Turning Sustainability into Strategy: How Avery Dennison Builds Value Beyond Compliance

1. What are the key components of your organization’s sustainability strategy, and how do they align with your overall business goals and industry realities?

At Avery Dennison, our approach to sustainability is grounded in three core dimensions: meeting regulatory and reporting requirements, executing strategies that meaningfully reduce our environmental impact, and creating value for our customers, stakeholders, and the communities where we operate.

Our work goes far beyond compliance. It’s about building long-term value and resilience by addressing some of industry’s greatest challenges. Sustainability isn’t a separate initiative for us — it’s a core value, one of our five key strategies, and a fundamental driver of our business.

As a global leader in materials science and digital identification solutions, we develop transformative innovations that move business forward and enable a better tomorrow. We are Making Possible™ products and solutions that advance the industries we serve while tackling some of the world’s most complex challenges — from optimizing supply chains and improving labor efficiency to reducing waste and driving sustainability, circularity, and transparency.

Our 2030 sustainability goals focus on the areas where we can create the greatest value and position our company for lasting success:
1. Deliver innovations that advance the circular economy. This includes ensuring 100% of our standard label products contain recycled or renewable content and that 100% of our core product categories meet our third-party verified Sustainable ADvantage™ standard.
2. Reduce the environmental impact in our operations and supply chain. This involves concrete targets like sourcing 100% of paper fiber from certified sources, diverting 95% of our waste from landfills, and pursuing net-zero emissions by 2050.
3. Make a positive social impact by enhancing the livelihood of our people and communities. This means fostering an engaged and inclusive workplace and supporting our communities through efforts like the Avery Dennison Foundation.

2. How has your company managed to turn sustainability commitments into tangible impact – what lessons, successes, or setbacks have shaped your approach?

Sustainability is a driver of innovation, operational efficiency and growth for Avery Dennison. We are reducing our environmental impact by eliminating waste and using natural resources more efficiently – and helping our customers do the same. Our products and solutions are designed for recycling and utilize recycled content, where feasible. Their use helps our customers advance the sustainability and circularity of their final products and reduce waste in their value chains.

This approach has turned commitment into measurable progress. Guided by data and evidence, our results speak for themselves:
● Climate: Approximately 60% cumulative reduction in absolute GHG emissions since our 2015 baseline.
● Waste: 91% of waste globally diverted from landfill.
● Responsible sourcing: Nearly 100% of paper fiber sourced from certified origins.
● Products: Hundreds of verified Sustainable ADvantage™ solutions that reduce materials, incorporate recycled content, or enable recycling.
● People: An employee engagement score of 85%, with 94% of our grants supporting employee volunteerism.

Our approach to value continues to evolve — beyond emissions and efficiency to include innovation, resilience, reputation, and long-term impact. We’re proving that business value and environmental progress are not an either/or choice; they are an and.
Progress is rarely linear. But with clarity, commitment, and a willingness to rethink what’s possible, the path forward isn’t just visible — it’s already being made.

3. What indicators or methods best help you understand the real ROI of sustainability, including not only financial results, but also purpose, talent, and resilience?

Avery Dennison evaluates the ROI of sustainability through a holistic set of quantitative and qualitative indicators that link impact directly to business performance:
● Financial metrics: Reducing energy intensity reduces GHG emissions, but it also improves operating costs. Eliminating waste reduces our environmental impact, but it also drives efficiency and reduces costs.
● Purpose and impact: Measured progress toward our 2025 and 2030 sustainability goals, including emissions reduction and increased use of recycled materials.
● Talent and engagement: Employee engagement scores of 85%, reflecting the positive influence of sustainability on culture and purpose.
● Resilience: Our ability to adapt to regulatory and market shifts, demonstrated through alignment with emerging global sustainability standards and feedback from stakeholders, including customers, suppliers and investors.

Together, these indicators provide a comprehensive view of how sustainability drives value — strengthening our financial results, deepening purpose, attracting and retaining talent, and reinforcing business resilience.

4. What does effective leadership look like when sustainability is both a business opportunity and a test of resilience?

Effective sustainability leadership at Avery Dennison combines vision, integrity, and execution. Our leaders:
● Articulate a clear and compelling vision that aligns sustainability with long-term business goals and market realities.
● Lead with evidence and transparency, using data to guide decisions and demonstrate progress.
● Collaborate across ecosystems, engaging employees, customers, and partners to co-create solutions that deliver both growth and impact.
● Model adaptability, navigating regulatory change and evolving expectations with agility and foresight.
● Inspire through impact, motivating teams by showing that sustainability strengthens innovation, performance, and community outcomes. Our leaders are not just responding to today’s challenges—they’re shaping the future of our industry, ensuring Avery Dennison remains a catalyst for positive and lasting change.

5. As the public spotlight on sustainability fades and many companies choose a quieter approach, how can leaders ensure their organizations stay committed, credible, and forward-looking in driving real progress?

Today, leading companies are embedding sustainability across their business strategies— not simply to comply with regulation or to market to customers and consumers, but because it drives tangible business value. The business case has never been clearer: sustainability is not an obligation; it’s an enabler of growth, productivity, resilience, and innovation.

This is the moment when strategic ambition must turn into tangible action. That means aligning sustainability with profitability, strengthening procurement and supply chain capabilities, empowering commercial teams to drive sustainable choices, and adopting business models that clearly demonstrate the return on investment. When sustainability is integrated into everyday decision-making, it becomes a driver of efficiency, competitiveness, and long-term value creation.

Sustainability delivers when it speaks the language of business — growth, profitability, and performance. Yet somewhere along the way, the conversation has become clouded by complexity, acronyms, and compliance fatigue. The fundamentals, however, remain unchanged: reducing waste, improving efficiency, and building smarter, more adaptive systems can drive value for businesses, support the communities in which they operate and reduce their environmental impact.

The companies that lead the next decade won’t be the ones waiting for regulation to dictate their pace. They’ll be the ones who recognize this moment for what it is — the most significant business opportunity of our time. Because sustainability is, at its core, about business. And it’s about enabling a better tomorrow.