Agua

Optimizar el uso y mejorar la calidad del agua en nuestras operaciones.

Reflejos

Greif tiene la responsabilidad de proteger las fuentes de agua para que las utilicen las generaciones futuras: el agua limpia y disponible es esencial para el bienestar de todos. Esta responsabilidad implica tratar el agua que se descarga desde nuestras instalaciones, asegurándonos de que sea segura tanto para los hábitats circundantes como para las comunidades a las que prestamos servicios.
Nuestras prioridades de gestión del agua se centran en la reducción del uso de agua en nuestro negocio de Embalaje y Servicios de Papel (PPS) y en la gestión de aguas pluviales en nuestro negocio de Embalaje Industrial Global (GIP).
Greif se compromete a mejorar nuestra gestión de datos de agua, efluentes y energía estandarizando los paneles de datos ambientales en nuestras plantas, lo que nos permite identificar mejor las oportunidades de eficiencia.
En 2023, la extracción de agua disminuyó un 14 por ciento y el agua descargada disminuyó un 9 por ciento, en gran medida debido a las ventas o el cierre de varias plantas de alto consumo de agua.
Greif está invirtiendo tiempo y recursos sustanciales en planes futuros y alineación organizacional para proyectos de mejora en la gestión del agua.

Por qué es importante el agua

GRI 3-3 | 303-1 | 303-2 | 303-3 | 303-4 | 303-5

3-3

Gestión de temas materiales

303-1

Interacciones con el agua como recurso compartido

303-2

Gestión de los impactos relacionados con los vertidos de agua

303-3

Extracción de agua

303-4

Descarga de agua

303-5

Consumo de agua

Greif adopta una postura proactiva en la gestión responsable de los recursos hídricos, con el objetivo de mitigar los impactos negativos asociados con las extracciones de agua, descargas y escorrentía de aguas pluviales. Buscamos oportunidades para contribuir a resultados positivos para el medio ambiente y para comunidades con quien compartimos una Fuente de agua. Nuestro compromiso se extiende a la reducción del uso de agua y a la mejora de la calidad del agua en toda nuestra organización, en particular en las operaciones que hacen un uso intensivo del agua en nuestras plantas. En nuestros esfuerzos por mejorar la calidad del agua, nos aseguramos de que el agua descargada de nuestras instalaciones se someta a un tratamiento exhaustivo, ya sea en el lugar o por un tercero de confianza. Este tratamiento cumple estrictamente con todas las regulaciones pertinentes, lo que garantiza que el agua descargada cumpla con los requisitos. altos estándares de salud y seguridad para la vida silvestre y las comunidades locales. Reconociendo que el agua es un recurso precioso, Greif se compromete a protegerla para el beneficio de las generaciones futuras.

Gobernancia

Nuestro compromiso con la conservación y eficiencia del agua a nivel mundial se describe en nuestra Política de medio ambiente, salud y seguridad (EHS)En todas las instalaciones de Greif, supervisamos de forma proactiva el uso del agua y reclutamos a nuestro equipo de EHS para garantizar el cumplimiento normativo e implementar prácticas óptimas en el tratamiento y reciclaje del agua. Dentro de nuestra estructura ambiental, mantenemos un sólido sistema de gestión del cumplimiento con un apoyo dedicado. Greif promueve y empodera a los equipos de gestión locales para mejorar la eficiencia del agua, mejorar la calidad del agua, minimizar el impacto en las fuentes de agua locales y reducir los costos asociados. Nuestro enfoque se extiende a la gestión de la descarga de agua en estricto cumplimiento de los permisos de agua asignados individualmente.

La gran mayoría, aproximadamente 90 por ciento de nuestro uso de agua se consume en 12 fábricas de cartón dentro de nuestro negocio PPS. Para priorizar las prácticas sustentables, enfatizamos el uso de agua recuperada en la producción de papel. Nuestros principales esfuerzos de gestión del agua están dirigidos a nuestras fábricas PPS, donde podemos tener el mayor impacto. Reducimos el uso de agua y reciclamos el agua en nuestras fábricas a través de varios medios, incluida la recolección de agua de enfriamiento de HVAC y agua de enfriamiento de compresores para reutilizar en nuestra fábrica de Riverville, la instalación de sellos mecánicos de consumo ultra bajo de agua en bombas de proceso en Massillon y la instalación de plantas de tratamiento de efluentes en varias fábricas que no solo reducen la demanda bioquímica de oxígeno sino que también reducen el consumo de agua en general.

