GW: What does it mean to you personally to be elected as FEVE president?
It is an honour to represent our industry at a time when sustainable packaging is more relevant than ever to our future society. I really look forward to continuing to work with FEVE and its members in the coming years; it will be both challenging and inspiring!
GW: How relevant is FEVE now and in the future as the voice of European hollow glass manufacturers?
As an industry, alongside many others, we face an increasing regulatory agenda in the short to medium term, therefore the role of FEVE in providing a common voice and platform to represent combined member interests has never been more important.
GW: During your 20+ years in the glass industry, how has FEVE evolved?
The support provided by the dedicated team at FEVE has become an increasingly important element of the success of its members throughout the glass industry.
I have seen FEVE transform itself from a traditional membership organisation to a dynamic and proactive voice representing the glass sector. It has been pioneering in many areas, notably for its consumer outreach programme Friends of Glass which has won industry awards for its awareness generating campaigns, such as ‘Taste of Europe’ and ‘Endless Lives of Glass’, as well as for many collaboration initiatives such as Close the Glass Loop, which draws on the expertise and support of FEVE members to drive higher and better quality recycling, to benefit the whole industry and ultimately consumers.
GW: Which areas will you focus on in the short, medium and long terms during your presidency?
In the short term, I will continue to support FEVE’s Close the Glass Loop project and improve our communication of the positive attributes of glass as a 100% recyclable and reusable material.
From the outset, I will also be supporting and promoting the sector’s decarbonisation agenda, which will undoubtedly continue into the medium and longer term.
The European infrastructure of power grids and availability of renewable energy will be an ongoing focus area, not only for glass companies, but also for individual countries, to provide the foundation for a sustainability transition.
GW: How important will the contributions of Michel Giannuzzi, new FEVE Vice-President, and other members of the executive team be to achieving the federation’s goals in the next two years?
As in all businesses and sectors, collaboration and teamwork is key, and that will be no different with FEVE and its members. I have had the pleasure of working with Michel within FEVE for some years and look forward to continuing do so in the coming years.
GW: What legacy does your predecessor, Vitaliano Torno, leave behind from his time as FEVE President?
With his long experience of the glass industry and his dedication, [Mr] Vitaliano has guided FEVE through some very challenging times: with Covid, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the never-ending pressure from regulatory affairs. Following [Mr] Vitaliano’s presidency, FEVE and its members are aligned on strategic priorities going forward, which I will try to continue with, and build on.
GW: How would you describe prevailing market conditions for the European container glass industry?
The glass industry, as with other industries, has seen significant upward cost pressure on energy and raw materials which in turn puts pressure on our customers, and ultimately consumers. Coupled with the prevailing economic climate, this has led to reduced consumer spending and some easing of demand in certain sectors.
However, the longer-term outlook is positive as glass remains consumers’ preferred packaging material in our key market sectors. Glass packaging also perfectly meets the needs of a circular economy model, through the credentials of infinite recyclability and purity. With plans in place to decarbonise the melting process, we remain very confident about the future.
GW: What are the main challenges facing member companies and how does uniting under the FEVE umbrella assist?
As an industry we face an increasing regulatory agenda, so we need to unite under the FEVE umbrella with a common voice. It is important for us as the container glass industry to work for fair competition rules versus other materials, as well as from products from outside Europe. This will also be a focus area in the coming years.
GW: And what are the main opportunities for member companies currently?
The positive attributes of glass always provide our industry with good opportunities in terms of sustainability, health and incredible design, and there are exciting times ahead with the decarbonisation of manufacturing through cleaner energy sources and new technologies.
GW: Since launching the ‘Close the Glass Loop’ action platform in 2020, what are the current priorities of this multi-stakeholder circular economy partnership?
The European Close the Glass Loop (CGL) platform aims to foster co-ordination and exchange of best practices between glass practitioners but also to generate knowledge to address structural challenges in the glass collection and recycling chain. CGL has therefore published studies that pave the way for dedicated action plans to better support local authorities on post-consumer glass waste management or to find tailored solutions to increase the amount of glass packaging that is collected and recycled in the HoReCa [hotel, restaurant & catering] sector.
What is critical on the journey to a 90% collection rate, is to trigger the necessary actions at national level to increase glass collection and recycling in Europe. To help in achieving this, our next priority is to help strengthen our 11 national platforms, and in some areas, to create new ones.
