelerate emissions reductions across the entire value chain.
6. What challenges have you encountered in scaling paper-based and compostable blister packaging?
Traditionally, pharmaceutical packaging has been designed around product protection, shelf life and machine performance. Today, it must also demonstrate strong environmental performance.
The challenge is that sustainable materials can only be adopted at scale if they deliver the same levels of stability, barrier protection, machinability and patient safety as conventional packaging. Transitioning to new materials also requires equipment validation, regulatory confidence and customer acceptance.
To support this shift, we are investing in R&D and collaborating closely with customers to develop and validate machine-compatible, lower-impact solutions.
Looking ahead, we believe the industry will continue moving towards recyclable mono-material structures that combine high barrier performance with a significantly lower environmental footprint.
We are exploring the launch of a new product which is made with a special grade of paper, coated and laminated with certified biodegradable material. However, blister forming requires special forming tools. ACG has leveraged its internal capability and designed and built the forming part which can make commercial scale paper-based blister. We have been testing the product with medium to low barrier requirement molecules. However, scalability of this product would depend on how the sustainability regulation is shaping up in future.
7. How do your packaging innovations reduce waste, transport emissions and overall footprint?
For internal waste reduction, we use digital tools and advance data analytics.
For our customers, we have created SuperPod, a new kind of laminate which reduces the usage of packaging material and the total cost of ownership throughout the life cycle.
AluPod is our sustainable range of cold-form packaging solutions designed to eliminate the use of PVC. By using alternative, lightweight materials and optimising material usage, the range helps customers significantly reduce the amount of packaging required per dose, lowering both material consumption and the overall environmental footprint. Lightweighting reduces the volume of material used. Blister-size reduction can lower material consumption and improve packing efficiency.
Digital tools also play a role by improving demand forecasting and supporting more efficient production planning. These improvements can reduce waste, avoid unnecessary production runs and improve resource utilisation across the lifecycle.
8. What sustainability criteria are used when developing new packaging materials?
Sustainability is increasingly integrated into the R&D process from the earliest stage. Key criteria include Design for recyclability (DFR), material reduction, recyclability, PVC- or halogen-free potential, carbon footprint, barrier performance, machine compatibility and customer usability.
The objective is not simply to create a greener material, but to create a solution that pharmaceutical customers can realistically adopt without compromising quality, compliance or operational efficiency.
9. How do you support pharmaceutical customers in meeting sustainability goals while maintaining compliance?
We support customers by helping them assess lower-impact packaging options without losing sight of the fundamentals: product protection, patient safety, stability and regulatory compliance.
As sustainability reporting becomes more detailed, customers increasingly need evidence-based data to support procurement and product decisions. Our role is to provide both innovation and the technical capability to achieve it.
Customers are asking how we help them to reach their net zero commitment and more specifically to reduce their Scope 3 emissions. We are embarking on the journey of achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 so that we can support our customers in their sustainability goals.
Customers are increasingly seeking product carbon footprint (PCF) data to support their own sustainability goals and comply with evolving environmental regulations, particularly within the EU. In response, we have taken a holistic approach across our operations, from sourcing lower-carbon raw materials and increasing the use of renewable energy and biofuels to improving operational efficiency throughout the manufacturing process. This enables us to provide customers with packaging materials that carry a product carbon footprint calculated using a validated methodology, giving them greater transparency and supporting more informed procurement decisions.
10. What sustainability KPIs are reported for the packaging materials business?
We recently launched our first sustainability report with where we measure our sustainability performance against a large number of KPI’s. The main ones typically include energy consumption, renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions, waste generation, recycling rates, water consumption, carbon footprint and supplier sustainability performance.
Over the past three years, progress has been driven through energy efficiency measures, renewable energy adoption, process optimisation, material innovation and supplier engagement.
For details please refer to our 2025 Sustainability Report available here: https://www.acg-world.com/sustainability