En Greif, ponemos un gran énfasis en las prácticas efectivas de manejo de aguas pluviales dentro de nuestras instalaciones de GIP debido a su bajo consumo de agua. El muestreo y análisis periódicos y exhaustivos de aguas pluviales son parte integral de nuestras operaciones, lo que garantiza el estricto cumplimiento de los estándares de seguridad, al tiempo que identifica oportunidades de mejora continua. Nuestro compromiso se extiende a brindar capacitación anual integral a todos los colegas relevantes, inculcando una cultura de gestión responsable del agua en toda nuestra organización. Actualizamos periódicamente nuestra capacitación en aguas pluviales y, en 2023, colaboramos con consultores externos cuando fue necesario para asesorar sobre la capacitación en aguas pluviales.

En las instalaciones clave se han puesto en marcha planes de prevención de la contaminación localizada por aguas pluviales y controles sólidos para la prevención de derrames. Un plan de contingencia global integral y un procedimiento de emergencia tienen por objeto abordar y mitigar cualquier derrame potencial o real. Los derrames y liberaciones que podrían afectar a las aguas subterráneas (incluidas las medidas correctivas correspondientes) se rastrean cualitativamente en nuestro Sistema de Gestión de Cumplimiento. Actualmente estamos evaluando posibles cambios en el sistema para poder recopilar más información cuantitativa para rastrear las tendencias de los incidentes a lo largo del tiempo. Varias de nuestras instalaciones monitorean las aguas subterráneas para detectar fugas.

Si bien las operaciones de PPS de Greif enfrentan los impactos hídricos más importantes, la gestión responsable del agua es una prioridad en todas nuestras operaciones. Esto es especialmente crucial en regiones con estrés hídrico como América Latina, África y Oriente Medio. Greif utiliza las herramientas de análisis de acueductos y clasificación de países del Instituto de Recursos Mundiales de manera continua para realizar un seguimiento de los desarrollos y los riesgos en las regiones con estrés hídrico donde se encuentran las instalaciones de Greif. Para mitigar los impactos negativos en estas instalaciones, reducimos el exceso de presión de agua, reemplazamos válvulas defectuosas, promovemos el reciclaje de agua, instalamos grifos sin contacto y recolectamos agua de lluvia. Greif se compromete a garantizar que cada instalación opere de manera responsable dentro de sus permisos de agua.

Metas, progreso y desempeño

Objetivo 2025:

Reducir la demanda bioquímica de oxígeno descargada en kilogramos en un 10 por ciento por tonelada métrica de producción de las plantas de Riverville y Massillon utilizando una línea de base de 2014 para fines del año fiscal 2025.

Hasta la fecha, hemos reducido la demanda bioquímica de oxígeno en un 67 por ciento respecto de nuestro objetivo de referencia de 2014 de 1,40 en cada instalación.

La mayor parte de nuestro consumo de agua se produce en nuestras fábricas de cartón, donde reutilizamos el agua varias veces antes de su tratamiento y vertido. Nuestras fábricas representan aproximadamente el 90 por ciento de nuestro consumo mundial de agua.

Greif utiliza indicadores clave de desempeño para monitorear el uso del agua y el tratamiento de aguas residuales. Optimizamos continuamente nuestros paneles de datos ambientales en todas nuestras plantas, con el objetivo de lograr una comprensión más integral y una gestión más eficaz de nuestros datos sobre agua, efluentes y energía. Este esfuerzo nos permite descubrir y aprovechar constantemente las oportunidades de eficiencia hídrica.

En 2022, contratamos a un consultor externo para evaluar el uso de agua en nuestras plantas de cartón. Este estudio integral desarrolló modelos de agua para cada una de nuestras plantas y reveló nuevas oportunidades para minimizar el consumo de agua. En 2023, identificamos tres proyectos con elementos de acción específicos para reducir el uso de agua en nuestras plantas, y actualmente se están evaluando para su implementación durante los próximos dos años.

Historias destacadas

Practicando la economía circular

En la planta Austell de Greif en Georgia, comenzamos un proyecto de deshidratación de residuos de aguas residuales para convertir los desechos en biocombustible. La práctica de la economía circular barre los sólidos espesados de un manto de sedimentos flotantes a una prensa deshidratadora. Los sólidos fluidos se deshidratan hasta que se pueden transportar a un lugar para secarlos al aire, mezclarlos con otros materiales y consumirlos como combustible complementario para calderas. Este proceso no solo permite reutilizar los materiales para obtener el mayor beneficio de principio a fin, sino que también ahorra las tarifas de eliminación en vertederos de la instalación.

