A VPK pledge put in practice for a sustainable present and a future proof living

Since its foundation more than 85 years ago, VPK has never stopped growing.
And our ambitions reach even further. To realize our growth objectives, we count
on the commitment and enthusiasm of more than 6,200 employees in 65 locations
around the world. at is why we take various actions to empower our people,
making sure we remain a great company to work for, now and in the future.

It is not yet clear the impact that these unprecedented
crises will have on the future of our modern society and
economy. However, the ongoing healthcare crisis has already shown that in times of emergency it is possible for
countries, businesses, and individuals to unbend beyond
the unthinkable and truly change their habits.
We have a mission to maintain the functionality of our
business while maintaining our team’s security a paramount factor. Its our responsibility to contribute to the
new normal by giving full support in avoiding supply chains and market disruptions.
Six pillars exemplify our company’s commitment to contributing to the development of a cleaner, fairer, and better
world. We have built these pillars on the UN Sustainable
Development Goals and established clearly dened KPIs
in order to monitor our progress. is remains an ongoing
process.
Building a strong safety
culture across the whole
company
e health, safety and welfare of our people is our top priority and as such, we are committed to build a strong safety
culture across the whole company. Over the past years we
have introduced several initiatives to facilitate this process
with the objective of creating a safe site and reducing the
risk of incidents, work accidents and ill health. us, at
VPK Packaging Salonta we managed to have almost 900
days without any accident, which is a great indicator of our
safety performance.
The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented and has
seen a complete change to the way we have to live our
personal and work lives. Businesses were forced to shut
down, people were asked to stay home as much as possible. Our activity, however, was deemed essential during
the crisis, because our packaging is used to support
the essential supply of medication, food, and other vital goods that makes our life better. As a response to
the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we chose to
adapt rather than resist, so, from day one, we took all
the necessary measures to continue our operations by
securing the supply of resources, ensuring transport,
and motivating our people to stay on board. There where challenging days during state of emergency and we
managed to have no stoppages, technical unemployment, workday reduction or salary cuts. We had regular
communications with all team members, detailing the
importance of our work, and have put a lot of effort in
ensuring that safe working conditions are in place and
maintained at all times.
For our personnel who could work from home, we helped
and supported this process providing the right tools and
ICT support for remote activity. For those who needed
to come in for work, we focused on ensuring social distancing and the adherence to strict hygiene measures.
We also made physical changes to canteens, toilets and
locker rooms enhancing social distancing. Having implemented a BRC food safety certicate in VPK Packaging
Salonta, we made it easier for our employee to adapt and
embrace all these changes. Regardless of what the future might bring, we will continue to be vigilant and will
maintain our enhanced health and safety measures, to
make sure we are prepared for any situation that might
lie ahead.
culture: creativity & rewards
Oering a stable work environment within a framework of
corporate responsibility and sustainability allows motivated and qualied employees to pursue an exciting career
path in which initiative is rewarded and recognized and
opportunities can be seized. One of these initiatives will be
detailed later on, proving creativity and rewards importance in generating new original ideas.
Business sustainability
rating platform accounts
Transparency within the value chain is a complex issue in
a globalized economy. Our Group has selected two wellrespected platforms to work with and to address these issues (Business sustainability rating Ecovadis and Sedex).
On one hand, we create transparency for our customers
and, on the other, we reduce risks and build on opportunities for our direct and indirect suppliers.
A customer- centric company for excellent services
We build long-term partnerships with our customers,
suppliers, local communities, and other stakeholders. As a
customer-centric company, we pride ourselves in being extremely exible and providing excellent service. Being part
of the VPK Packaging Group (www.vpkgroup.com) and the
BBP Alliance (wwww.blueboxpartners.eu), helps us to allocate the right resources in delivering a great customer experience. Moreover, we can oer our multinational customers
the right solution to purchase centrally on European level
and deliver locally all over Europe, respecting specic local
needs and pledging the same quality and services.
Circular solutions
Our products are made from renewable raw materials,
making optimal use of energy, water, and materials. We keep
track of our water consumption and take active steps to reduce it. Also, production of paper-based products is energyintensive, so we manage it accordingly. We aim for energy
eciency, well planned energy conversion and alternative fuels. us, we protect and limit our use of the planet’s energy
resources. e emission of fossil-based CO2 poses a threat to
our planet’s carrying capacity. We have committed ourselves
to becoming carbon neutral as fast as possible.
Consolidating new partnerships
“As a fast-growing company, we invest heavily in order to
ensure our customers that expenditures in our technical
and structural business competences, around 3,5 million
euros till middle of next year, will continue, consolidating
new partnerships which will allow us to maintain our
market position”, Bart Dobbelaere, Managing Director at
VPK Packaging Salonta, states.

Preparing for the
new normal…
Since our previous sustainability report, the world has faced additional crises. ese include the protest marches
denouncing racial discrimination, the massive bushres
in Australia and the global COVID-19 pandemic.
At VPK, we continuously strive to change our practices
for the better and to inuence the habits of the packaging
industry by doing so. While our product is a sustainable alternative to many other packaging substitutes, our
industry remains resource intensive. at is why we are
committed to the long-lasting sourcing of primary resources, eco-ecient production, and innovative practices
to lead the way in sustainability.
With a world population of 7 billion people and limited
natural resources, we, as individuals and societies, need
to learn to live together in a sustainable way. We need to
take responsible actions based on the understanding that
what we do today can impact our lives and planet in future. erefore, education for Sustainable Development
empowers people to change the way they think and work
towards a sustainable future.
If you want people to care about the environment, educate them.
There has been increasing recognition of the critical
role of education for sustainability. It became clear that
moving towards sustainability requires changes in the
way we live (consumption and production patterns). As
a support for environmental education, we developed a
non-formal teaching material: a board game, which is a
creative and systematic problem-solving tool and develops critical thinking and empathy towards the natural
world. These are invaluable skills that future education
systems should sharpen as much as possible. As the concept of smart cities sought to provide answers to sustainability challenges by combining new technologies with
humanist ideals, leaving no one behind, inspired us in
giving to our board game the same name. Smart City,
as we named it, teaches you to plan and manage cities,
to equip them, to provide resources and to embrace the
necessity of new ways of thinking, citizen engagement
and collaboration. As today’s students will need to deal
with complex sustainability challenges, we believe that
this initiative will stimulate and raise, in a creative way,
awareness and sensitivity on environmental problems
(waste generators, recycling different type of waste,
value of a smart strategy, business acumen and so on).
“Whatever the future might bring, at VPK we continue
to believe in the power of our robust business model as
a supplier of sustainable packaging. For us, sustainability is the essential way to remain relevant as a company
and to build a future-proof, resilient business”, Pierre
Macharis, CEO, VPK Group.