- The University of Sheffield has become a founding signatory of the new UK Packaging Pact, a ten-year programme led by WRAP to help transform the UK's packaging system.
- The move supports the University's Environmental Sustainability Strategy and its ambition to reduce waste, cut plastic use and tackle Scope 3 emissions through better procurement, reuse and circular economy approaches.
- The Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures has also signed up, strengthening Sheffield's contribution to research and practical solutions that support a more sustainable packaging system.
- The Pact is an important opportunity to turn policy into practical action, bringing organisations together to reduce packaging waste, lower emissions and support long-term system change
The University of Sheffield has become a founding signatory of the UK Packaging Pact, a new ten-year collaborative programme led by WRAP to help transform the UK's packaging system through coordinated action across multiple sectors.
The Pact aims to cut waste and emissions, increase circularity and help unlock practical solutions across the whole packaging value chain. It is led by WRAP, a UK-based environmental charity that works with organisations to reduce waste and promote sustainable resource use.
The University is joining nearly 100 founding signatories from across business, government, academia and the wider waste and resources sector. The list of signatories also includes the University's Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, reflecting the strength of Sheffield's research contribution in this area and the Centre's growing involvement in work connected to the Pact, including through the Buddie-Pack and Many Happy Returns research projects.
The Pact builds on the previous UK Plastics Pact but expands its focus to cover all packaging materials placed on the market, including glass, paper, card, metal, plastics and biobased materials. Its four goals are to optimise packaging, scale reuse and refill, support infrastructure investment, and harmonise data so that better decisions can be made across the system.
Catherine David, CEO of WRAP, said: "The UK Packaging Pact is a unique, complete system approach to unlocking packaging transitions across the value chain. No other programme brings together the key players needed to deliver the enormous changes we must make. Policies are essential, but they alone cannot deliver and the Packaging Pact will deliver the practical change necessary through a flexible framework allowing signatories to focus on the actions most important to them.
"Today, we begin to unlock progress - to reduce business costs - to mitigate against risks - and to prepare for the future. In the UK Packaging Pact, we offer an exclusive mechanism to create workable policies to deliver the circularity outcomes needed by businesses and government - and crucially, the planet."
For the University of Sheffield, becoming a founding signatory supports the ambitions set out in its Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2025-2030. The strategy recognises that around 90% of the University's total carbon footprint sits in Scope 3 emissions, including supply chains, food, waste and procurement. It commits the University to embedding circular economy thinking into purchasing and waste decisions, extending the life of assets through reuse, repair and refurbishment, and reducing the amount of waste sent for energy recovery while increasing recycling, composting and anaerobic digestion.
The University is also already taking steps to reduce single-use materials on campus. Its sustainability strategy highlights ongoing work to cut single-use plastics in food and drink operations, alongside wider action to redesign systems around reuse and lower-carbon choices.
Professor Rachael Rothman, Co-Director of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures and Academic Lead for Sustainability at the University of Sheffield, said: "Packaging is one of the clearest examples of where environmental impact, research, procurement and everyday behaviour all come together. If we are serious about reducing waste and cutting Scope 3 emissions, we need to look closely at the materials we buy, and discard and how we use them.
"Becoming a founding signatory of the UK Packaging Pact demonstrates our commitment to shaping practical, evidence-based solutions. It reflects the ambition in our sustainability strategy to reduce unnecessary waste, cut plastic use, support reuse and make better choices across our operations and supply chains.
"It is especially important that this work is connected to research as well as operations. Through the Grantham Centre, colleagues at Sheffield are already contributing knowledge and ideas that can help support the transition to a more circular, lower-waste packaging system, for example through our contributions to Buddie-pack, a large EU funded project on reusable packaging systems."
By joining the Pact, the University and the Grantham Centre will be part of a national effort to help redesign how packaging is produced, used, reused and recovered - supporting progress that is not only better for the environment, but also more resilient, efficient and fit for the future.