Historias destacadas

Reducción de agua en nuestra fábrica de Florence, Kentucky

A fines de 2019, la planta de Greif en Florence, Kentucky, instaló una planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales para reducir nuestra carga de desechos peligrosos y reciclar el agua para devolverla a la ciudad. El proceso funciona introduciendo agua en el sistema, eliminando cerca de 100% de los contaminantes del proceso de pintura y enviando el agua limpia a la planta de tratamiento local. Luego, la planta de tratamiento recicla el agua para redistribuirla a la comunidad. El material sobrante del proceso se elimina en la basura en lugar de en los desechos peligrosos. Cuando el equipo entró en funcionamiento por completo a mediados de 2020, el proceso no solo redujo significativamente los desechos peligrosos generados por la planta, sino que también redujo el costo de los desechos en $40,000 por mes.

Agua

Optimizar el uso y mejorar la calidad del agua en nuestras operaciones.

Reflejos

Water is a critical resource, and Greif pledges to protect it for the benefit of future generations and the well-being of the communities where we live and operate. Through our commitment to increasing water quality, we treat water discharged from our facilities, so it is healthy and safe for wildlife and our communities.
Our water management efforts focus on water use reduction in our Paper Packaging and Services business and stormwater management in our Global Industrial Packaging business.
We continue standardizing environmental data dashboards across our mills to better understand and manage water, effluent and energy data to identify efficiency opportunities.
In 2022, we withdrew 13,365 thousand cubic meters and discharged 12,416 thousand cubic meters of water, similar to our performance each year between 2019-2021.

Por qué es importante el agua

GRI 3-3 | 303-1 | 303-2 | 303-3 | 303-4 | 303-5

3-3

Gestión de temas materiales

303-1

Interacciones con el agua como recurso compartido

303-2

Gestión de los impactos relacionados con los vertidos de agua

303-3

Extracción de agua

303-4

Descarga de agua

303-5

Consumo de agua

Greif has an obligation to use water resources responsibly, limiting the negative impacts associated with water withdrawals, water discharges and stormwater runoff while harnessing opportunities to create positive impacts for the environment and communities that rely on the same water resources. Our obligation means minimizing water use and improving water quality throughout our entire organization, especially water-intensive operations. As part of our commitment to increasing water quality, we ensure the water discharged from our facilities is treated, on-site or by a third party, in alignment with all relevant regulations, and deemed healthy and safe for wildlife and the communities in which we operate. Water is a precious resource, and Greif pledges to protect it for the benefit of future generations.

Gobernancia

Our Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Policy guides our global water conservation and efficiency approach. We uphold our EHS policy managing water use at each Greif facility. We utilize our EHS team to support regulatory compliance and implement best practices regarding water use, treatment and recycling. Our centralized environmental structure oversees our compliance management system and provides any necessary support. Greif encourages and empowers local management teams to improve water efficiencies and quality, reduce water withdrawal to minimize the impact on local sources, maintain regulatory compliance and reduce water-related costs. We also continue to manage water discharge in compliance with individually allocated water permits.

Approximately 95 percent of our water use occurs in 14 paperboard mills within our Paper Packaging and Services (PPS) business. Consequently, we strive to use reclaimed water whenever possible in paper production, and our water management efforts primarily focus on our PPS mills to achieve the most significant potential impact.

Water Reduction Study

Greif contracted a third-party consultant to perform a high-level evaluation documenting water usage at all the paperboard mills operated by Greif. The analysis considered inflows, major water usage within the production facilities and outflows. Since Greif is already operating with a high degree of internal water reuse, remaining opportunities to increase water reuse can be found by examining the flows of wastewater discharged from the facilities. The study observed that the potential water use reduction goals could be achieved by focusing on the largest water user in the portfolio, the Riverville mill. We are now evaluating water reduction projects for the Riverville mill for FY23.

Due to our Global Industrial Packaging (GIP) facilities’ low water usage, we prioritize good stormwater practices rather than water use reduction in GIP. These facilities conduct frequent stormwater sampling and testing to ensure safe limits and find improvement opportunities. At Greif, we provide all applicable colleagues with annual training on Greif’s stormwater practices and compliance activities to support responsible water management. We also implement localized stormwater pollution prevention plans and spill prevention controls at relevant facilities and have a global contingency plan and emergency procedure to avoid, reduce and mitigate any spill occurrences. We continuously update stormwater training, utilizing third-party consultants where necessary. In 2022, we updated training at all facilities covered by a stormwater permit.

Greif’s water impacts are most significant within our PPS operations. However, it is still essential to responsibly manage water use across all our operations, particularly in water-stressed regions, including Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. To mitigate the negative impacts in these facilities, we reduce water pressure where it is higher than needed, replace leaky valves, recycle water, install touchless faucets and collect and use rainwater. Greif ensures that all facilities operate within their water permits.

