Blue Apron Sets New Sustainable Packaging Goals
July 08 2021 - 8:30AM
Business Wire
Company Plans to Achieve 100% Recyclable,
Reusable or Compostable Meal Kit Packaging by 2025
Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN) today announced a new sustainable
packaging goal for its meal kit boxes of 100% recyclable, reusable
or compostable by the end of 2025. The company also strives to use
75% post-consumer recycled content, by weight, in its meal kit
boxes by the end of 2025.
By establishing these goals, Blue Apron is the first major meal
kit company in the United States to announce time-bound targets
around packaging goals.
“With these new goals, we are building on our history of
sustainability through food waste reduction, packaging
improvements, and ingredient standards,” said Linda Findley
Kozlowski, Blue Apron’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We
estimate that our meal kit packaging is currently 85% recyclable by
weight, and we are the first major meal kit company in the United
States to use only drain safe frozen gel packs in all of our boxes.
While we’ve made significant progress, we recognize that our next
big opportunity is further improvements in packaging across our
business.”
Delivering high-quality, responsibly-sourced ingredients while
minimizing environmental impact has always been a priority at Blue
Apron. The company became the first major meal kit company to join
the U.S. Food Loss & Waste 2030 Champions in 2016, and it
estimates that it had exceeded its goal of reducing food waste in
its fulfilment center operations by 50% between 2017 and 2019. In
addition, cooking Blue Apron meal kit recipes could reduce a
person’s carbon footprint by an estimated 25%, compared to
preparing the same meal from ingredients purchased from a grocery
store.* The company is also the only major meal kit company in the
United States to have publicly established goals around animal
welfare standards.
Setting the new packaging goals is one of the priorities of Blue
Apron’s corporate social and environmental impact program, Aprons
For All. The company is dedicated to managing the environmental and
social impacts of its business to support an ethical, resilient
food system. To learn more about Aprons For All, visit
blog.blueapron.com/aprons-for-all.
“Carbon offsets are not the sole solution to improving
sustainability,” continued Findley Kozlowski. “We are working to
reduce the environmental impact of the full production and waste
process in our operations to minimize our impact right from the
start of the cycle.”
To achieve its new packaging goals for its meal kits, Blue Apron
plans to continue to build on its progress by:
- Using dynamic packaging: With the help of Blue
Apron-designed technology, the company optimizes its packaging
based on various attributes of a customer’s weekly meal kit order.
This allows for the appropriate packaging configuration with the
goal of ensuring safe delivery, while reducing the amount of
packaging used.
- Identifying new packaging opportunities: Blue Apron’s
packaging engineering lab conducts regular tests on new materials
and innovative solutions to identify opportunities to reduce
environmental footprint, including improved recyclability and
increased post-consumer recycled content. This lab facilitates
collaboration between members of the Packaging Engineering, Food
Safety and Quality Assurance, Operations, and Corporate Social
Responsibility teams.
- Engaging the right partners: To ensure accountability
and support progress toward its goals, Blue Apron continues to
engage reputable, third-party partners. This includes How2Recycle®,
a respected standardized labeling system that clearly communicates
recycling instructions to the public, and Sustainable Packaging
Coalition, a leading voice in packaging sustainability.
Full details of Blue Apron’s packaging commitment can be found
at blog.blueapron.com/sustainable-packaging-goals.
*According to a University of Michigan paper published in 2019,
which can be found at https://bit.ly/3x5pGjf.
About Blue Apron
Blue Apron’s vision is “better living through better food.”
Launched in 2012, Blue Apron offers fresh, chef-designed recipes
that empower home cooks to embrace their culinary curiosity and
challenge their abilities to see what a difference cooking quality
food can make in their lives. Through its mission to spark
discovery, connection and joy through cooking, Blue Apron
continuously focuses on bringing incredible recipes to its
customers, while minimizing its carbon footprint, reducing food
waste, and promoting diversity and inclusion.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release includes statements concerning Blue Apron
Holdings, Inc. and its future expectations, plans and prospects
that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For this
purpose, any statements contained herein that are not statements of
historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. In
some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms
such as "may," "should," "expects," "plans," “forecasts,”
"anticipates," "could," "intends," "target," "projects,"
"contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential,"
or "continue," or the negative of these terms or other similar
expressions. Blue Apron has based these forward-looking statements
largely on its current expectations and projections about future
events and financial trends that it believes may affect its
business, financial condition and results of operations. These
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press
release and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and
assumptions including, without limitation, the company’s ability to
procure sufficient amounts of recyclable, reusable or compostable
packaging materials and/or packaging materials made of
post-consumer recycled content by weight; any material and adverse
impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise on the company’s
operations or the operations of the company’s current or future
packaging suppliers including as a result of insufficient labor,
whether as a result of heightened absenteeism or challenges in
recruiting and retention or otherwise; its expectations regarding,
and the stability of, the company and its packaging suppliers’
supply chain, including potential shortages or interruptions in the
supply or delivery of packaging materials; the company’s ability to
comply with modified or new laws and regulations applying to its
business; and other risks more fully described in the company’s
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020
filed with the SEC on February 23, 2021 and the company’s Quarterly
Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 filed with
the SEC on May 6, 2021, and in other filings that the company may
make with the SEC in the future. The company assumes no obligation
to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press
release as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210708005242/en/
Media Contact Muriel Lussier Blue Apron
muriel.lussier@blueapron.com
Investor Contact investor.relations@blueapron.com Joseph
Jaffoni, Richard Land, James Leahy JCIR aprn@jcir.com or
212-835-8500
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