水

Optimizing the use and improving the quality of water in our operations.

亮点

Greif has a responsibility to protect water sources for use by future generations—clean and available water is essential to everyone’s wellbeing. This responsibility means treating water discharged from our facilities, ensuring it is safe for both surrounding habitats and the communities we serve.
Our water management priorities focus on water use reduction in our Paper Packaging and Services (PPS) business and stormwater management in our Global Industrial Packaging (GIP) business.
Greif is committed to improving our management of water, effluent and energy data by standardizing environmental data dashboards across our mills, which allows us to better identify efficiency opportunities.
In 2023, water withdrawal declined by 14 percent, and water discharged declined by 9 percent, largely due to the sales or closure of several high water-use mills.
Greif is investing substantial time and resources into future plans and organizational alignment on improved water management projects.

Why Water Matters

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

3-3

实质性议题管理

303-1

Interactions with water as a shared resource

303-2

Management of water discharge-related impacts

303-3

Water withdrawal

303-4

Water discharge

303-5

Water consumption

Greif takes a proactive stance in responsibly managing water resources, aiming to mitigate negative impacts associated with water withdrawals, discharges and stormwater runoff. We seek opportunities to contribute to positive outcomes for the environment and for communities with whom we share a water source. Our commitment extends to reducing water usage and elevating water quality across our organization, particularly in water-intensive operations at our mills. In our efforts to enhance water quality, we ensure that water discharged from our facilities undergoes thorough treatment, whether on site or by a trusted third party. This treatment strictly adheres to all relevant regulations, ensuring that the discharged water meets high standards of health and safety for wildlife and the local communities. Recognizing water as a precious resource, Greif pledges to safeguard it for the benefit of future generations.

治理

Our commitment to global water conservation and efficiency is outlined in our Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Policy. Across all Greif facilities, we proactively oversee water usage, enlisting our EHS team to ensure regulatory compliance and implement optimal practices in water treatment and recycling. Within our environmental structure, we maintain a robust compliance management system with dedicated support. Greif champions and empowers local management teams to improve water efficiency, enhance water quality, minimize impact on local water sources and reduce associated costs. Our approach extends to managing water discharge in strict compliance with individually allocated water permits.

The vast majority—approximately 90 percent of our water usage—is consumed at 12 paperboard mills within our PPS business. To prioritize sustainable practices, we emphasize the use of reclaimed water in paper production. Our primary water management efforts are directed toward our PPS mills, where we can have the greatest impact. We reduce water use and recycle water in our mills through various means, including collecting HVAC cooling water and compressor cooling water for reuse at our Riverville mill, installing ultra-low water consumption mechanical seals on process pumps at Massillon and installing effluent treatment plants at multiple mills that not only reduce biochemical oxygen demand but also reduce water consumption overall.

At Greif, we place a strong emphasis on effective stormwater practices within our GIP facilities due to their low water usage. Regular and thorough stormwater sampling and testing are integral to our operations, ensuring strict adherence to safety standards, while identifying continuous improvement opportunities. Our commitment extends to providing comprehensive annual training to all relevant colleagues, instilling a culture of responsible water management throughout our organization. We regularly update our stormwater training, and in 2023, we collaborated with third-party consultants when necessary to advise on stormwater training.

Localized stormwater pollution prevention plans and robust spill prevention controls are in place at key facilities. A comprehensive global contingency plan and emergency procedure are intended to address and mitigate any potential or actual spills. Spills and releases that could impact groundwater—including corresponding corrective actions—are qualitatively tracked in our Compliance Management System. We are currently evaluating potential changes to the system so that we can capture more quantitative information to track trends in incidents over time. Several of our facilities monitor groundwater to detect leakage.

While Greif’s PPS operations face the most substantial water impacts, responsible water management is a priority across all our operations. This is especially crucial in water-stressed regions such as Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Greif uses World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct analysis and country ranking tools on an ongoing basis to track developments and risks in water-stressed regions where Greif facilities are located. To mitigate negative impacts in these facilities, we reduce excess water pressure, replace faulty valves, promote water recycling, install touchless faucets and harvest rainwater. Greif is committed to ensuring that every facility operates responsibly within its water permits.

