Sonoco reports that it is voluntarily targeting a 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the company's more than 300 global manufacturing plants by 2014. Harris E. DeLoach, Jr., chairman, president, and CEO, announced the new voluntary emission reduction goal in a letter to stakeholders from the company's recently released 2009-2010 Sustainability Report.

"Last year, we committed to reducing GHG emissions from our uncoated recycled papermills in the United States and Canada by approximately 15 percent by 2013. I am pleased to report that our efforts in 2009 led to an approximate 13 percent reduction," DeLoach said. "We have put in place a global Web-based environmental management system which collects GHG emissions from all of our international manufacturing facilities. We have taken this data, established 2008 as our baseline year, and set a goal of reducing GHG emission from our more than 300 manufacturing facilities by 15 percent by 2014."

DeLoach said the significant progress Sonoco made in 2009 toward reducing GHG emission came from decreasing energy consumption and by converting steam boilers at some of the company's paperboard mills to less carbon-intensive fuels. As an example, overall energy consumption at Sonoco's North American paperboard mills was reduced by 3.3% in 2009, which saved the company approximately $2.2 million and reduced GHG and other emissions. Further projects are underway at company mills in North America, Italy, and Greece.