Crown Holdings 2022 Sustainability Report: Next Pressing Priorities

Originally published in Crown Holding's 2022 Corporate Responsibility Report

The efforts of our global workforce throughout 2022 enabled us to make progress across numerous areas of our business, including achieving several notable milestones and setting us up for further advancement in our sustainability strategy. As we look ahead to the remainder of the decade, we will strive to maintain this momentum and strengthen our ESG performance. In the spirit of accountability and transparency, we will continue to communicate internally and externally about our priorities and the steps we are taking to work toward them.

While we are proud of our sustainability progress to date, we know there is more work to do. As we move further into the implementation of our Twentyby30™ program, we will focus on several key topics:

The Energy Transition 

In 2022, energy prices saw unprecedented fluctuations. We are committed to increasing our renewable electricity usage through both on-site renewable power generation and contracting with renewable energy providers. We have a plan in place to achieve 75% renewable electricity by 2030 and 100% by 2040, in line with our RE100 commitment. To help address Scope 1 emissions, we are optimizing all gas used in our facilities through proper heat recovery and electrification of heating equipment where possible.

We plan to implement additional electrification strategies to close the gap, including setting a Net Zero science-based target with SBTi and publishing a formal Net Zero plan within the next two years. These plans come on the heels of the aluminum and steel sectors finalizing their own roadmaps, allowing us to align with and support larger industry initiatives. We have also committed to a dedicated sustainability capital budget to invest in improving our facilities’ energy efficiency.

The Future Water Supply

It is hard to argue against water ranking as the most important resource to exist on the planet—it serves a critical function in nearly every aspect of life. Unfortunately, water is also projected to become increasingly scarce, with existing and future populations at risk.

When we consider what it means to be a steward of water, we factor in our larger value chain and our communities. It is important that we support our peers’ and customers’ water goals as well as be aware of how our operations affect our neighbors and environments. This sensitivity encourages us to be even more proactive about water preservation in the years to come.

Our Twentyby30™ goals have put us on the right course, positioning us to reduce water usage, meet wastewater quality standards, increase employee access to safe water and replenish high-stress sources from which we withdraw water. Still, we intend to further prioritize water projects—including hosting a Company-wide Water Summit, identifying more replenishment projects and conducting water mapping in our facilities to better understand our operational uses. We are also working to establish Companywide water standards and to formalize our WASH-inspired “safe access to water” assessment across our 200+ facilities.

Ramping Up Water Replenishment 

Our ongoing work with TNC in São Paulo, Brazil is helping improve the biodiversity and livelihood of one local ecosystem, but the project does not serve as a standalone initiative. We are committed to expanding our water replenishment partnerships and have identified additional global projects that we will provide an update on by our next formal sustainability report.

Spreading Inspiration at the 2023 Water Summit 

In 2023, we will host the inaugural Crown Water Summit, which aims to centralize discussions around our Company’s Twentyby30™ Best Practices and the successful steps taken by our individual plants toward reducing our water footprint. Employees can look to key takeaways from several teams across our global footprint for water efficiency inspiration. These will include topics such as updates on North American Greenbelt projects from Owatonna, Minnesota (U.S.) and Conroe, Texas (U.S.); learnings from an Adiabatic Cooling Tower System installation in Mexico; and the adoption of washer efficiencies in the Asia Pacific plants in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and reuse ideas from our European teams. These projects and others happening at our sites around the world help illustrate our commitment to set higher water efficiency standards Company-wide – in both new builds and in existing plants. Setting these guidelines also brings us closer to our goal of reaching 20% water reduction by 2025.

Plants Creating a Ripple Effect 

We rely on the ingenuity and tireless work of our global teams to help us uncover minor operational changes that can yield major impact. To date, several plants have made noteworthy contributions to our water conservation efforts: 

• Crown TCP, Thailand: Recognized as a Twentyby30™ Best Practices winner for installing a reverse osmosis reject water pipe system to deliver water for its restroom, cleaning and gardening use, reducing reliance on local water supply and overall water consumption.
• Silvassa, India: Named a Twentyby30™ Best Practices finalist for installing rainwater conservation pits and recharging the rainwater into the ground, significantly increasing groundwater levels. In addition, the plant reduced its water consumption by effectively treating wastewater and using it for gardening and drinking water on-site.
• La Crosse, Wisconsin (U.S.) and Fort Bend, Texas (U.S.): Acknowledged for notable efforts to reduce water consumption in various areas of their operations. The facilities each took steps such as recycling vacuum pump cooling water into processing water; installing new controls on washers to prevent excess water consumption (a project which on its own will reduce the La Crosse plant’s total water usage by 17%); and implementing new counterflow meters to monitor water consumption levels.
• Korinthos, Greece: Identified for exceptional water conservation results due to a unique water recirculation system implemented in the plant. By collecting water throughout the pre-wash stages of can production and sending it through a water treatment process, the plant is able to recycle water for further cleaning stages and reduce reliance on local municipality water sources.

“We intend to prioritize water projects with even more frequency moving forward”

To learn more about Crown Holding’s commitment to corporate responsibility, visit our sustainability webpage.

For full details about Crown Holding's 2022 Sustainability Report, visit here.