Century Pacific Food, Inc. (PSE:CNPF), one of the largest branded food and beverage manufacturers in the Philippines, announced the plastic neutral certification of its brands for the second year in a row, demonstrating full compliance of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act of 2022 or Republic Act (RA) 11898. The EPR bill lapsed into law in July 2022, requiring companies to establish programs that would reduce their production, importation, supply, or use of plastic products.
CNPF brands that have recently been certified ‘Net Zero Plastic Waste’ include Argentina, Birch Tree, Coco Mama, unMEAT, Hunt’s, Swift, Century Quality Bangus, Angel Coffee Creamer, Wow, Home Pride, and the newly launched Choco Hero. These are CNPF brands that make use of flexible plastic packaging.
Other household names of CNPF, such as Century and 555, make use of tin and paper and are plastic-free.
Since 2019, the Company has been committed to proactively managing the plastic footprint of its brands through the Plastic Credit Exchange, the world’s first fully integrated plastic offset program.
Being ‘Net Zero Plastic Waste’ means that an entity’s plastic footprint is effectively offset by recovering an equivalent amount of plastic waste, preventing it from leaking into nature, and ensuring it is processed safely.
To ensure transparency, PCX engages a third party assurance group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to audit the plastic footprint of participating companies and certify their respective offsets. CNPF’s brands first became plastic neutral in 2020 and received certifications for its brands in 2021. From July 2020 to December 2021, CNPF was able to effectively recover and offset a total of 4.3K MT of plastic waste through PCX.
Gregory Banzon, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of CNPF, said, “On one hand, the use of plastic has afforded humanity much convenience in our daily lives. On the other, the structural inability to prevent plastic waste from leaking into nature is causing significant damage to our ecosystem that can take years to rectify. For manufacturers like us, participating in an offsetting program can be the first step in becoming more responsible for our footprint.”
Embracing sustainable business practices is essential to CNPF’s mission and purpose. To provide affordable nutrition to its consumers, the Company employs a sustainability framework comprising three pillars – Protein Delivery, Planet Preservation and People Development, each aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Key initiatives in 2022 include the launch of the Zero Hunger Alliance in partnership with Gawad Kalinga to help combat hunger and malnutrition among vulnerable communities nationwide. The group aims to provide 10 million protein servings in 2022.
CNPF’s coconut division is also in pursuit of Carbon Neutrality by 2028 through a coconut tree planting program. In partnership with GCash and HOPE, CNPF is planting 1 million coconut trees, which will help with carbon sequestration. These trees are being donated to smallholder coconut farmers in Mindanao, helping their farms become more productive and boosting their incomes.