Paper Packaging & Services Water Reduction and Quality Projects

Specific examples of water reduction and quality projects recently undertaken at PPS facilities include:

In 2021, we continued to invest in our efforts to eliminate direct discharge from our mills by converting our Baltimore, Ohio, mill to discharge to a local municipal water treatment plant. In addition to removing direct discharge from our operations, this transition reduces Greif’s overall water withdrawal by 400,000 gallons a day.
At our Fitchburg plant, we invested approximately $500,000 to install equipment designed to retrieve suspended air solids and reduce biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). This process has enabled us to improve water and air quality and reduce costs.
In our Los Angeles mill, we installed a small HydroFlo Technologies Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) clarifier, Hydrofloat, to reduce solids in wastewater and facility expenses. The Hydrofloat recycles approximately 10,000 gallons of water a day.
Our Fitchburg, MA mill installed and launched a much larger DAF near the end of fiscal 2021. This Evoqua Water Technologies DAF is over 100 square feet in surface area and can treat up to 300,000 gallons per day. By treating all the Fitchburg mill effluent, this DAF will reduce suspended solids (TSS) in our discharge by 80% and allow the mill stricter discharge limits in the future.

Metas, progreso y desempeño

83%

Average Recycled Water
Intake at Mills

Objetivo 2025:

Reducir la demanda bioquímica de oxígeno descargada en kilogramos en un 10 por ciento por tonelada métrica de producción de las plantas de Riverville y Massillon utilizando una línea de base de 2014 para fines del año fiscal 2025.

To date, we have reduced the BOD by 76% from our 2014 target baseline.

In 2022, we retained a third-party consultant to evaluate our paperboard mill water use. The study created water models for each of our 14 mills and found additional opportunities for water reduction. From this study, we discovered that each mill’s intake consists of 83 percent recycled water on average. According to the models, our best opportunity to meet our water use reduction goal is prioritizing water reductions at our largest water user, the Riverville mill. In 2023, we will explore potential water reuse and reduction projects at this facility.

Greif tracks water usage and wastewater treatment using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We continue standardizing environmental data dashboards across our mills to better understand and manage water, effluents and energy data and identify water efficiency opportunities. These KPIs allow us to monitor our progress on our goals constantly.

Historias destacadas

Practicando la economía circular

Historias destacadas

Reducción de agua en nuestra fábrica de Florence, Kentucky

Agua

Optimizar el uso y mejorar la calidad del agua en nuestras operaciones.

Por qué es importante el agua

GRI 303: 103-1 | 103-2 | 103-3 | 303-1 | 303-2 | 303-3 | 303-4

103-1

Explanation of the material topic and its Boundary

103-2

Explain management approach components

103-3

Evaluate management approach

303-1

Interacciones con el agua como recurso compartido

303-2

Gestión de los impactos relacionados con los vertidos de agua

303-3

Extracción de agua

303-4

Descarga de agua

Greif recognizes our responsibility to minimize water use and improve water quality, particularly in our most water-intensive operations. Our commitment focuses on reducing demand for water as water scarcity and water costs continue to rise and ensuring that water discharge from our facilities is treated and safe for the health of the communities in which we operate. Our water management practices simultaneously achieve these aims while creating operational efficiencies. Most importantly, healthy, sustainable watersheds are vital to the communities where we operate, and Greif pledges to minimize impacts to this precious resource.

Gobernancia

77%

Reduction in Biochemical
Oxygen Demand

Our efforts in water quality have allowed us to already meet our 10% reduction by 2025 goal.

Global guidelines for water conservation and efficiency are provided in Greif’s Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Policy. Each Greif facility is expected to manage water use in accordance with our EHS policy with supervision and support from Greif’s EHS team regarding compliance obligations and best practices for water use, treatment, and recycling. We have a centralized environmental structure that oversees our compliance management system and provides any necessary support. Local management teams are encouraged and empowered to improve water efficiencies and quality, reduce water withdrawal to minimize impact to local sources, maintain regulatory compliance and reduce costs related to water.

