Ecoresponsibility report 2023: successful first steps!

Remember, in 2023, we had an ecoresponsible plan – ambitious, yes! – and, above all, very specific in scope: to revolutionize packaging for a sustainable world! The environment at the heart of our actions: this has always been our approach to our industry! But the time has come to find out if we have walked the talk…

And we have! The strategies we have implemented over the past have paid off. The proof?
The use of renewable natural gas (RNG) alone has allowed us to reduce our GHGs by 11%! That’s a great start to our ecoresponsible report!

But we have plenty of other news to share with you. Yes, it’s important for us to keep you informed, for the sake of transparency – and why not – to inspire you or encourage you to take action for the environment. And also, we must say, out of pride, because our results are rather good 😉!

How about a quick reminder of our goals? We wanted to:

	Be a carbon-neutral company (psst: we have been carbon neutral since January 15th, 2021!)
	Source at least 50% of our natural gas from renewable sources (we’ve done that too!)
	Clearly identify and expand our portfolio of “green” products (a work in progress!)
	Reduce our customers’ environmental footprint through our laboratory (this is now standard practice in all our mandates)
	Increase our social contribution to nearly 600 hours per year (it’s underway!)

January 15th, 2021 will forever mark our history, because it was on this date that we became carbon neutral… and we’ve been carbon neutral ever since! How can we keep this promise for years to come? A more than relevant question, given that in our industry, reducing GHG emissions to 0 is more of a miracle than a good resolution! Our solutions? Compensate for the emissions we produce, and at the same time seek ways to reduce them at source.

To do this, we invested via the Gold Standard credit system in three different funds:

Planetair Portfolio (Gold Standard) – The only organization recommended by Protégez-vous. Our support has benefited several of their initiatives: improved cooking stoves in Nepal, wind power in Chile, India and Turkey, and improved waste management in Brazil. The result? A reduction of around 1.6 million tonnes of GHGs per year for all these projects combined. Amazing! And it’s just the beginning!

Planetair and ÉTS portfolio. Our credits supported a university research fund on the fight against climate change in applied engineering. Among other things, these research teams worked to reduce the GHGs associated with aircraft movements on the tarmac. The result? A reduction of 7,200 tonnes per year for Montréal-Trudeau airport! In 2023, this fund focused on a project combining food self-sufficiency and climate change. The aim? To find thermal storage solutions for small-scale greenhouses dedicated to fruit and vegetable production in Quebec. Talk about ambition!

Planetair and Nature Québec portfolio. Our compensation and that of several other companies contributed to the creation of a new area protected by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and straddling three municipalities – Lyster, Saint-Agathe-de Lotbinière and Saint-Gilles. And this amazing portrait is completed by 200 acres of protected trails from Mont Sutton to Vermont, 285 meters of walkways in the Alfred-Kelly nature reserve, and a permanent research and education laboratory in the Outaouais region devoted to the study of climate change.

For the past year, our laboratory has been able to calculate the quantity of GHG emitted by your current packaging AND that emitted by your optimized packaging. You won’t find a better way of quantifying your efforts and the impact of your optimization!

Judge for yourself: by 2023, all the mandates carried out by our laboratory will have generated – drum roll – a reduction of 132,000 kg of GHGs per year. If that’s hard to imagine, that’s the equivalent of about 864 round-trips from Montreal to Quebec City with a gas-powered SUV. Oh my God, right? And 27,236 kg is the amount of plastic we’ve managed to reduce per year. Needless to say, we are on fire!

All these results don’t just make us shine in society: they also help our customers cut their expenses. In fact, considering the total of all laboratory mandates for 2023, we helped our clients save a total of $1,007,700. We can’t say it often enough: packaging optimization is an affordable solution that has proven its worth in terms of reducing GHGs and costs. So, when will it be your turn?

We can’t get enough of heating our buildings with 50% renewable natural gas. Why do we do this? Certainly, for its virtually zero impact in terms of GHGs. The same applies to our search for green products, which is now part of our purchasing team’s daily routine.

One thing’s for sure: we’re persevering with these objectives. Because let’s face it: while our ultimate goal is obviously to reduce our emissions at source, this year we also want to set up a feasibility plan for the greening of our transport fleet. Always in solution mode to reduce our GHGs! Because an 11% reduction is one thing, but our challenge is so much greater!

Are you interested in our eco-responsible adventure? Come and discuss it with us, and you’ll see that there’s no such thing as a small gesture. We’re proud to help you broaden your environmental perspective!