Governance, Policies, & Partnerships

Oversight of sustainability begins with the Greif Board of Directors. The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors evaluates and reviews our policies, activities, and programs related to environmental, social, and governance matters in support of the sustainable growth of the Company. The Board of Directors receives annual updates from the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) on behalf of our Sustainability Steering Committee (SSC).

The SSC, including Greif’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and the Sustainability Management Team (SMT) integrates sustainability into our strategy and determines the level of funding for our sustainability programs. The ELT guides the activities of our SMT. In quarterly review meetings, the SMT provides updates to the ELT, discussing progress towards our 2025 and 2030 sustainability targets, strategic priorities, risks, challenges, and other relevant matters. In addition, our Chief Executive Officer meets quarterly with our CCO and VP, Sustainability to oversee environmental, social, and governance matters important to our business and progress towards strategic priorities.

The SSC has oversight of certain strategic target-setting activities and our progress towards meeting these targets, such as those included in our 2030 Sustainability Targets, including our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions target. These targets are subject to Board-level approval, as appropriate. Additionally, other topic-specific targets are set within enabling functions, with oversight provided by the SSC member responsible for that function. During target-setting, decision-making processes, and other times as appropriate, members of our Board of Directors and SSC are provided with relevant training and access to internal and external expertise.

Greif’s Leadership Council is made up of dozens of leaders from across enabling functions, strategic business units, and regions. The Leadership Council supports the integration of Greif’s sustainability initiatives into the businesses and holds accountability for some of the associated key performance indicators (KPIs). The KPIs are included in the monthly Greif Business System 2.0 (GBS 2.0) enterprise scorecard and the Must Win Battle (MWB) scorecard. Environmental and social KPIs are also included in our monthly and quarterly business performance slide decks.

The SMT, led by our VP, Sustainability is made up of members of our central sustainability function and representative leaders from Legal, Human Resources, Global Supply Chain, and our Global Operations Group’s Environmental, Health, & Safety team. Members of the SMT hold responsibility across their respective areas of expertise and coordinating efforts within and across our enabling functions.

The SMT also works with topic teams consisting of representatives from each region and business unit to drive facility-level projects and priorities. Subject matter expert functions have responsibility to manage, measure, and maintain progress and collect data.