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Irish Distillers sets green packaging goal
Pernod Ricard’s Irish Distillers arm has committed to recycling, reusing or removing secondary packaging across its whiskey portfolio by the end of 2025.
As part of Pernod Ricard’s Sustainability and Responsibility 2030 roadmap, Irish Distillers will adopt packaging changes such as removing gift boxes from its Jameson range, which will result in four million units being eliminated between now and the end of 2025.
By this time, Pernod Ricard is aiming for all secondary packaging for its Irish whiskey portfolio to be recycled, reused, composted or removed.
Nodjame Fouad, chairman and CEO, Irish Distillers, said: “Operating and thinking sustainably is not an option; it is a necessity.
“In recent years, we have made a number of changes across our operations to support our sustainability and responsibility ambitions. Today, we are announcing new sustainable packaging changes across our portfolio of whiskeys to help reduce waste.”
Pernod Ricard’s Sustainability and Responsibility roadmap supports the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), and applies five key principles at each step of product lifecycle.
Fouad added: “We understand that reducing our impact at all stages of our value chain is critical and this includes packaging waste such as cardboard and choosing more sustainable packaging materials.
“We will continue to apply Pernod Ricard’s key principles: rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle and respect, minimising waste at each step of our product lifecycle.”
In addition, gift packs containing secondary items such as hip flasks or drinking glasses will be made 100% recyclable, and any new products will be put through an eco-design tool to ensure that they are designed ‘according to the key principles of Pernod Ricard’s Circular Making strategy’.
The removal of gift boxes will also be applied to Irish whiskey brands Powers, Spot, and Knappogue Castle.
The Midleton Rare 2023 whiskey, due for release later this month (February), will also be presented in a recyclable box, rather than the wooden box previously used, while Redbreast 21 and 27 will see the same transition by the end of 2025.
Last year, Irish Distillers revealed it will invest €250m (US$248.8m) to build a new carbon-neutral whiskey distillery in Midleton, County Cork.
In March 2022, Pernod Ricard partnered with spirits distribution system Ecospirits to utilise closed loop packaging technology in 80 bars across Singapore and Hong Kong.