PITTSBURGH — The Kraft Heinz Co. has unveiled plans to expand its environmental stewardship strategy to include sustainable packaging and carbon reduction. Specifically, the company has set a goal to make 100 percent of its packaging globally recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.

“Our collective industry has a massive challenge ahead of us with respect to packaging recyclability, end-of-life recovery and single-use plastics,” said Bernardo Hees, CEO of Kraft Heinz. “Even though we don’t yet have all the answers, we owe it to current and future generations who call this planet ‘home’ to find better packaging solutions and actively progress efforts to improve recycling rates. That’s why Kraft Heinz is placing heightened focus on this important environmental issue.”

To achieve its goals, Kraft Heinz will pursue technical alternatives as well as collaborate with outside partners. Additionally, the company said it intends to partner with packaging experts, organizations and coalitions to explore technical, end-of-life and infrastructure solutions. Kraft Heinz said it is collaborating with Environmental Packaging International for consulting, tracking and other specialist services in the packaging space.

Kraft Heinz has worked toward becoming a more sustainable company for years. The company recently exceeded its commitment to reduce the weight of its global packaging by 50,000 tonnes. The company also has worked to make its recyclable Heinz Tomato Ketchup PET plastic bottle fully circular by 2022, using recycled material that may be made back into food-grade packaging.

In terms of carbon reduction, Kraft Heinz is showing its commitment by joining the Science Based Targets Initiative. The company also is working to set science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals in its supply chain.

“We found that most of our emissions are coming from areas outside our direct operations,” Hees said. “To truly succeed as champions of sustainability, we will look at our full value chain and determine where we can make the greatest impact for our planet.”

More details on Kraft Heinz’s sustainability initiatives will be revealed when the company issues its next Corporate Social Responsibility report in 2019.