Sustainability is the fiber of our company.
We connect people to products through innovative, fiber-based packaging.
WestRock creates customized, value-added solutions using the world’s most comprehensive portfolio of sustainable paper and packaging products.
Building on a legacy in sustainable forestry, we are advancing sustainable packaging—reimagining how to connect people to products in a way that is right-sized, renewable, recyclable and compostable.
We connect people to products at every step—from our fiber sourcing team, paper scientists, packaging engineers and designers, manufacturing operations and recycling professionals. Together we make packaging as strong, efficient and sustainable as possible.
Watch to learn more about WestRock’s sustainability story.
Committed to...
- People and Communities
- A better Planet
- Our Customers
People and Communities
We want WestRock to be a company where everyone genuinely belongs, is respected and valued, and can do their best work, not despite their differences but because of them. In 2019, we named our first vice president of global diversity and inclusion. We are also proud to be a founding member of the Valuable 500, a coalition of 500 global businesses that committed to making disability inclusion a priority.
A better Planet
As of the end of 2019, WestRock had reduced our greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 15% per ton of production from our baseline year of fiscal 2015. This puts us well on our way to achieving our goal of reducing GHG emissions by 20% per ton of production by 2025. Several distinguished third parties have recognized our progress and our commitment to making WestRock and our products more sustainable.
Our Customers
WestRock plays an essential role in helping our customers ensure that the products our families, friends and communities need are available and on store shelves. We create connections between consumers and the brands they trust and use every day. And we are developing new ways to connect people to products through the development of packaging that enhances relationships between brands and their customers while also minimizing environmental impact.
Reporting Our Progress
As we strengthen our partnerships with customers and communities, we are committed to transparency in reporting. Our sustainability reports are prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards.
Our Goals
Measuring up.
Accountability is a core value at WestRock, and we are committed to providing our stakeholders with regular and transparent reporting on our progress against each of our goals.
Chain of Custody
Chain of Custody
Our goal is to certify all of our wholly owned manufacturing facilities across the globe to internationally recognized chain-of-custody certification standards by 2025.
Chain-of-custody certification is a process that allows us to track the wood fiber that we purchase from the forest through our manufacturing facilities to our customers. This level of traceability through our supply chain provides greater transparency into the responsible sourcing of our wood fiber.
Current Status: 81% of global facilities are chain of custody certified
Communities
Communities
Our goal is give back to the communities where we live and work through charitable contributions and volunteer activities.
We are deeply connected to the places where we live and work. We support local communities through charitable giving and encourage teammates to volunteer their time and talents in ways that benefit their communities.
Current Status: Employee Relief Fund provided more than 1000 grants totaling $2.4 million to WestRock team members since 2005
Energy Efficiency
Energy Efficiency
Our goal is to increase energy efficiency of purchased fuels by 10% per ton of production from a 2015 baseline by 2025.
Our most energy intensive operations generate most of their own steam and electricity by using highly efficient combined heat and power systems fueled with renewable biomass. However, we are always searching for ways to increase our energy efficiency in order to benefit both the environment and our bottom line.
Current Status: Three percent decrease in energy efficiency since 2015
Greenhouse Gases
Greenhouse Gases
Our goal is to reduce our CO2e emissions by 20% per ton of production from a 2015 baseline by 2025.
WestRock is committed to acting as a responsible steward of the environment, and we are always looking for opportunities to improve the environmental footprint of our manufacturing operations. Our environmental commitment includes efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels.
Current Status: 15 percent intensity reduction and 21 percent absolute reduction since 2015
Innovation
Innovation
Our goal is to apply sustainable design principles to all of our product design work.
We believe sustainability drives innovation. Designing products that use renewable fiber, optimize the use of materials, and are recyclable at the end of their useful life benefits the environment and is good for business—our customers’ and ours.
Current Status: Launched 27 new products with defined sustainability benefits in FY2019
Safety
Safety
Our goal is to reduce our OSHA incident rate by 25% from a 2015 baseline by 2025 with the ultimate goal of becoming an injury-free workplace.
Keeping our 39,000 teammates safe is our highest responsibility. “Safety First, Safety Always!” That’s how we aspire to operate our business around the world every day.
Current Status: Recordable Incident Rate increased 14% from 2015 baseline
Supplier Diversity
Supplier Diversity
Our goal is create a more diverse and robust supply chain by increasing our managed spend with minority-owned businesses and suppliers.
We are working to create a more diverse supply chain. We believe that increasing supplier diversity will create more routes for us to procure the goods and services that our operations rely on, in addition to providing fresh perspectives on our business.
Current Status: $900 million spent with diverse suppliers in calendar 2019
Water Use
Water Use
Our goal is to map the water use in our most water-intensive manufacturing operations by 2018 and develop water reduction plans for strategic watersheds by 2020.
Our largest facilities have manufacturing processes that use water for a variety of process purposes, and having a clean and abundant supply of water is critical to our operations. In order to protect local and regional water supplies, we intend to develop site-specific strategies for improving water conservation and increasing water recycling at our containerboard and paperboard mills.
Current Status: Developed site specific water reduction plans for largest water users in VA & FL - met 2018 and 2020 aspects of water goal
Certified Fiber
Certified Fiber
Our goal is to increase our purchases of virgin fiber from lands certified to credible forest management standards by 25% by 2025.
We support forest certification, a voluntary, third-party verified process by which forest landowners adhere to a prescribed set of sustainable forest management practices. Procuring wood fiber from these lands demonstrates our commitment to sustainable use of forest resources.
Current Status: Net decrease of 4.7% in the purchase of virgin fiber from our 2015 baseline.
Certified Land
Certified Land
Our goal is to promote increases in the amount of land that is certified to internationally recognized forest management standards through our landowner outreach activities.
We understand the land management needs of small, private forest owners and can provide them with resources to help them certify their properties to recognized international standards. Increasing the amount of certified land will create a more abundant supply of sustainable, virgin fiber for our operations.
Current Status: More than 514,000 acres certified since 2015.
Sustainable Fiber
- Sustainable Fiber
- Fiber Sourcing
Sustainable Fiber
Renew. Recover. Recycle.
Paper is the original green packaging.
Our products made with virgin fiber—a renewable resource—begin with wood sourced from responsibly managed forests. We actively promote efforts to increase the amount of land certified to recognized forest management standards and have created one of the largest chain-of-custody certified fiber procurement organizations in the industry.
We also have one of the industry’s largest recycling networks, and reuse fiber-based packaging to manufacture a variety of new paperboard and 100-percent recycled products.
We believe the most sustainable approach to fiber sourcing is one that balances virgin and recycled materials.
Fiber Sourcing
Sustainability is in our roots.
Our love of forests and our commitment to responsibly sourcing the wood fiber we use is embodied in what we do every day. Our team of forestry professionals has a long history of educating landowners and communities on the best practices for managing forest lands, and the research programs we support help ensure the health and productivity of our forests for years to come.
We’ve created one of the industry’s largest independently audited systems for tracking and ensuring that the wood harvested for use in our manufacturing operations is done in compliance with laws, with respect for traditional and human rights, and in a manner that protects forest ecosystems and regions of high conservation value.
WestRock’s fiber certification systems provide our company and yours with assurance that the paper and packaging products we make contain fiber from well-managed forests.