Pack Light and Right, a programme created in Europe by procurement, is driving a significant change in Mondelēz International’s packaging agenda, aiming to minimise the environmental footprint and deliver a $50m financial benefit over a five-year period.

The Light and Right approach is now engrained in our packaging strategy, guiding us to explore innovative ways to transition to materials with a lighter environmental impact and reduce overall material usage. This involves a focused effort on eliminating all unnecessary packaging, void space and reducing packaging weight. It also requires successfully redesigning the packaging formants and switching to the right packaging using materials designed for recyclability.

Starting with an inspiring event we called ‘Packathon’, which gave a voice to every employee in our entire manufacturing network by asking: ‘What would they change given the chance?’ The initiative was so popular and the ideas generated so compelling that this programme has resulted in creation of a packaging design playbook to lead our decisions. It expanded from a European focus to a Global ambition program, uniting teams of marketers, consumer insights, R&D and business development around the evaluation of new ideas.

Procurement has proven that with patience and persistence it’s possible to do good for the planet without compromising consumer value. Pack Light and Right is now a strategic ingredient in our marketing team’s plans and our enterprise-wide sustainability programme. This year, it received The Global Mondelēz Supply Chain award and is a contender in the CEO Circle awards.