Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY) has announced a series of recent actions that further acknowledge its accelerated sustainability efforts, ending the year with continued progress against its 2025 sustainability goals and re-committing to its role as a sustainability leader within the global value chain.
This week, the company received markedly improved scores on its transparency and actions on climate change, water, and forests by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the gold standard in environmental reporting. CDP operates a global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states, and regions to manage their environmental impacts. Avery Dennison earned an A- on forests and scored a B for climate change and for water security.
This achievement follows decisive positions taken in 2020 on transparency, human rights, and climate change, affirming how Avery Dennison plans to lead on these and other issues of growing importance to global communities. The company’s actions include:
Defining environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies and metrics as part of its ESG Download to clearly link sustainability to the company’s business strategy.
Publishing a policy on human rights, upholding the fundamental principles and requirements of basic human rights in the workplace.
Publishing a policy on climate that acknowledges the imminent threat posed by climate change and the company’s strategy to move toward a lower-carbon future, aligned with the Paris agreement and the recommendations of climate scientists. The company has already achieved significant progress to realize its climate goal, reducing absolute greenhouse gas emissions by more than 44% through the third quarter of 2020 against its 2015 baseline, which exceeds the initially set target of a 26% reduction by 2025.
Publishing a policy paper on water that acknowledges the strategic value of water as a vital resource to ensure the health of communities, businesses, and supply chains.
Updating commitments to responsible paper procurement reflective of the company’s role as a significant stakeholder in the supply chain of pulp and paper products and its role in promoting and providing sustainable and socially responsible paper products.
Significantly, in 2020, Avery Dennison also took steps to align with the United Nations’ blueprint for a more sustainable future. In November, Avery Dennison joined leading companies and stakeholders globally as a signer of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative. The company’s responsible business practices, values, and commitments are embodiments of the Compact’s ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption.
In addition, Avery Dennison aligned its own eight 2025 sustainability goals more strategically against the UN Sustainable Development Goals adopted by 193 countries as a plan for ending extreme poverty, reducing inequality, and protecting the planet by 2030.
“The global challenges of 2020 have shown unequivocally the importance of pursuing—and delivering—sustainable business practices and corporate actions that will lead to more resilient communities and business enterprises,” said Deon Stander, vice president, and general manager, retail branding and information solutions, and global corporate sustainability lead. “As we head into 2021, our strategies take on even more significance, and we will double down on innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement throughout our supply chain to make a meaningful difference for people and the planet.”
Avery Dennison is a global materials science company specializing in designing and manufacturing a wide variety of labeling and functional materials. The company’s products, which are used in nearly every major industry, include pressure-sensitive materials for labels and graphic applications; tapes and other bonding solutions for industrial, medical, and retail applications; tags, labels and embellishments for apparel; and radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions serving retail apparel and other markets. Headquartered in Glendale, California, the company employs more than 30,000 employees in over 50 countries. Reported sales in 2019 were $7.1 billion.
