On Thursday, July 22, Graham Packaging was awarded the Samaritan Counseling Center’s 2021 Ethics in Business Award, which highlights businesses, companies, and organizations in Lancaster County that are committed to operating ethically.

Graham Packaging was selected for its work in five key areas, including integrity, fairness, stewardship, life enhancement and transparent, as well as its dedication to sustainability, company culture, quality benefits and innovation. Congratulations team!

Lancaster, Pennsylvania — (May 12, 2021) —Graham Packaging, an industry leader in the design and manufacturing of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions, announces the release of its 2020 Sustainability Report. The comprehensive report documents the challenges Graham Packaging overcame in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic while staying focused on helping customers achieve their sustainability goals as well as Graham’s own efforts to continue innovating within the sustainable packaging solutions industry.

“The pandemic required us to adapt quickly to create increased safety measures while overcoming numerous logistics challenges. As a member of the packaging industry, we were designated as an essential business, so while most of the world slowed down, we had to keep our efforts in 2020 on pace,” said Tracee Auld, Chief Sustainability Officer & Chief Growth Officer, Graham Packaging. “That meant we had to innovate our processes and work around the limitations created by COVID-19, while continuing our ongoing mission to develop new packaging designs to create recyclable, responsible products for consumers.”

While COVID-19 posed a challenge for Graham Packaging, it was far from the company’s sole focus in 2020. The Pennsylvania-based company continued to successfully move ahead on many important initiatives, including:

• Expanding its commitment to sustainability by signing on to the UN Global Compact, the largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative in the world.
• Helping to launch the National Lubricant Container Recycling Coalition, an organization that will tackle issues around oil bottle recycling.
• Joining the Digital Watermarks Initiative Holy Grail 2.0 project to improve recycling operations through the use of digital watermarks in sorting efforts.
• Continuing to innovate in product lightweighting, durability and reusability, helping to   reduce unnecessary plastic.
• Driving the industry on ethics and governance issues, including initiatives on Graham’s codes of conduct and its strategic response to climate change.

Further, Graham Packaging achieved a number of milestones in 2020 that stem from Graham’s core mission of environmentally responsible packaging manufacturing. These successes include:

• Ranking No. 1 out of 54 companies in the plastic, metal and glass packaging industry in the ESG Risk Rating Report, where 1 is the lowest risk. The third-party evaluator, Sustainalytics, also rated Graham Packaging as No. 3 out of 90 companies in the containers packaging industry and overall placed Graham in the top 2% of 13,562 companies measured globally by Sustainalytics.
• Offering 91% fully recyclable PET & HDPE containers and 7% sometimes recyclable PP containers.
• Accomplishing an 8% reduction in climate change impacts from 2019 to 2020.
• Reducing its energy intensity by 8% from a 2018 baseline, on its way to its 2025 goal of a 25% reduction.
• Winning the 2020 Innovator Award from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
• Earning a 95% favorability rating for its Environmental, Health & Safety in an internal employee survey.
• Completing 50 life cycle assessment studies to help customers lower their own environmental impact.

To review the complete 2020 Sustainability Report from Graham Packaging, visit https://www.grahampackaging.com/sustainability.

About Graham Packaging

Graham Packaging is a global leader in the development and design of creative, sustainable packaging solutions for a variety of industry-leading consumer brands. The company employs some of the best and brightest package designers, who bring inspired, technology-driven solutions to market. Headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a flagship manufacturing facility in nearby York, Pennsylvania, Graham Packaging produces more than 16 billion containers annually across nearly 70 plants in North America, Asia, Europe and South America. The company was founded in 1970 and acquired in 2011 by Reynolds Group Holdings — a leading global manufacturer and supplier of consumer food and beverage packaging and storage products. For additional information on Graham Packaging, please visit https://www.grahampackaging.com/.

Lancaster, Pa — (February 23, 2021) —Graham Packaging recently received its inaugural Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Rating from Sustainalytics, where it ranked number one out of 54 others in the plastic, metal and glass packaging industry category. The company also ranked third in the containers and packaging industry segment and received an overall ranking of 169 out of more than 13,560 global companies who were assessed — landing it in the top 2%.