GW: What is the motivation for the online #FutureMadeClear Live Q&A events and how successful have they proven?
The Live Q&As are one component of the more comprehensive business to business Glass Hallmark platform designed by the industry through FEVE to spark debate and engage with customers, retailers and the value chain on common topics and issues.
The objective is to offer a space where our customers and marketplace can interact with our industry, and to give more visibility to efforts made by our industry to meet customers’ needs. And it is working. In 2022, over 1.5k people registered for the live Q&A episodes (an average of 177 registrations per Q&A). In total, the event pages received over 5.8k unique visits to the events. Overall, event posts received over 610 engagements: an engagement rate of 10%. Some 14% of users registered for Q&As were from brands and retailers – continuing the positive trend of target audience participation.
GW: And therme return of e is also the welcoin-person FEVE gatherings, such as the Close the Glass Loop Annual Event in Brussels in June?
This year’s Annual Event was indeed the first in-person Close the Glass Loop gathering of glass professionals from diverse backgrounds to support the platform’s ambitious goals. Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, Director of Circular Economy at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), gave us his perspective and insights on the implementation of current packaging legislation and what to expect with the upcoming Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation.
We also had two lively panel discussions on the right policy tools to boost collection and recycling of glass and how to optimise closed loop recycling. Last but not least, the most recent data on container glass collection for recycling in Europe was released, confirming steady progress at 80.1% across Europe in 2021. [See the full Sept/Oct issue for a review of the Close the Glass Loop Annual Event.]
GW: Does the well-established Friends of Glass campaign continue to play an important role?
It absolutely does. We are proud to have developed this Europe-wide and global movement in which we have established a voice with our key consumer audience, and it will continue to be a key focus of FEVE’s activities. In 2022, 34 million consumers were reached by our consumer campaigns and one million of them directly engaged with the content by liking, sharing or commenting on it. It is an important channel for us to continue to raise awareness of the unique properties of glass packaging that are often taken for granted.
GW: What is the status of the Glass Hallmark action platform and what are the plans moving forward?
The platform is increasingly effective in reaching out to the business-to-business audience. In 2022, some nine million B2B profiles were reached with digital and social media content, actions and tools. 450k experts viewed material we published on the www.glasshallmark.com website, such as the customer toolkits or the success stories on industry advances in innovation. This platform has the ambition to become an industry one-stop-shop for customers or whoever wants to access marketplace information that can help to make informed choices on glass packaging.
GW: Are the multitude of proactive programmes and initiatives from FEVE clear evidence of the federation’s integral role at the heart of the European glass manufacturing?
Yes! I believe that FEVE, with limited resources, has accomplished significant progress thanks to its multitude of programmes and its presence in Brussels.
GW: Are there any other FEVE initiatives or activities you would like to elaborate on?
At FEVE we are currently exploring new ways of communicating and engaging with target audiences – consumers, citizens, the HoReCa sector, for example – by investing in digital communication pilot projects to nudge positive behaviour in choosing glass, as well as in collecting more glass and in better ways at its end of life. The objective is to provide a blueprint to the industry and the value chain of scalable and replicable projects.
GW: To summarise, does Europe still represent a cost-effective manufacturing hub for hollow glass production in the long-term?
There is no doubt that our industry has been impacted by significant cost increases, particularly due to the unprecedented market price levels of both gas and electricity across Europe. However, with forward energy prices decreasing in Europe, there is every reason to believe that European manufacturers can be competitive, not only on cost but also in the critically important areas of sustainability, quality and supply chain management which, together, create real, long-term value for our customers. We must, however, continue to work to make sure that European glass manufacturing has the cost-competitive conditions we need to operate successfully in the longer term.
GW: Glass Worldwide acts as FEVE’s preferred journal and is the only magazine to be an official partner of Friends of Glass. How has this co-operation benefited the industry?
The co-operation between FEVE and Glass Worldwide has been successful for many years, enabling FEVE and its members to communicate with an audience of industry stakeholders on innovations and campaigns, while being a reliable source of the latest information and insights on key topics and developments within the sector.
Image: The Close the Glass Loop Annual Event in Brussels last June (inset: Martin Petersson)