Stakeholder Engagement & Materiality
Stakeholder Engagement & Materiality
We published our first sustainability report in 2009. While Greif has experienced incredible success in the past 13 years, we continue to evolve and refine the way we approach sustainability. In 2021, we enhanced the sustainability programs that make our company efficient, enhanced the management of our material topics, engaged internal and external stakeholders on sustainability and worked to further integrate Caraustar into our organization and our sustainability strategies. Our 2021 GRI Core report showcases our accomplishments and progress on our long-term sustainability goals.
Value Chain
Materiality Assessment Process
In 2017, Greif conducted our first materiality assessment to identify and prioritize our material sustainability topics, identify and engage our key stakeholders and
inform our sustainability strategies, reporting and communications. The assessment was led by a third-party and conducted in accordance with industry best practices for material topic identification and stakeholder engagement. In late 2020, we refreshed our materiality assessment to ensure our sustainability strategy addresses current and emerging stakeholder expectations. As part of the materiality refresh process we:
- Reviewed a wide range of source documents to determine potentially material topics, including:
- Greif’s vision, strategic priorities, CEO scorecard, business unit strategies and colleague engagement survey
- In depth interviews conducted with customers as part of the “Voice of the Customer” project
- Peer sustainability reports
- ESG investment analyst reports
- Industry association priorities
- Global sustainability trend reports
- Conducted interviews and surveys with Greif leadership and external stakeholders and reviewed additional publicly available sources to collect feedback on material topics
- Consolidated feedback from interviews and surveys to prioritize our most material topics
Through the interview, survey and document review process, participants were asked to identify and provide specific evidence to reveal topics that posed impact, risk and/or opportunity for Greif. Participants were asked to consider impact, risk and opportunity in terms of financial gains or losses, reputation and trends that may alter the way Greif creates value and provide specific examples in support of their answers.
Through this process we prioritized 17 material issues based on their importance to internal and external stakeholders, adding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion as a new material topic. We incorporated the results of the assessment into our sustainability strategy and significantly increased our focus on climate and circularity. The results of the assessment were reviewed and validated with Greif’s leadership during a third party-led validation workshop and serve as the basis for our reporting.
Material Topics
Greif’s most recent stakeholder engagement and materiality assessment process validated many topics that have historically been important to our company and our stakeholders. The process resulted in identifying the 17 most highly material issues described below. These issues guide and form our sustainability strategies. Our sustainability reporting serves to address topics that are of high concern to each group, as indicated below, and yielded topic owners in Greif and goals for 2025 and 2030. We continue to strengthen our approach to managing and addressing the opportunities available to our company.
Throughout this report you will learn about our goals, management approach and performance for our material topics.
| Material Topic | Boundary | Stakeholders Engaged, Types of Stakeholder Engagement & Concerns Raised | ||||
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| Greif’s Board of Directors & Leaders |
Customers | Investors | Society/Community | Environment | ||
| Types of Engagement | Daily interactions, impact mapping interviews, materiality assessment survey, quarterly updates on sustainabiltiy | Daily interactions, bi-annual satisfaction surveys, materiality assessment interviews | Daily interactions, investor day events, materiality assessment interviews | Community engagement (face-to-face meetings, interviews, survey), community service events | Greif LCA, interviews with sustainability experts (e.g., WBCSD) | |
| Delivering Superior Customer Experience | ||||||
Product Quality Producing products that maintain high performance and value through superior design and manufacturing across facilities, driving customer satisfaction and averting throw-away dynamics. |
All internal operations; during use |  |
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Customer Service Excellence Creating effective policies, systems, best practices and incentives that drive the highest level of customer service; taking into account customer feedback regularly and having systems in place to address their needs; outperforming competitors. |
All internal operations; all customers | |
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| Reducing Our Footprint | ||||||
Environmental Management Systems Utilizing a comprehensive environmental management system with dedicated environmental management resources (i.e. personnel, budget, etc.), an environmental policy, certifications (e.g., ISO 14001) and compliance. |
All internal operations | |
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Climate Strategy
Creating a climate strategy to address risks, opportunities and impacts such as changes in energy and emissions regulation (carbon taxes, efficiency regulations, etc.), increasing operational costs, renewable energy, natural disaster preparedness and social impacts; managing and reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
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All internal operations | |
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Water Reducing water use, particularly in facilities with significant water use and water stressed regions; returning wastewater to a safe state. |
PPS operations | |
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Waste
Managing and reducing waste (hazardous and non-hazardous) in Greif’s operations; reducing waste to landfill; reclaiming waste and byproducts for beneficial reuse.
