Kroger joins Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Grocery retailer Kroger Co., headquartered in Cincinnati, has joined the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), Charlottesville, Virginia. The SPC is a membership-based collaborative striving to advance sustainable packaging. Kroger joins more than 130 brands, manufacturers, government officials, academics and organizations in the SPC.

The SPC is a project of nonprofit GreenBlue. The coalition says it uses an objective life cycle-based approach to provide thought leadership and bring its members together to strengthen and advance the business case for more sustainable packaging.

Kroger says it has committed to driving improvements in the sustainability of packaging across its Our Brands private-label products. As part of its 2020 Sustainability Goals, Kroger has committed to optimizing 100 percent of its product packaging by increasing recyclability, reducing excess packaging and increasing certified virgin fiber sourcing, among other things, during the next three years. 

“Kroger is pleased to join the Sustainable Packaging Coalition,” says Jessica Adelman, Kroger’s group vice president of corporate affairs. “Our membership in this coalition is an important part of Kroger’s vision for achieving Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, a key component of how we are living our purpose driven by our Restock Kroger Plan. We look forward to collaborating with other brands, packaging manufacturers and other stakeholders to drive positive change in packaging sustainability.”

“By joining with others who share this passion, we can all work together to create new packaging solutions that have a lasting, positive impact in the environment we all share,” says Gil Phipps, vice president of Our Brands. “This new partnership is another step in our journey and will help us accelerate our commitment to introduce more sustainable packaging.”

“Kroger has such an important relationship to packaging supply chains around the globe,” says SPC Associate Director Adam Gendell. “We look forward to sharing our commitment to make packaging more sustainable.”