Leadership in sustainability is a primary goal of Sudpack. The company originally aimed to meet the ambitious targets in its sustainability strategy by 2030, but is already close to achieving them. 

In the 2022 and 2023 cross-sector sustainability rankings of WirtschaftsWoche magazine, the film manufacturer was named one of the top sustainability performers among Germany’s medium-sized companies. 

This latest study, which was supported scientifically by the Institute for Management and Economic Research (IMWF), defines Sudpack as a pioneer and model in the area of circular economy in the packaging industry, awarding it the top position in this market in 2024.

The process

The study is not just a current snapshot but the result of extensive research and evaluations over many months. The first stage from 1 August 2022 to 31 July 2024 consisted of crawling German-language internet sources, including editorial webpages and social media, using defined keywords to identify all relevant texts from the internet. 

The second stage processing used AI to analyse the collected data and its fragmentation. In this way, some 3.5 million uses of the key words by around 5,500 companies were identified, allocated, and weighted in terms of range and tonality balance. In the tonality balance, ecological sustainability was weighted at 50%, economic sustainability at 30%, and general sustainability at 20%. Next, the points awarded to all companies and brands were standardised according to industry. The best company in each industry achieved the benchmark of 100 points, and received the award “Germany’s best in circular economy 2024”.

The transformation process

“With this award, the initiators recognise companies that apply sustainable methods and business models to combat today’s throwaway society and that prove ecological and business success can go together,” Erik Bouts, the CEO of Sudpack said. He believes the award has come at just the right time. “We set new standards with our recyclable and material-reduced product developments and point the way to a sustainable future. The same goes for our policy of expanding capacities and technologies for compounding, regranulation, and chemical recycling. But a genuine transformation can only happen if industry, politics, legislation, and society take the next steps jointly.”

This dedication to the responsible use of raw materials and recyclables, curbing the consumption of fossil resources, and optimising the carbon footprint along the entire supply chain is rooted in the DNA of the successful, family-owned company. 

Sudpack operates its own material management system and holds the majority share in carboliq GmbH. carboliq is a groundbreaking process for direct oiling of a wide range of plastic fractions. As a result of these two factors, Sudpack is currently the only film manufacturer able to use both mechanical and chemical recycling for its products.