Internal Awards
Recognizing 2024 Commitments to Build to Last Strategy
Each year, Greif dedicates awards to colleagues for their exceptional performance in pursuit of achieving our missions of Delivering Legendary Customer Service, Creating Thriving Communities, and Protecting Our Future under our Build to Last strategy. Each award recognizes teams that have played an essential role in our journey to fulfilling our vision and purpose.
2024 Dempsey Award for Customer Service Excellence Winners
Winners of the Dempsey Award are recognized for their commitment to providing best-in-class customer service as measured by their Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) scores, Net Promoter Scores (NPS). We are proud to announce that in 2024 our recipients for this award were the CorrChoice Palmyra and Greif Vologda facilities.
2024 Watson Award for Servant Leadership Winners
The Watson Award for Servant Leadership honors Greif’s former President and CEO, Pete Watson and recognizes teams for their actions in serving the needs of others first. In 2024, seven teams were recognized for their outstanding performance, achieving the highest scores on the 2024 Colleague Engagement survey.
2024 Michael J. Gasser Global Sustainability Award Winners
Sustainable Innovation Award:
- The Greif Boxboard and Converted Products team developed the ES Natural folding carton paper grade. The grade is recyclable and compostable and has been certified by the FDA for food contact. ES Natural delivers the performance our customers need while being made from 100 percent recycled fiber.
Energy Excellence Award:
- The Greif Singapore team converted a lithographic coating oven into an internal-lined ends line with an automated spraying system. The project is estimated to save more than 550 MWh per year while improving operational efficiency and capacity.
2024 Chairman’s Safety Award Winners
Chairman’s Safety Award
Annually, we celebrate and recognize our locations that achieved zero safety incidents during the year. In 2024, we recognized 100 locations with the Chairman’s Safety Award, showcasing their unwavering commitment to Zero Harm. With special recognition to the facilities with 10 years or more incident free:
- Casablanca, Morocco
- Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
- Sadat City, Egypt
- Almasfüzitö, Hungary
- Mobeni, South Africa
- Riyadh, Saudia Arabia
- Tri-Sure Vreeland, Netherlands
- San Juan, Argentina
- Huizhou, China
- Vung Tau, Vietnam
- Mombasa, Kenya
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Volgograd, Russia
- Vologda, Russia
- Mandra, Greece
- Beloyarsky, Russia
- Kazan, Russia
- Midland Warehouse, USA
- Omsk, Russia
- Amatitilan, Guatemala
Safety Pioneer Award
For the first time, Greif awarded facilities with the Safety Pioneer Award, recognizing impactful environmental, health, and safety improvements and innovations globally. We recognized one facility within each of our seven Strategic Business Units.
- Boxboard & Converted: Arlington, Texas – tube handling improvement
- Containerboard & Corrugated: CorrChoice Cincinnati – forklift proximity alert system
- Intermediate Bulk Containers: Houston, Texas – Safety Champion of the Month program
- Integrated Solutions: Tri-Sure Amsterdam – mezzanine gate safety improvement
- Large Plastics: Lockport, Illinois – bump cap implementation
- Small Plastics: Cosmo, South Africa – GEMBA leadership walk cards
- Steel: Sadat City, Egypt – paint booth guarding and safety improvements
2024 North America Waste Diversion Award Winners
Facilities in North America that had not yet met the 2025 goal of diverting 90 percent of waste from the landfill were invited to a friendly competition to divert more waste. With the extra emphasis put on these sites, an additional 13 sites are now reaching the 90 percent diversion goal. Winners earned a plaque for their site, and the top winners earned a catered lunch.
Past Michael J. Gasser Global Sustainability Award Winners
Greif has been awarding the Michael J. Gasser Global Sustainability Award since 2010.
2023 Michael J. Gasser Global Sustainability Award Winners
Our PPS Riverville Facility and CorrChoice were celebrated as our 2023 Michael J. Gasser Global Sustainability Award recipients. PPS Riverville Facility’s was recognized for their collaborative efforts with regulatory bodies on permit improvement, enabling the mill to repurpose rejects as fuel, resulting in a 10 percent reduction in landfill waste compared to the baseline and an estimated cost savings of $120K. CorrChoice implemented energy efficiency initiatives, resulting in nearly $500K in savings and reductions of 3 percent in electricity use and 13 percent in natural gas consumption, propelling them to this award. The initiatives also represent a fully scalable and replicable approach applicable across global facilities.
2022 Michael J. Gasser Global Sustainability Award Winners
- GIP LATAM Region: The GIP LATAM Region completed five impactful projects in 2022 that demonstrate the integration of sustainability into their business success.
- LATAM Tigre completed a project to evaluate all Latin American plants to implement a 6 percent reduction in energy consumption per unit produced compared to the fiscal year 2019 by 2025. The project identified 447 energy focus areas and are now focused on implementing 70 LATAM strategic energy project.
- LATAM Brazil reduced carbon emissions and raw material usage by producing plastic bags with the composition of 10 percent PCR. The use of PCR does not impact the performance of the plastic bags.
- GIP LATAM Brazil’s weight reduction innovation project was created to reduce the thickness of steel drums without affecting the mechanical performance. As a result, the team developed a high-performing, lighter steel packaging that reduce CO2 emission by up to 12 percent.
- GIP LATAM Brazil also completed a project that eliminates the need for stretch film without affecting the drum palletizing performance. The Drumclip is used to hold and secure drums to pallets to safely transport our products in place stretch film.
- GIP LATAM Columbia developed a 20L jerrycan composed of 100 percent PCR resin. This is the first 100 percent PCR packaging product that meets the quality and performance needs of the lubricants and sanitizing market.
- PPS Recovered Fiber Group and the Austell Mill: The team identified multiple additional industries that can make use of mill byproducts through high-value and reuse applications that support our circularity strategy. The project reduces our emissions footprint, the amount of waste we send to landfill and landfill disposal costs.
- PPS Industrial Products Group: As part of our circularity strategy, our Kernersville Adhesive facility returns its used IBCs for cleaning and re-use. One of the primary adhesives coagulates with other adhesives when sent to the city sewer due to its pH level. To ensure city sewer lines are not plugged, the facility cannot drain into sewer lines when cleaning these IBCs. Instead, the plant sent the adhesive waste and wash water to a landfill for safe disposal. In 2022, the team began a more efficient cleaning process, recycling and reusing the adhesive and washing water internally. It also established a system to neutralize pH so the IBC can recycle its metal and plastic using the standard end-of-life process.