The majority (approximately 95 percent) of our water use occurs in 13 paperboard mills within our Paper Packaging and Services (PPS) business, as paperboard manufacturing is a water-intensive process. Consequently, our water management efforts primarily focus on these mills to obtain the largest impact possible. Greif strives to use reclaimed water whenever possible in paper production. Other examples of water reduction and quality projects undertaken at PPS facilities include:

In 2021, we continued to invest in our efforts to eliminate direct discharge from our mills by converting our Baltimore, Ohio mill to discharging to a local municipal water treatment plant. In addition to removing direct discharge from our operations, this transition reduces Greif’s overall water withdrawal by 400,000 gallons a day.
At our Fitchburg plant, we invested approximately $500,000 to install equipment designed to retrieve suspended air solids and reduce biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). This process has enabled us to improve water and air quality and reduce cost.
In our Los Angeles mill, we installed a small HydroFlo Technologies Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) clarifier, Hydrofloat, to reduce the amount of solids in wastewater and reduce facility expenses. The Hydrofloat recycles approximately 10,000 gallons of water a day.
Our Fitchburg, MA mill installed and launched a much larger DAF near the end of fiscal 2021. This Evoqua Water Technologies DAF is over 100 square feet in surface area and capable of treating up to 300,000 gallons per day. By treating all the Fitchburg mill effluent, this DAF will reduce suspended solids (TSS) in our discharge by 80% and allow the mill stricter discharge limits in the future.

At our Global Industrial Packaging (GIP) facilities, water use is low. Our main focus is to follow good stormwater practices. These facilities conduct frequent stormwater sampling and testing to ensure safe limits and identify improvement opportunities. Stormwater training is another important component to responsible water management for Greif. All applicable employees receive annual training on Greif’s stormwater practices and compliance activities. We continuously update stormwater trainings, utilizing third party consultants where necessary. In 2021, we updated trainings at 9 facilities.

While Greif’s water impact is predominately in our PPS operations, it is still important to responsibly manage water use across all our operations, particularly in water-stressed regions, especially in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. In these facilities, and throughout our operations, we reduce water pressure where it is higher than needed, replace leaky valves, recycle water, install touchless faucets and collect and use rainwater.

Greif monitors Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track water usage and ensure proper treatment of wastewater. In 2021, we continued to develop standard environmental data dashboards across our mills to better understand and manage water and effluents, as well as energy data, and to identify water efficiency opportunities.

Goals & Progress

In 2017, Greif announced a 2020 goal of a 10 percent reduction in kilograms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) per metric ton of production, from a 2014 baseline of 1.47, at legacy Greif mills. Our 2017 materiality process led to the creation of new 2025 goals and establishing our BOD goal for 2025. Additionally, in 2021, we worked to create 2030 goals and targets aligned with the American Forest and Paper Association. These goals will be shared in 2022.

In 2018, we reevaluated our historical water use and BOD data to confirm our baseline and assumptions to support continual improvement related to water. We restated our 2014 BOD baseline to 1.40 through this process.

2025 Goal: Reduce BOD discharged in kilograms by 10 percent per metric ton of combined production from the Riverville and Massillon mills using the 2014 restated baseline by the end of fiscal year 2025.

Progress: Since 2017, we have reduced BOD per metric ton of production by 77 percent in our legacy Greif containerboard mills.

Performance Data

GRI 303-1,306-1,306-5

303-1

Water withdrawal by source

306-1

Water discharge by quality and destination

306-5

Water bodies affected by water discharges and/or runoff

WATER*

	FY 2017	FY 2018	Año fiscal 2019	Año fiscal 2020	Año fiscal 2021
Water Withdrawal (Thousands of cubic meters)*	9,666.3	9,360.8	13,864.4	12,936.6	13,164.7
Surface Water	9,242.7	8,630.0	10,266.8	10,132.0	10,274.8
Ground Water	423.6	730.7	3,597.6	2,804.6	2,889.9
Rainwater	-	-	-	-	-
Wastewater	-	-	-	-	-
Municipal Water†	-	-	-	-	-
Wastewater Discharge (Thousands of cubic meters)**	8,983.2	9,316.2	12,403.9²	11,935.1	12,013.53
James River	8,788.8	8,907.1	7,949.5	8,375.0	8,324.8
City of Massillon	191.6	407.1	424.0	355.8	400.9
Tuscarawas River	2.8	2.0	2.5	8.8	69.0
Sweetwater Creek^	-	-	0.0	0.0	0.0
Cobb County WWTP^	-	-	844.9	855.0	854.9
Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewerage District^^	-	-	37.6	40.6	49.8
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District^^	-	-	349.0	335.9	328.4
Los Angeles County Sanitation District WWTF^^	-	-	196.8	189.1	214.9
Three Mile Creek^	-	-	0.0	-	-
Village of Baltimore WWTF**	-	-	0.0	6.1	129.93
West Branch Paw Paw Creek**	-	-	697.1	581.4	0.0
San Jose-Santa Clara Regional WWTP^^	-	-	288.1	334.2	383.2
Tacoma Central WWTP^^	-	-	6.9	8.5	10.9
City of Fitchburg WWTP^	-	-	322.6	309.0	298.7
Iowa River**	-	-	291.8	364.9	341.3
Cherry Lake**	-	-	597.8	550.4	479.7
Iowa Tributary**	-	-	58.0	78.6	127.08
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Thousands of kg)	890.4	204.2	3,508.3	3,457.1	3,823.8
Total Suspended Solids (kg)	465,098	349,003	1,224,442	1,045,928	1,031,666
Phosphorus (kg)	4,991	6,617	4,708	4,445	8,817
Production (MT)	690,000	713,336	1,729,062	1,661,228	1,721,897
Consumption Rate (m³/MT)	14.0	13.1	8.02	7.79	7.65

