Strategic Integration
Strategic Priorities
Greif’s sustainability strategies support the Company’s vision of, in industrial packaging, be the best performing customer service company in the world. Our sustainability strategies also demonstrate our commitment to conducting business The Greif Way and contribute to creating shared value for our customers, stakeholders and the environment. We invite you to explore our strategic integration graphic, which highlights how Greif’s sustainability program is embedded throughout our entire business.
In 2019, we surveyed Greif’s senior leaders to better understand how Greif uses and transforms financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and natural capital to create value for our company. These conversations reinforced the importance of our sustainability investments in executing our business strategies. We further reinforced that our sustainability strategies are appropriately focused during our 2020 materiality assessment. The assessment validated that our material topics address both internal and external sustainability impacts, while uncovering a need to take additional steps to strengthen our management of Climate Strategy, Circular Economy and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, which are discussed in those sections of our report. At the conclusion of the materiality assessment, we reviewed strategic plans to enhance our governance, goals, KPIs and overall management approach to these topics with our ELT and will begin implementing those plans in 2021.
Invest in our people and teams to foster a strong culture of colleague engagement and accountability.
Deliver industry leading customer service excellence to achieve superior customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Strive for and realize performance excellence and value creation.
Financial Capital
Greif generates financial capital through a sharp focus on customer service excellence and disciplined operational execution. These focal areas, combined with attracting and retaining a skilled workforce and continuing to innovate to meet our customers’ expectations, result in strong financial returns and profits for our stakeholders.
Human Capital
In 2019, we surveyed Greif’s senior leaders to better understand how Greif uses and transforms financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and natural capital to create value for our company. These conversations reinforced the importance of our sustainability investments in executing our business strategies. We further reinforced that our sustainability strategies are appropriately focused during our 2020 materiality assessment. The assessment validated that our material topics address both internal and external sustainability impacts, while uncovering a need to take additional steps to strengthen our management of Climate Strategy, Circular Economy and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, which are discussed in those sections of our report. At the conclusion of the materiality assessment, we reviewed strategic plans to enhance our governance, goals, KPIs and overall management approach to these topics with our ELT and will begin implementing those plans in 2021.
Valuing Our People
Delivering Superior Customer Service
Reducing Our Footprint
Addressing Risk
Advancing 
Financial Performance & Profitable GrowthThere continues to be a strong, and growing, demand for skilled labor in our organization despite advances in automation. Our investments in training and development are aimed at providing our over 16,000 colleagues with the skills they need to perform their jobs, serve our customers and move our company into the future. Collectively, human capital has the capability to impact our performance more so than any other form of capital.
Social Capital
As a global organization, we must maintain the trust of a large and complex group of stakeholders. Whether through collaboration with our customers, partnerships we establish with academic institutions and other NGOs, or any other interaction we have with our stakeholders, we work to instill high quality relationships by demonstrating our commitment to The Greif Way and responsible business practices. Our sustainability initiatives help us communicate these commitments and directly impacts our brand, reputation and willingness for customers to do business with us.
Intellectual Capital
Innovation and new technologies have the potential to be great differentiators. Our dedicated innovation activities, thought leadership and collaboration with customers and other external stakeholders are critical elements of developing, demonstrating and leveraging our intellectual capital. Focusing on innovation and developing our intellectual capital allows us to identify new business models and solutions that will lead to new opportunities that can positively impact Greif’s financial results. As many of our customers set long-term goals, particularly on environmental topics such as energy usage, greenhouse gas emissions and waste reduction, we are positioning ourselves, and our products, to help them meet their objectives.
Manufactured Capital
Greif’s global footprint is a key differentiator and critical component to how we protect and grow our business. Our investments in and maintenance of our facilities, production lines and capabilities and products we manufacture are directly tied to our ability to generate revenue. They also provide an opportunity to operate more efficiently, minimize our risk exposure and reduce our environmental impact by applying circular economy principles and executing on our strategies to reduce our footprint.
Natural Capital
Greif relies heavily on the use of natural resources in our business. Through the materials we source, manufacturing processes we implement and logistics that enable our supply chain, we have a responsibility to minimize our reliance on natural resources, and reduce our footprint, as much as possible. Over time, as natural resources become more constrained and regulations over the use of them continue to advance, these resources will become more valuable and organizations that have worked to responsibly manage and minimize use of them where possible will be better positioned to compete. Each of our sustainability strategies to reduce our footprint and advance circular economy principles is aimed at reducing our use of natural capital, engaging our customers and supply chain to do the same and establishing partnerships that will help us advance these priorities more quickly.
SUSTAINABILITY HIGHLIGHTS
~16,000
Colleagues
Our people—principled, intelligent and reliable—reaffirm our reputation for integrity every day with their every action.
144
Years of Experience
For the past 144 years, the world’s most important products have travelled around the world in Greif industrial packaging.
