Sabert Expands Commitment to Sustainability in Food Packaging with Strategic Investments and Program Updates

Company-wide Earthtelligent Program Addresses Complex Industry Challenges with Customer Collaboration and Innovation

SAYREVILLE, NJ. (OCTOBER 8, 2019) Sabert Corporation, a leading food packaging manufacturing company, today announced updates to its long-standing sustainability efforts in response to evolving customer demand and shifting industry realities.  Formalized under the program name, Earthtelligent, the company is making increased investments and upgrades in its recycling and closed-loop manufacturing; and driving innovations in product and process design. 

Earthtelligent is Sabert’s own umbrella sustainability program.  The company-wide effort is designed to be collaborative and industry-inclusive, covering the five critical pillars of environmental responsibility:  

  1.           Waste Reduction

  2.           Energy Conservation

  3.           Education and Advocacy

  4.           Smart Sourcing

  5.           Research and Reinvention

“Since Sabert’s inception, it has always been a priority to minimize our environmental impact and we’ve worked to remain socially responsible for over 36 years,” said Albert Salama, CEO and Founder of Sabert Corporation. “We’ve collaborated with countless customers to define the sustainability landscape and the challenges and opportunities they face. Our Earthtelligent program coordinates and energizes these efforts to connect better environmental outcomes to smart business innovations.” 

Under its signature Earthtelligent program banner, Sabert continues to apply innovative business thinking to help solve its customers’ complex and evolving environmental challenges. The company has announced its commitment to increasing the share of sales from sustainable products from 40% (in 2018) to 70% by 2025. Sabert’s most recent enhancements and investments focus on two of its core pillars: Waste Reduction and Education and Advocacy. 

Waste Reduction – Achieving Closed-loop Manufacturing

Moving towards closed-loop manufacturing, Sabert has made significant investments to establishing and operating a stand-alone plastic recycling and resin processing plant, called Nuvida. Using advanced processing technology, the Nuvida plant collects post-use plastic products and re-processes them into high-quality raw non-virgin resin used in Sabert’s manufacturing lines. The company estimates that its closed-loop manufacturing process has helped divert more than 5,000 tons of plastic from landfills annually.

To further expand its recycling and waste reduction efforts, Sabert worked with Nuvida to obtain a letter of compliance from the Food & Drug Administration, allowing its resins to be used in highly regulated applications with direct food contact. These innovations, combined with smart sourcing strategies, have resulted in post-use waste recycling equivalent to the weight of more than 300 million plastic bottles.

 

Education and Advocacy – Sharing Knowledge and Best Practices Across the Industry

New investments in Education and Advocacy are also fulfilling Sabert’s long-standing commitments. The company recently expanded its Earthtelligent team with the addition of a Senior Manager of Sustainability as well as other expanded roles. In addition, leadership has worked internally to host a number of interactive employee training events and learning sessions to educate employees across all facilities at all levels.

Externally, Sabert is also partnering with customers to further the education surrounding sustainability in the industry. Through a diverse range of tools including focused sustainability meetings, panel discussions, roundtables, and trend reports, leaders across the company have connected with their customers to discuss the challenges faced and the collaborative solutions available within the sustainable packaging space.

About Earthtelligent

Earthtelligent is Sabert's experience-led sustainability excellence program, driving improved environmental outcomes through innovative business thinking. It is focused on five critical pillars of environmental responsibility, including: Waste Reduction, Energy Conservation, Education & Advocacy, Smart Sourcing and Research & Reinvention. Each is underpinned by goals, actions and metrics.

Learn more: www.sabert.com/sustainability

About Sabert

Sabert is a leading global manufacturer of innovative food packaging products and solutions. The company was founded in 1983 on a single mission: to enhance and advance the way people enjoy food. Headquartered in Sayreville, New Jersey, Sabert operates North American facilities in New Jersey, California, Indiana, Kentucky, and Texas (opening in 2020) as well as manufacturing facilities in Nivelles, Belgium and Zhongshan, China. Using its proprietary Packaging Value Model™, Sabert combines deep insights about food lifecycles and consumer lifestyles, with fast and flexible production capabilities. Its industry-leading product designs encompass all five areas of innovative packaging: Performance, Presentation, Safety, Sustainability and Economics.