Notes:

2017 and 2018 data is from Greif’s two paper mills, one of which is located in Riverville, Virginia, and the other in Massillon, Ohio. Historically, these two paper mills accounted for more than 90% of Greif’s global water footprint. They draw from the James River and onsite water wells, respectively. 2019 data includes 12 former Caraustar mills that were acquired and integrated in 2019. All 2019 data is full year data. Quality of wastewater discharged from our mills meets permit requirements. No discharged water was used by another organization. WWTP = Wastewater Treatment Plant.
FY 2019 data includes the Mobile Wright Smith WWTP, which was shut down in 2020, and been restated to properly account for FY 2019 West Branch Paw Paw Creek discharge.

*Evaporative losses estimated.
**Treated with primary clarification, secondary clarification and aeration before direct discharge.
^ Treated with wastewater pre-treatment including soluble BOD removal.
^^ Treated with wastewater pre-treatment with solids only.
† Greif does not currently track withdrawal of municipal water.

Water Use in Regions With High or Extremely High Baseline Water Stress*	Año fiscal 2020	Año fiscal 2021
Water Withdrawal (Thousands of cubic meters)	170.4	109.93
Percentage of Total Water Withdrawal	1%	1%
Water Consumed (Thousands of cubic meters)	162.7	77.45
Percentage of Total Water Consumed	16.2%**	6.7%

*Data collected from 24 Greif facilities operating in regions with high or extremely high baseline water stress, as defined by WRI's Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas tool. Annual withdrawal data from Greif's Algeria facility estimated based on total withdrawal since installing a well in approximately 2003. Percentages reported as a percentage of water used in Greif’s mill operations in our Paper Packaging & Services business only, which is estimated to represent 95% of Greif’s total water withdrawal and consumption. Greif does not currently report global water data for all facilities.
**Figure for FY 2020 amended due to previous error in calculation.

Historias destacadas

Practicando la economía circular

Historias destacadas

Reducción de agua en nuestra fábrica de Florence, Kentucky

SUSTAINABILITY HIGHLIGHTS

~95%

Of Water Use Occurs At Our 13 Paperboard Mills

We continue to invest in water reduction and quality projects at these facilities.

77%

Reduction in Biochemical Oxygen Demand

Our efforts in water quality have allowed us to already meet our 10% reduction by 2025 goal.

Agua

Optimizar el uso y mejorar la calidad del agua en nuestras operaciones.

Por qué es importante el agua

GRI 303: 103-1, 103-2, 103-3; GRI 306: 103-1, 103-2, 103-3, 306-1

103-1

Explanation of the material topic and its Boundary

103-2

Explain management approach components

103-3

Evaluate management approach

As a global manufacturing company, Greif has a responsibility to minimize our water use and improve water quality, particularly in our most water intensive operations. Responsible water management reduces our demand for water as water scarcity and water costs are rising and ensures that water discharge from our facilities is treated and safe to protect the health of the communities in which we operate. Our water management practices simultaneously achieve these aims while creating operational efficiencies and minimizing regulatory risk.

Gobernancia

Only 1%

total water consumed in regions with high water baseline stress

Our efforts in water quality have allowed us to already meet our 10% reduction by 2025 goal.

