How one Danish company took the sustainability crown by cutting 290 tonnes of annual CO2 emissions

Danish Crown is a global meat processing company and among the largest in its field. They have a comprehensive environmental responsibility strategy that includes a number of goals that will help minimize the company's overall environmental impact. As part of this work, Danish Crown and DS Smith jointly launched a project to develop an optimized packaging solution to reduce total CO2 emissions.

The Challenge

Danish Crown sends and receives hundreds of pallets daily with lorries drivingthe roads. Optimising packaging to reduce those journeys represented a golden opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint. At DS Smith we are keenly aware of the potential to reduce the environmental impact at each stage of the supply chain without compromising on the quality and functionality of the packaging.

Our Approach

By reviewing the entire Danish Crown supply chain and packaging range, DS Smith could see great optimization potential. Through a long-term dialogue with Danish Crown, where a number of different tests were also carried out, the companies jointly reached a solution. The solution consisted primarily of converting from B-flute corrugate to R-flute on the 4-point-glued lid used in most of the packages.

The R-flute corrugate reduces the amount of material in the package as it is approx. 27% thinner than B-flute, without compromising on carrying capacity and durability in relation to Danish Crown's needs. The smaller amount of material in the packaging reduces Danish Crown's CO₂ emissions, as the number of pallets is reduced. It is therefore a win-win situation, as the number of arriving lorries is reduced and the pressure on the roads is reduced too. In addition, warehouse, handling and shipping costs are also reduced based on the optimizations. This is a clear example of how the reduction of CO₂ emissions and costs goes hand in hand.

The Results

- Reduction of CO₂ emissions by 290 tonnes, due to reduced paper consumption and fewer lorries on the roads

- 25% reduction in warehouse, handling and shipping costs, as the number of pallets in both inbound and outbound logistics has decreased

Customer experience

The final solution has directly contributed to the fact that we have been able to reduce our CO2 emissions by 290 tons annually - a result that reflects our high environmental ambitions. It has been a big advantage for the project that we have had one contact person at DS Smith, who has had the skills and been involved in the processes right from the start - from the initial calculations and tests to the final implementation.

— Sandra Schwarze Eckhoff Group Purchaser, Danish Crown