Our sustainability Initiatives
We are part of the solution
We are taking action for a more sustainable future. Our investments and initiatives are a testament to that commitment. From adopting renewable energy sources, implementing energy-efficient technologies, sourcing responsibly to championing diversity, we are dedicated to making a positive sustainability impact. We actively engage with our community and stakeholders, driving a culture of sustainability and innovation.
Visy's National Recycling Roundtable
In collaboration with Nine Newspapers, Visy co-hosts an annual Recycling Roundtable. The roundtable features senior executives of major supermarkets and packaged food producers in Australia, as well as government leaders. As one of Australia’s largest recycling and packaging companies, we co-lead the initiative to discuss policies and strategic directions the industry can take to increase waste diverted from landfill for reuse and recycling. Among the key focuses of the roundtable are steps to reduce waste, get business and communities on board, and maximise opportunities for reuse and remanufacturing.
Supporting our customers to make more sustainable choices
We work with our customers to design and produce packaging that meets their own sustainability targets or requirements by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation. As packaging is constantly evolving, we take an innovative and collaborative approach with our customers’ product development process. We support our customers to:
- swap problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging, like EPS, for alternatives such as paper bags and corrugated fibre solutions
- consider key sustainability considerations—without compromising functionality—when choosing packaging.
Download our 10 tips for building better boxes:
Our investments reduce water consumption at Tumut paper mill
We continue to invest in technologies to reduce water consumption at our kraft paper mill. In 2020 we implemented a water evaporation and treatment technology to enable greater internal recycling of water. If the water cannot be further recycled, we treat it and reuse it as cooling water, with any excess used for irrigation on the surrounding farmland. In winter, we store excess water in a dam, for use in summer. We also capture and use rainfall run-off from the mill. By doing this, the site maintains low water intensity totals with water consumption at 3.01kL per tonne of paper in FY22 compared to average water consumption for paper making between 5 and 20 kL per tonne of paper.
Engaging the next generation of Australians
For more than four years, we have partnered with Cool Australia to instil values and awareness on sustainability from a young age. Together we have designed, developed and promoted educational curriculum resources for teachers across early learning, primary and secondary schools.
We provide 34 free lesson plans and education resources on resource recovery and recycling for councils and schools. To date, more than 4,600 teachers and early learning educators have downloaded these resources across Australia and taught more than 630,000 students. This partnership was recognised when we won the 'Our Packaging Future Award in Consumer Education' by APCO in 2022.
“We are so proud to have partnered with Visy to support teachers embed sustainability into classrooms. Visy’s lessons give students the opportunity to understand issues that relate to Visy’s operations, in particular, recycling and the circular economy. The lessons created via this partnership empower students and adults to work together on community-driven projects.”
– Thea Stinear, CEO of Cool Australia
Our cogeneration facilities
Visy produces significant thermal and electrical renewable energy onsite at its three cogeneration facilities in Tumut (New South Wales), Coolaroo (Victoria) and Gibson Island (Queensland).
Our cogeneration facilities use fuels derived from non-recyclable waste from the pulp and paper making process. These fuel sources include timber offcuts, bark, black liquor (a by-product from making pulp) and mill rejects (a by-product from making recycled paper).
In FY22, the recovered fuels for our embedded energy generating facilities avoided approximately 87,000 tonnes of waste from going to landfill, which is the equivalent of avoiding approximately 37,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
