Dive Brief:
- Premier Packaging, an American manufacturer and distributor that largely services e-commerce customers, announced last week it reached net-zero scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions for its operations after purchasing carbon offsets and renewable energy credits.
- The Louisville, Kentucky-based company is aiming to achieve total net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 without the need for these offsets. “We recognize that purchasing carbon offsets is not a perfect solution to reach carbon neutrality, but it is one thing we can do now,” said Sustainability Manager Mackenzie Crigger in a statement.
- Freight accounts for 77% of Premier’s emissions, according to the company’s 2022 sustainability report. Crigger said separately in an interview that the company saw the purchases as a way to take action now while wide-scale fleet improvements are currently out of reach.
Dive Insight:
Carbon offsets are sometimes criticized for enabling businesses to avoid more sweeping environmental changes of their own. The Science Based Targets initiative — a partnership organization that “defines and promotes best practices in emissions reductions and net-zero targets in line with climate science” — promotes that, ideally, carbon credits not be counted as emissions reductions toward progress on companies’ near-term targets, and that they only be considered an option for neutralizing residual emissions or to support efforts beyond their own emissions reduction targets.
In Premier’s case, “From the beginning, we knew that carbon offsets would probably have to be a part of that conversation, at least until technology caught up,” Crigger said, explaining that alternative fuel options for long-haul vehicles aren’t viable at a wide scale at this time. “In the beginning, we're not going to be able to completely eliminate or reduce very much until technology makes a pretty big leap.”
The company has six manufacturing sites and dozens of distribution centers across North America. Founded in 1994, Premier grew during the pandemic’s e-commerce boom and released its first-ever sustainability report in February. A 2022 greenhouse gas emissions inventory showed scope 1 and scope 2 each make up 13% of overall emissions, and scope 3 make up 73%. Crigger said the company is working on a plan to address that largest scope 3 category, which is dominated 97% by emissions from external freight, with the remaining fraction stemming from commuting, air travel and business travel.
Premier purchased the carbon offsets, which it said countered its scope 1 emissions, from a United Nations-backed carbon-neutral fertilizer production project in India, according to the company’s news release. Renewable energy credits counter its scope 2 emissions. Crigger declined to disclose how much Premier spent on these purchases. The company intends to continue purchasing offsets at varying levels until it’s able to eliminate and neutralize emissions without them.
The company is now looking to pilot electric vehicles, potentially in states with incentives that align with Premier’s operations, such as California, New Jersey and Texas. In the future, as equipment needs to be replaced, the company could implement less carbon-intensive vehicles or partner with third-party logistics providers that have are farther along in building out lower-carbon fleets, Crigger said.