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All internal operations | |
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| Addressing Risk | ||||||
Ethics & Compliance Maintaining governance structures, practices and training that promotes ethical behavior and steering clear of anti-competitive behaviors (bribery, corruption, etc.). |
All internal operations; all suppliers | |
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Risk Management & Business Continuity Regularly conducting risk assessments that include environmental, social and governance factors: determining high-risk suppliers (only one supplier), high risk/politically unstable regions (e.g., weather impacts in Houston) and potential labor-related work stoppages; putting plans in place to ensure uninterrupted supply, operations and delivery to customers (e.g., qualifying backup suppliers). |
All internal operations; all suppliers | |
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Security Adopting a proactive approach to information security—including personal data and intellectual property—taking into account not only Greif’s internal level of protection, but also the security of the entities with whom Greif is connected (suppliers, employees, customers, etc.); taking necessary measures to ensure that Greif’s customers’ customers receive what they order versus counterfeit products. |
All internal operations | |
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| Valuing Our People | ||||||
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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Ensuring fair hiring processes and a non-discriminatory work environment; fostering an inclusive and diverse culture that reflects the communities where Greif operates; striving to achieve equitable pay and treatment among all employees, regardless of any characteristics such as race, ethnicity, color, nationality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, language, religion, creed, social status, disability, or any other legally protected class.
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All internal operations | |
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Talent Attraction, Development & Retention Attracting and retaining qualified and talented employees, managers and executives. Cultivating a culture of growth and development through education, training, mentorship, performance reviews, coaching, etc. |
All internal operations | |
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Health & Safety
Promoting and practicing the highest standards of workplace health, safety and well-being through management systems, targets, policies, programs, trainings, certifications, audits and compliance.
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All internal operations; Community | |
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Human Rights & Fair Labor Practices Ensuring compliance with laws, standards and internal policies on topics within the realm of human rights and fair labor practices such as child labor, forced labor, fair remuneration, human trafficking, working conditions, freedom of association, collective bargaining, discrimination and conflict-free minerals. |
All internal operations; all suppliers | |
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| Advancing Circular Economy | ||||||
Innovation Carefully considering raw material inputs and alternative and recycled materials (e.g., post-consumer resins, water-based paints and linings, recycled wood pallets) based on environmental and social impacts; reducing the amount of materials used in Greif’s products; taking customers’ specific needs and Greif’s expertise and using that to drive innovative, customized solutions to drive business growth. |
All internal operations; suppliers; customers | |
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Circular Economy
Advancing the circular economy within the packaging industry by taking actions that enable reconditioning, reuse and recycling of products at end of life, including avoiding mixtures of plastics and developing designs that enable recycling (e.g. fully recyclable fibre drums); educating and incentivizing customers to return/recycle Greif’s packaging materials; creating policies, processes, targets and tools to support these efforts.
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Reconditioning operations; reconditioning partners; customers | |
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Supply Chain Management |
All internal operations; all suppliers; trucking partners | |
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| Financial Performance & Profitable Growth | ||||||
Financial Performance & Profitable Growth Maintaining a sustainable business model by implementing integrated economic practices that allow Greif to provide economic value to its stakeholders (e.g. employees, suppliers, and shareholders) and invest in long-term growth. |
All internal operations | |
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SUSTAINABILITY HIGHLIGHTS
~16,000
Colleagues
Our people—principled, intelligent and reliable—reaffirm our reputation for integrity every day with their every action.
145
Years of Experience
For the past 145 years, the world’s most important products have travelled around the world in Greif industrial packaging