“We are so incredibly proud of this industry-leading ranking in our first-ever ESG Rating,” said Mike King, chief executive officer, Graham Packaging. “Our rating shows that we are a global leader in taking action to support best practices in governance, social responsibility and environmental stewardship.”

Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings measure a company’s exposure to industry-specific material ESG risks and how well a company is managing those risks. This multi-dimensional way of measuring ESG risk combines the concepts of management and exposure to arrive at an assessment of ESG risk that is comparable across all industries. Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings distinguish between five levels of risk: negligible, low, medium, high and severe, with a lower score equating to a better risk assessment. Graham Packaging’s low-risk rating of 11 was the best of all rated plastic, glass and metal packaging companies.

“Our ESG Risk Rating is a clear sign of our dedication to creating sustainable packaging that minimizes harm to the planet,” said Tracee Auld, chief sustainability officer, Graham Packaging. “As a packaging company, we understand the important role we play in taking steps necessary to reduce emissions and manage climate risks.”

“Graham has been working tirelessly to position itself as the leading sustainable packaging company in the industry, and this ranking is validation that our time and efforts were well spent,” added Balaji Jayaseelan, director of sustainability and regulatory affairs, Graham Packaging. “We will build on the great work we have already done, while continuing to deliver best-in-class sustainable packaging solutions to our valued customers.”

In addition to its low-ESG-risk rating, Graham Packaging also received high marks for its risk management. Graham’s strong score of 62.3 reflects how well the company is managing its relevant ESG issues and assesses the robustness of Graham’s sustainability programs, practices and policies.

To learn more about Graham Packaging’s sustainability efforts, please visit https://www.grahampackaging.com/ESG.

About Graham Packaging

Graham Packaging is a global leader in the development and design of creative, sustainable packaging solutions for a variety of industry-leading consumer brands. The company employs some of the best and brightest package designers, who bring inspired, technology-driven solutions to market. Headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a flagship manufacturing facility in nearby York, Pennsylvania, Graham Packaging produces more than 16 billion containers annually across nearly 70 plants in North America, Europe and South America. The company was founded in 1970 and acquired in 2011 by Reynolds Group Holdings — a leading global manufacturer and supplier of consumer food and beverage packaging and storage products. For additional information on Graham Packaging, please visit https://www.grahampackaging.com/.

Copyright ©2021 Sustainalytics. All rights reserved. This press release contains information developed by Sustainalytics (www.sustainalytics.com). Such information and data are proprietary of Sustainalytics and/or its third party suppliers (Third Party Data) and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not constitute an endorsement of any product or project, nor an investment advice and are not warranted to be complete, timely, accurate or suitable for a particular purpose. Their use is subject to conditions available at https://www.sustainalytics.com/legal-disclaimers.

Lancaster, Pa — (January 26, 2021) — Today, Graham Packaging, a global leader in the design and manufacturing of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions, launches a new website and corporate identity. Founded more than 50 years ago, the company is reintroducing itself to reinforce and elevate its commitment to smart, sustainable packaging.

“I am thrilled to be part of this pivotal moment for Graham Packaging as we launch into a new era of inspired, one-of-a-kind packaging that poses minimal impact to the planet,” said Mike King, chief executive officer, Graham Packaging. “Our new branding and website reflect the drive and enthusiasm we all have to position ourselves as a leader and innovator of sustainable packaging solutions.”

With vibrant splashes of color and inspired insights from designers, the new Graham Packaging website exhibits the ingenuity and creative spirit that is the heart of its operations. The company’s ability to consistently “build a better bottle” is demonstrated through collaboration and innovative problem solving that results in both a happy customer and a cleaner world.

As a signatory to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation pledge, which aims to create a circular economy, Graham Packaging leads in the charge to create a wide range of sustainable packaging solutions. These include lightweighting through an innovative extrusion blow molding process, rescuing ocean-bound plastics and creating opaque resins that can be detected through recycling streams.

“Since the conversion of a metal oil can into safer, cleaner and lighter plastic packaging, Graham Packaging has consistently pushed the boundaries to deliver creative solutions that support global sustainability goals,” added King. “Our best days are ahead, knowing we have the people and technology in place to create sustainable solutions that care for future generations.”

