2024 Sustainability Awards: The Best in Consumer Packaged Goods
Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) refers to everyday items that people buy regularly, such as food, beverages, household products, and personal care items. These products are typically mass-produced, sold in individual packages, and designed for quick consumption and frequent replacement.
As part of the 2024 Sustainability Awards, we’re highlighting brands that are working with consumer packaged goods. Some of the requirements for the awards were companies who are actively reducing their environmental impact through implementing circular economy principles, using innovative material and ingredient choices, and introducing waste-reducing business models.
We’re excited to introduce the 2024 Sustainability Awards winners.
Gold Winner Case Study: Complement
Location: US
Materials Used: Plant Fibres
Website: https://lovecomplement.com/
Complement’s ingredients are entirely plant-based and free from dairy whey powder, a common ingredient in the protein powder industry. By combining a focus on personal wellbeing with sustainable, plant-based products, Complement is showing how caring for your health can also mean caring for the planet.
The brand has also taken a zero-plastic approach to packaging, using biodegradable and compostable pouches made from plant-based materials like bio-resins and wood cellulose. These pouches naturally break down within 12 months, providing a responsible alternative to conventional plastic.
Complement’s commitment to sustainability doesn’t end with packaging. Through a dedicated tree-planting program, the brand actively works to offset its environmental footprint, reinforcing its role as a leader in conscious consumer products.
While Complement stands out for its thoughtful choices, it’s part of a growing shift across the consumer packaged goods industry, where brands are rethinking not only packaging, but also ingredient sourcing, production, and supply chains.
Standout innovation: Using plant-based ingredients and compostable packaging.
Quote from Complement:
“Our biodegradable pouches will completely break down in an at-home or industrial compost, with food scraps in the trash, or simply buried in the backyard. No need to recycle. No plastics making their way to the oceans.”
Complement
Source: https://lovecomplement.com/blogs/resources/essential-packaging
About Complement:
Complement empowers you to make your own decisions for your health—with plant-based vitamins, supplements, and hard-to-get nutrients to help build the optimal system to fit your lifestyle and goals. Complement has helped redefine what it means to thrive through clean nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. And the next phase starts with you.
Source: Complement
Silver Winner Case Study: BrewDog
Location: UK (Global Distribution)
Focus: Circular Economy Packaging Solutions
Website: https://brewdog.com/
BrewDog have been working tirelessly on reducing their carbon emissions and optimising their water usage, which is no mean feat in the beer brewing industry, where water and emissions are on the higher side. Especially in the UK. When it comes to energy usage, BrewDog has stepped up to the challenge by installing their very own bio-energy plant that produces green gas for their operations.
On the brewing, storage, and transportation side of things, BrewDog has started replacing their plastic key kegs with reusable stainless steel kegs. This will extend the life of the kegs and help to remove plastic from their supply lines. Better yet, beer tastes better when it’s stored in non-plastic kegs, due to the beer keeping its sensory qualities for longer.
On the plastic packaging side of things, BrewDog has initiated the use of a plastic wrapping machine to minimise plastic use when transporting their goods to customers and distributors across the globe.
For the beer outer cartons, BrewDog decreased the size of the flaps, reducing paper usage by 15%. While their 12 pack cartons have been replaced by corrugated cardboard, saving 235.7kg of cardboard each year. According to BrewDog, those two small changes will decrease the amount of trucks on the road employed to haul the waste.
BrewDog Standout innovation:
In 2024, BrewDog was awarded the Positive Planet Certified Gold Award
Quote from BrewDog:
“In 2024, we achieved Positive Planet GOLD certification, acknowledging our emissions reduction strategy and initiatives. This 3rd party stamp of approval ranks our efforts to make impactful strides towards being a more sustainable business.”
Source: BrewDog https://brewdog.com/pages/brewdogplanet
About BrewDog:
Back in 2007, friends James Watt and Martin Dickie from the North East of Scotland, were bored of the industrially brewed lagers and stuffy ales that dominated the UK market. They decided the best way to fix this undesirable predicament was to brew their own beers. Consequently, BrewDog was born.
Source: BrewDog
Bronze Winner Case Study: Method
Location: UK
Materials Used: 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Plastic
Website: https://methodproducts.co.uk/
Method works with “consciously chosen ingredients” to use within their household consumer packaged goods. Whether it is hand wash that kills 99.9% of bacteria, or the lovely smelling Wind Down Bodywash, you can rest assured that Method has only included third-party independently assessed and certified ingredients, that are light on the planet and safe for humans.