Greif’s Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Policy provides global guidelines for water conservation to improve water efficiencies in existing operations and incorporate water management in planning for future projects and technology investments. Each Greif facility is expected to manage water locally in accordance with our EHS policy with supervision and support from Greif’s EHS team regarding compliance obligations and best practices for water use, treatment, and recycling. Local management teams are encouraged to improve water efficiencies and quality, reduce water withdrawal to minimize impact to local sources, maintain regulatory compliance and reduce costs related to water. 95 percent of Greif’s water use impact occurs in our 13 paperboard mills within our Paper Packaging and Services (PPS) business. Our water management efforts primarily focus on these mills. In 2020, we continued our efforts to eliminate direct discharge from our mills by converting our Baltimore, Ohio mill to discharging to a local municipal water treatment plant. In addition to removing direct discharge from our operations, this transition reduces Greif’s overall water withdrawal by 400,000 gallons a day. Many of these mills draw on well water from local aquifers, which in turn are discharged into different bodies of water post-use after treatment. We have also continued to implement projects to reduce water use in our mills. For example, at our mill in Los Angeles we replaced nine water oscillators with electromechanical oscillators which reduced well water intake by 2.1 million gallons per year, a 4 percent reduction, in addition to reducing our costs.

Greif monitors Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure proper treatment of our wastewater. If a treatment incident occurs, the facility manager would observe a change to these KPIs, which initiates an investigation to determine the root cause and resolve the problem. When necessary, Greif engages third-party experts to support our investigations. For example, in 2020 Greif’s Tama mill experienced high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and nitrogen concentrations. Greif contracted with a third party to conduct a site inspection and recommend corrective actions. Based on their recommendations, we increased nutrient addition, instituted improved analytical testing to monitor nutrient levels and introduced chemical oxygen demand (COD) testing to receive faster feedback on potential issues.

While Greif’s water impact is predominately in our PPS operations, we take steps to curb water use across all our operations, particularly in water-stressed regions in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. In these facilities, and across all our operations, we reduce water pressure where it is higher than needed, replace leaky valves and collect and use rainwater when possible. Our Global Industrial Packaging facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia implemented many such measures in an effort to reduce and recycle their wastewater, ultimately resulting in a 32 percent reduction in waste to landfill from their facility. Please see our Desperdiciar page for more information on their achievement.

In 2021, we will develop standard environmental data dashboards across our mills to better understand and manage water and effluent, as well as energy data, and continue working to identify water efficiency opportunities.

Goals & Progress

In 2017, Greif announced a 2020 goal of 10 percent reduction in kilograms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) per metric ton of production, from a 2014 baseline of 1.47, at legacy Greif mills. Our 2017 materiality process led to the creation of new 2025 goals and restating our BOD goal as a 2025 goal. Additionally, in 2021, we plan to create 2030 goals and targets in line with the American Forest and Paper Association.

In 2018, we reevaluated our historical water use and BOD data to confirm our baseline and assumptions to support continual improvement related to water. Through this process, we restated our 2014 BOD baseline to 1.40.

Progress: Since 2017, we have reduced BOD per metric ton of production by 71.8 percent in our legacy Greif containerboard mills. Our significant progress against our BOD goal was enabled by the installation of a wastewater treatment facility at our Massillon mill. Completed in July 2017, the project led to modest improvements in 2017 and far surpassed expectations in 2018. These benefits continued to be realized in 2020.

In 2021, we will continue to track our progress in reducing BOD while controlling specific water use in our mills and reevaluate our goals to include both our legacy Greif mills and Caraustar mills that are now part of our organization. Additionally, in 2021, we will announce new water reduction targets for our mills.

Performance Data

GRI 303-1,306-1,306-5

303-1

Water withdrawal by source

306-1

Water discharge by quality and destination

306-5

Water bodies affected by water discharges and/or runoff

WATER*

	FY 2016	FY 2017	FY 2018	Año fiscal 2019	Año fiscal 2020
Water Withdrawal (Thousands of cubic meters)*	8,420.2	9,666.3	9,360.8	13,864.4	12,936.6
Surface Water	-	9,242.7	8,630.0	10,266.8	10,132.0
Ground Water	-	423.6	730.7	3,597.6	2,804.6
Rainwater	-	-	-	-	-
Wastewater	-	-	-	-	-
Municipal Water†	-	-	-	-	-
Wastewater Discharge (Thousands of cubic meters)**	7,961.4	8,983.2	9,316.2	12,403.9²	11,935.1
James River	-	8,788.8	8,907.1	7,949.5	8,375.0
City of Massillon	-	191.6	407.1	424.0	355.8
Tuscarawas River	-	2.8	2.0	2.5	8.8
Sweetwater Creek^	-	-	-	0.0	0.0
Cobb County WWTP^	-	-	-	844.9	855.0
Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewerage District^^	-	-	-	37.6	40.6
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District^^	-	-	-	349.0	335.9
Los Angeles County Sanitation District WWTF^^	-	-	-	196.8	189.1
Three Mile Creek^	-	-	-	0.0	-
Village of Baltimore WWTF**	-	-	-	0.0	6.1
West Branch Paw Paw Creek**	-	-	-	697.1	581.4
San Jose-Santa Clara Regional WWTP^^	-	-	-	288.1	334.2
Tacoma Central WWTP^^	-	-	-	6.9	8.5
City of Fitchburg WWTP^	-	-	-	322.6	309.0
Iowa River**	-	-	-	291.8	364.9
Cherry Lake**	-	-	-	597.8	550.4
Iowa Tributary**	-	-	-	58.0	78.6
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Thousands of kg)	1,050.4	890.4	204.2	3,508.3	3,457.1
Total Suspended Solids (kg)	546,857	465,098	349,003	1,224,442	1,045,928
Phosphorus (kg)	5,728	4,991	6,617	4,708	4,445
Production (MT)	665,000	690,000	713,336	1,729,062	1,661,228
Consumption Rate (m³/MT)	12.7	14.0	13.1	8.02	7.79