Lancaster, Pennsylvania – Graham Packaging, an industry leader in the design and manufacturing of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions, was identified by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) as an innovator of reusable packaging, winning the Innovation in Recovery award. Specifically, the SPC recognized Graham’s REFPET returnable, refillable PET containers as a leading sustainability solution that results in 47% longer reuse cycles than its previous generations of REFPET bottles.

Graham’s REFPET containers have been used to package beverages for large, well-known brands for over 30 years, but a recent creative upgrade solved a persistent challenge that faces most reusable packaging. When a bottle is reused, significant wear and scuffing can occur, which reduces the number of times the bottle can be reused before its aesthetic properties become unacceptable.

To combat this problem, Graham added a bubble texture to their REFPET Generation III bottles. This texture has increased the containers’ average number of reuse cycles from 17 to 25. The SPC recognized this effort by awarding Graham with a 2020 Innovator Award for Innovation in Recovery. They also noted that rather than avoiding the problem, the Graham team embraced the challenge to create a solution that both mitigated a loss and enhanced the visual appearance of the container.

“For us, sustainability is a part of everything we do, and innovation is core to who we are,” said Tracee Auld, chief sustainability officer at Graham Packaging Company. “To be recognized by a body such as the Sustainable Packaging Coalition says a lot about where we are already and where we need to continue to focus our efforts to deliver innovative, sustainable products.”

This September, the Graham Recycling Company based in York, Pa., is celebrating 30 years of operations. The plant, which recycles #2 HDPE bottles into post-consumer resin (PCR), is one of the largest plastic recycling facilities in the northeastern United States. It also was one of the first big sustainability initiatives at Graham, says Richard Wiest, plant manager of the Graham Recycling Center.

“Graham was looking at being environmentally conscious and wanted to be able to recycle what they were producing,” says Wiest. “Graham was way ahead of the game. Recycling plants are now the norm, but not everyone was thinking that way 30 years ago.”

The benefits of having an in-house recycling plant are twofold. Not only has it helped the packaging side of Graham become one of the largest suppliers of bottle-grade recycled plastic containers in North America, but it’s also enabled the company to become more sustainable over time. By diverting plastic from landfills, the recycling facility helps save energy and natural resources, as well as substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The plant is also extremely important to Graham’s mission to create a circular economy. In order for Graham to make packaging that can truly claim it’s “made from recycled materials,” Graham’s plants need access to large volumes of recycled content. The center helps to source a majority of our recycled HDPE material.

Wiest, along with two other employees — Ron Ward and Curt Hosley — have been there since day one. Wiest had just graduated from Slippery Rock University in August before starting at the recycling plant when it opened on Sept. 26, 1990. The plant started with one line to create the material before adding a second line in 1992, and then a third in 1993. The plant has operated with three lines since then.

“The process hasn’t changed a lot,” says Wiest. “It’s a lot more efficient than how we used to do it back in the day, but overall it’s relatively the same.”

The process at the GRC starts with recycled material being brought to the plant. The bales are run through a sorting line to check for quality and any contamination, like PET bottles, tin cans, corrugate and more. The bottles are then washed and ground down before entering a float tank, which helps ensure only HDPE is captured since it floats to the top. The rHDPE grind is processed and finalized before eventually getting packaged into boxes or bulk trucks and shipped to Graham plants all over the country that manufacture HDPE bottles.

In 2019, the GRC processed 41.1 million pounds of post-consumer material, all of which Graham uses to manufacture automotive and homecare products for Graham’s customers. The GRC creates about 167,000 pounds of finished product a day.

The plant is also extremely important to Graham’s mission to create a circular economy. Today, Graham is focused on expanding its sustainability efforts. Over the past 24 months, the company began securing ocean-bound plastics to be recycled at the GRC. It is also working to attain certification from the Association of Plastic Recyclers to validate and trace the origins of material it collects for recycling.

Wiest notes that this dedication to protecting the planet is what drives the staff to keep making improvements and seeking success at the recycling plant.

“We were one of the first ones to do it, so it wasn’t like we could turn to someone who was already there for step-by-step instructions,” says Wiest. “We all banded together and I believe that spirit is what has made us successful.”