Washing clothes can be done with Method’s products as well, ensuring the runoff from keeping your clothes clean is safe for waterways. Each Method product uses recycled plastic packaging, making sure that their products actively reduce plastic waste rather than contribute to it. All of Method’s 1-PET plastic bottles, including packaging for products such as, hand wash, dish soap, and surface cleaners, are made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. This initiative has significantly cut down landfill waste and lowered their carbon emissions by up to 70%, compared to virgin plastic.
For products that require 2-HDPE plastic, such as toilet cleaners and laundry detergents, Method incorporates 25-50% recycled content, ensuring that even traditionally difficult-to-recycle packaging has a reduced environmental impact.
To further promote sustainability, Method offers refill pouches, which use up to 80% less plastic, water, and energy than buying a new bottle. This approach aligns with closed-loop recycling systems, ensuring that plastic packaging gets reused efficiently rather than discarded.
Standout innovation: Method uses third-party independently assessed and certified ingredients in their products, that are light on your skin and the earth.
Quote from Method:
“With a little creativity and a heap of conviction, we can do big things. preferably while wearing a rainbow and smelling like sunshine. At method, we believe the good fight can be good fun.”
Source: https://methodproducts.co.uk/
About Method:
Method makes products that smell like nature, not chemicals, and our role models come in bottles. We believe in fresh starts, spontaneous joy, and learning from little messes. Clean spaces clear minds, and weirdliness is next to godliness. Safe for every surface, especially the earth, our mission is simple: good always prevails over stinky.
Source: Method
Commendable Sustainability Focused Consumer Packaging Champions
Patagonia
Location: USA with global distribution
Focus: Recycled packaging and eliminating waste
Website: https://www.patagonia.com/
Patagonia has long been a pioneer in sustainable business, using its platform to push for environmental responsibility across the entire consumer goods industry. From sourcing organic and recycled materials to minimising water and energy use, the brand ensures its supply chain reflects its values. Patagonia also leads the way in responsible packaging, reducing unnecessary materials and using recycled or compostable options wherever possible. Beyond products, the company’s commitment to activism, repair programs, and transparency sets a high bar, showing that consumer goods brands can prioritise both performance and planet.
About Patagonia:
Founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973, Patagonia is an outdoor apparel company based in Ventura, California. A certified B-Corporation, Patagonia’s mission is to save our home planet. The company is recognized internationally for its commitment to authentic product quality and environmental activism, donating 1% of sales annually, contributing over $100 million in grants and in-kind donations since 1985.
Source: Patagonia
Flora Food Group
Location: Netherlands
Focus: Paper-Based Spread Containers
Website: www.florafoodgroup.com/
Flora Food Group is redefining what sustainability looks like in the food industry by prioritising plant-based innovation, ethical sourcing, and environmentally responsible packaging. With a focus on using natural ingredients and reducing the environmental impact of its supply chain, Flora also takes steps to minimise packaging waste through recyclable and eco-friendly materials. By combining culinary creativity with a commitment to sustainability, Flora Food Group shows how consumer food brands can meet modern expectations for both taste and environmental care.
About Flora Food Group:
Flora Food Group leads the next generation of delicious, natural, nutritious food that is more affordable and more sustainable than its dairy equivalents. We provide consumers with compelling choices in four growing categories: butters and spreads, creams, liquids and cheeses. Flora Food Group is new, but their brands are not, with 150+ years of heritage.
Source: Flora Food Group
PulpaTronics
Location: UK
Focus: Metal-Free, Chipless RFID Tags
Website: https://www.pulpatronics.com/
Pulpatronics is transforming the sustainable packaging industry by developing smart, fibre-based materials that replace traditional plastics in consumer products. By combining biodegradable pulp with embedded electronics, Pulpatronics creates packaging that’s not only compostable but also capable of tracking product information and enhancing supply chain transparency. Their innovative approach shows how technology and sustainability can work hand in hand, offering a smarter, more responsible future for consumer packaged goods.
About PulpaTronics:
Our mission is to provide businesses with more sustainable and affordable inventory solutions that reduce environmental impact, to help track paper-based, single-use items for a more circular economy.
Source: PulpaTronics
A Future Without Waste?
The 2024 Sustainable Awards for the Best Consumer Packaged Goods winners are leading the charge in sustainable consumer packaged goods, proving that planet-friendly solutions are not only possible but scalable. Whether through biodegradable materials, earth friendly ingredients, closed-loop recycling systems, or by utilising circular economy principles, they are setting a precedent for the industry.
By supporting brands that invest in sustainable consumer packaged goods solutions, we are taking one step closer to a future where people can buy consumer goods without having to worry about the impact they have on the environment..
Congratulations to all our winners for the 2024 Sustainability Awards.
Would you like to be nominated for a Sustainability Award in 2025? Get in contact with us to apply and learn more.