Encirc has appointed Richard Lloyd to the position of Managing Director of its Encirc Beverages business unit, as the progressive glass container manufacturer and filler continues to integrate ‘The Park’ bottling and warehousing facility in Bristol into its overall business. The Park acquisition saw Encirc double its UK filling capability to more than 400 million litres per year. More than 400 people also transferred to Encirc as part of the acquisition.

Verallia has successfully completed its eighth employee shareholding offer. On 22 June more than 3,600 employees, including 76% of French employees, signed up to share in the Group’s development and performance. Open from 3 to 17 May in nine countries, this programme afforded workers exclusive conditions to join the Group’s share capital, i.e. a 20% discount on the share price and a favourable matching contribution plan.

NSG Group is pleased to announced the opening of a 750kW photovoltaic solar system at its Aken facility in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The new array owned by Aken, with 1,500 PV modules were installed on open space and on the roof of the plant, will provide 650,000kWh, around 10% of the annual consumption of Aken facility in the future. The electricity generated by the array system at weekends and during periods of shutdown is fed into the public power grid.

From 2017, all plants and units at the NSG Group’s sites in Germany have been powered by 100% green electricity. This investment will sustainably reduce energy costs and make a further contribution to the site's climate-neutral production and the Group's carbon neutrality's goal.

SGD Pharma has published its 2022 Corporate Social Responsibility Report to underscore its commitment to a green and sustainable present and future. The document is published soon after the company received ECOVADIS Gold award, achieving its highest ever score of 75 out of 100.

Key achievements reported include: 100% of all SGD Pharma owned glass manufacturing plants are ISO 45001 certified; 100% of SGD Pharma sites are certified with ISO 14001; 100% of critical suppliers have CSR clauses in their contracts; an average 26 hours of training per employee; and >20% reduction in water consumption versus 2020.

The NSG Group has announced that the joint venture, SP Glass Holdings BV, a company registered in the Netherlands but owning operating subsidiaries in Russia, has completed the disposal of those subsidiaries. The company expects to recognise a profit as a consequence of this transaction.

The Group has been reviewing and improving its business portfolio in line with “Transformation into more profitable business portfolio” under the Revival Plan 24. The companies disposed were Pilkington Glass LLC and StiS Group of Companies LLC located near Moscow, Russia.

The O-I Glass 2023 Sustainability Report illustrates continued advancement toward its ambitious sustainability goals. The report charts significant progress in the building of strong glass recycling ecosystems around the communities where the company operates. It has made targeted investments to establish scalable glass recycling solutions while improving the environmental impact of glass packaging and promoting circularity.

Vitro Architectural Glass has published updated versions of its Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for both flat and processed glass. These updates reaffirm that the company’s glass products contain less embodied carbon than the industry standard for architectural glass products and indicate a lower embodied carbon value than previously reported in the 2017 editions of these EPDs.

As a standard measure of embodied carbon, EPDs calculate a value of global warming potential (GWP) that is expressed as kilogrammes of CO2 equivalent. Vitro’s 2023 EPDs indicate that its products contain just 1350kg of CO2 equivalent, which is 6% lower than the National Glass Association’s industry standard figure of 1430kg of CO2 and an improvement on figures reported in 2017.

Aero Aggregates CEO Archie Filshill had the honour of meeting President Joe Biden at an update on the reconstruction of a major US highway. Pennsylvania workers transported 2,000 tons of lightweight glass nuggets to help quickly rebuild a collapsed section of Interstate-95 in Philadelphia with crews working 24 hours a day in order to swiftly reopen this critical commercial artery.

“We’re using materials made of recycled glass, manufactured here in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.  And the design of the project is incredibly innovative in order to get this work done in record time,” said President Biden.

FEVE, the European Container Glass Federation, has elected the Presidency team for the 2023-2025 term of office at its Annual General Assembly. Martin Petersson, CEO Ardagh Glass Packaging – Europe has been elected President. He succeeds Vitaliano Torno, O-I Glass President Business Operations & O-I Europe, who led the association for the previous two years. The FEVE members also elected Michel Giannuzzi, Chairman of the Board of Verallia, as Vice-President.