Notes:

2015 to 2018 data is from Greif’s two paper mills, one of which is located in Riverville, Virginia, and the other in Massillon, Ohio. Historically, these two paper mills accounted for more than 90% of Greif’s global water footprint. They draw from the James River and onsite water wells, respectively. 2019 data includes 12 former Caraustar mills that were acquired and integrated in 2019. All 2019 data is full year data. Quality of wastewater discharged from our mills meets permit requirements. No discharged water was used by another organization. WWTP = Wastewater Treatment Plant.
FY 2019 data includes the Mobile Wright Smith WWTP, which was shut down in 2020, and been restated to properly account for FY 2019 West Branch Paw Paw Creek discharge.

water use in regions with High or Extremely High Baseline Water Stress*	Año fiscal 2020
Water Withdrawal (Thousands of cubic meters)	170.4
Percentage of Total Water Withdrawal	1%
Water Consumed (Thousands of cubic meters)	162.7
Percentage of Total Water Consumed	1%

*Data collected from 26 Greif facilities operating in regions with high or extremely high baseline water stress, as defined by WRI's Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas tool. Annual withdrawal data from Greif's Algeria facility estimated based on total withdrawal since installing a well in approximately 2003. Percentages reported as a percentage of water used in Greif’s mill operations in our Paper Packaging & Services business only, which is estimated to represent 95% of Greif’s total water withdrawal and consumption. Greif does not currently report global water data for all facilities.

Historias destacadas

Improving Our Wastewater

In 2017, Greif’s Massillon, Ohio mill completed construction of a water treatment facility to significantly reduce the biological oxygen demand (BOD) of the plant’s discharge water before being returned to the municipal treatment plant. High BOD levels promote bacteria growth, release odors and must be controlled using chemicals. Since installing the treatment facility, we reduced BOD discharged to the municipal system by over 96 percent, contributing to our 2025 BOD reduction goal. This also eliminated several chemicals that were previously needed to control bacteria.

Historias destacadas

Water Reduction at Our Baltimore, Ohio Mill

In 2020, Greif’s Baltimore, Ohio mill transitioned from direct discharge of treated wastewater to a local creek to discharging pretreated wastewater to a local water treatment facility that uses a state-of-the-art membrane treatment system to further treat water. This shift both reduced overall water discharge and supported returning cleaner water to the community. Greif engaged with local and state governments over the course of multiple years to design and approve the project, which was approved in 2019 and completed in October 2020. The project will reduce water consumption by 550,000 m3 per year. The community benefits from a cleaner surface water since several tons per year of biological oxygen demand and total suspended solids were also removed from the local creeks because of this transition.

SUSTAINABILITY HIGHLIGHTS

Only 1%

Total water consumed in regions with high water baseline stress

Our efforts in water quality have allowed us to already meet our 10% reduction by 2025 goal.

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Average Recycled Water Intake at Mills

Practicando la economía circular

Reducción de agua en nuestra fábrica de Florence, Kentucky

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Reduction in BiochemicalOxygen Demand

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Performance Data

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Reducción de agua en nuestra fábrica de Florence, Kentucky

SUSTAINABILITY HIGHLIGHTS

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Of Water Use Occurs At Our 13 Paperboard Mills

77%

Reduction in Biochemical Oxygen Demand

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Por qué es importante el agua

Gobernancia

Only 1%

total water consumed in regions with high water baseline stress

Goals & Progress

Performance Data

Improving Our Wastewater

Water Reduction at Our Baltimore, Ohio Mill

SUSTAINABILITY HIGHLIGHTS

Only 1%

Total water consumed in regions with high water baseline stress

71.8%

Reduction in Biochemical Oxygen Demand

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Average Recycled Water
Intake at Mills

Reduction in Biochemical
Oxygen Demand