目标、进展与表现

2025 Goal:

Reduce biochemical oxygen demand discharged in kilograms by 10 percent per metric ton of production from Riverville and Massillon mills using a 2014 baseline by the end of FY25.

To date, we have reduced the biochemical oxygen demand by 67 percent from our 2014 target baseline in each facility of 1.40.

Most of our water consumption occurs at our paperboard mills, where we reuse water several times before treatment and discharge. Our mills account for approximately 90 percent of our global water usage.

Greif utilizes key performance indicators to monitor water usage and wastewater treatment. We continuously streamline our environmental data dashboards across our mills, aiming for a more comprehensive understanding and effective management of our water, effluents and energy data. This effort enables us to consistently discover and leverage water efficiency opportunities.

In 2022, we utilized a third-party consultant to assess the water usage at our paperboard mills. This comprehensive study developed water models for each of our mills, unveiling new opportunities for minimizing water consumption. In 2023, we identified three projects with specific actionable items to reduce water use at our mills, and they are currently being evaluated for implementation over the next two years.

精彩故事

Practicing Circular Economy

At Greif’s Austell mill in Georgia, we began a wastewater residuals dewatering project to turn waste into biofuel. The circular economy practice sweeps thickened solids from a floating sediment blanket on to a dewatering press. The flowable solids are dehydrated until they can be transported to a location to air dry, mixed with other materials, and consumed as a supplemental boiler fuel. This process not only allows materials to be repurposed to gain the most benefit from start to finish, but it also saves the facility landfill disposal fees.

精彩故事

Water Reduction at Our Florence, Kentucky Mill

In late 2019, Greif’s Florence, Kentucky facility installed a wastewater treatment facility to reduce our hazardous waste load and recycle water back to the city. The process works by introducing water into the system, removing close to 100% of the pollutants from the paint process and sends the cleaned water to the local treatment plant. The water is then recycled by the treatment plant for redistribution to the community. The material leftover from the process is disposed via trash instead of hazardous waste. As the equipment came fully online in mid-2020, the process has not only significantly lowered hazardous waste generated by the facility, but also reduced the cost of waste by $40,000 a month.

水

Optimizing the use and improving the quality of water in our operations.

亮点

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.

Why Water Matters

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

3-3

实质性议题管理

303-1

Interactions with water as a shared resource

303-2

Management of water discharge-related impacts

303-3

Water withdrawal

303-4

Water discharge

303-5

Water consumption

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.

治理

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.

目标、进展与表现

83%

Average Recycled Water
Intake at Mills

2025 Goal:

Reduce Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) discharged in kilograms by 10 percent per metric ton of production from Riverville and Massillon mills using a 2014 baseline by the end of fiscal year 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.

精彩故事

Practicing Circular Economy

精彩故事

Water Reduction at Our Florence, Kentucky Mill

水

Optimizing the use and improving the quality of water in our operations.

Why Water Matters

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

Interactions with water as a shared resource

303-2

Management of water discharge-related impacts

303-3

Water withdrawal

303-4

Water discharge

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.

治理

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	FY 2019	FY 2020	FY 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*	FY 2020	FY 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.

精彩故事

Practicing Circular Economy

精彩故事

Water Reduction at Our Florence, Kentucky Mill

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.

水

Optimizing the use and improving the quality of water in our operations.

Why Water Matters

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.

治理

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 浪费 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	FY 2019	FY 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*	FY 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.

精彩故事

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.

精彩故事

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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搜索

水

水

亮点

Why Water Matters

治理

目标、进展与表现

Practicing Circular Economy

Water Reduction at Our Florence, Kentucky Mill

水

水

亮点

Why Water Matters

治理

Water Reduction Study

Paper Packaging & Services Water Reduction and Quality Projects

目标、进展与表现

83%

Average Recycled Water Intake at Mills

Practicing Circular Economy

Water Reduction at Our Florence, Kentucky Mill

水

水

Why Water Matters

治理

77%

Reduction in BiochemicalOxygen Demand

Goals & Progress

Performance Data

Practicing Circular Economy

Water Reduction at Our Florence, Kentucky Mill

SUSTAINABILITY HIGHLIGHTS

~95%

Of Water Use Occurs At Our 13 Paperboard Mills

77%

Reduction in Biochemical Oxygen Demand

水

水

Why Water Matters

治理

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