To make the right decisions to safeguard our planet’s ecosystems we must fund research and innovation towards net-zero and to think about the materials, packaging and products we’re consuming, because what happens next is up to every one of us.
Glass is the kindest packaging material for the health of the planet and the health of people. It’s made from four simple ingredients: sand, soda ash, limestone and recycled glass.
Beyond its health benefits, glass is 100% recyclable and infinitely recyclable, making it the perfect material to support a circular economy.
However, glass manufacture is still carbon intensive but the glass industry is changing and taking responsibility by asking ‘what comes next?’.
Glass Futures is opening a £54m pilot line in 2023 to accelerate the transition to net-zero.
Heineken bottles go even greener. We have made a commitment to be carbon neutral across our entire supply chain by 2040. Collaboration is key – innovation, testing and trial will be at the heart of our continuous efforts to brew a better world and this trial is a huge advance in finding a scalable solution to reducing carbon from glass. Click here for more information.
Heineken
Diageo Society 2030 – Spirit of Progress - Diageo’s 10-year action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world. Click here for more information https://www.diageo.com/en/society-2030 Diageo Sustainable Solutions - a global programme that invites innovators to share and develop their ideas in partnership to enhance sustainability across our supply chain. Click here for more info https://www.diageo.com/dss/
Diageo
Bormioli Pharma creates pharmaceutical packaging solutions, partnering with the world’s leading health companies. Well known on the market for its long-standing expertise on sustainable packaging – both recycled and bio-based - the company has recently committed to the goal of using 50% sustainable raw materials while manufacturing its products by 2025.
Bormioli Pharma
Stara Glass (Italy) designs melting furnaces. We innovate to make glass production sustainable. Coordinating the LIFE SUGAR project, we intend reducing 15% energy consumption by utilizing residual fumes heat to power a steam-reforming reaction (hydrogen production). We are designing the St. Helen furnace, where we want to test an oxy-SUGAR solution. www.lifesugarproject.comwww.staraglass.com
Stara Glass
At O-I, our vision is to be the most innovative, sustainable, and chosen supplier of brand-building packaging solutions. While we believe glass is already the most sustainable packaging solution, sustainability at O-I is about more than what we make: It is also about how we make it. For more information, please see our latest sustainability report at https://www.o-i.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/O-I_SustainabilityReport_2021.pdf
OI
At Guardian Glass, we challenge ourselves to discover new technologies and methods to create more value for our customers while using fewer resources, minimising waste, and improving the environmental performance and effectiveness of our products and processes. We know that by sharing knowledge and creating preferred partnerships with organisations such as Glass Futures, we are more likely to find innovative and transformative solutions to these challenges. https://www.guardianglass.com/gb/en/who-we-are/our-expertise-and-commitments/sustainability
Guardian Glass
Encirc has always been a disrupter in its industry. Now it is a disrupter in sustainability. It recently created the most sustainable bottles in the world with its work with Glass Futures, running a furnace in Northern Ireland on biofuel. Read more about Encirc as it continues its path to a net zero future: https://www.encirc360.com/
Encirc
Encirc, a leading glass manufacturer, has implemented AMETEK Land’s real-time, in-furnace thermal imaging Near Infrared Borescope (NIR-B) to optimise furnace operations and introduce reductions in emissions at its Elton plant in Cheshire, UK. Please see the case study here and attached.
Ametek
British Glass is the representative body for the UK glass industry. As an industry we have already made significant steps towards decarbonisation but we can and want to do more. In consultation with members, British Glass developed a net zero strategy outlining the industry’s commitment, ambition and possible routes to achieving net zero carbon glass making. https://www.britglass.org.uk/knowledge-base/resources-and-publications/glass-sector-net-zero-strategy-2050
British Glass
University of Liverpool is working with NSG on combining software engineering and materials science to de-risk and expedite the R&D process for discovery of new custom, high-performance, transparent conducting materials - exploring materials synthesis and thin film deposition, for example, as a key and emerging area in innovative next-generation glass coatings. Read our case study: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/digital-innovation/working-with-us/pilkington-case-study/
University of Liverpool
The Translational Energy Research Centre is the one of the largest R&D facilities in Europe for zero-carbon energy technology solutions. Researchers are working with Glass Futures, and other universities and industry members, to design and carry out experiments to determine the best green fuel for the glass manufacturing industry. Link tbc.
University of Sheffield Energy Institute – Translational Energy Research Centre
TransFIRe is an UKRI funded proactive, interdisciplinary, inclusive research and innovation hub that brings foundation industries and their communities together to support resource productivity, competitiveness, equal opportunities and climate action. TransFIRE investigates best practice to minimise resource use in common processes across foundation industries, use by-products and develop community business models. Find out more about the programme: https://static.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/media/account/133/survey/799201/question/one_pager_iscf_foundation_indu.pdf or contact transfire@cranfield.ac.uk"
University of Leeds/TransFIRE
The National Composites Centre (part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult) is innovating to enable the UK to achieve Net Zero. Key programmes include: SusWIND - Recycling decommissioned composite wind turbine blades into new feedstocks for glass products. https://www.nccuk.com/sustainable-composites/activities/suswind/ Hydrogen Innovation Initiative - Accelerating strategic innovation to deliver an End-to-End Hydrogen economy. https://catapult.org.uk/how-will-we-decarbonise-the-most-challenging-areas-of-the-uk-economy/
National Composites Centre