US-based Berry Global Group has earned an ‘A’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating from international ratings agency MSCI for its progress managing ESG risks and opportunities, including improvements in carbon emissions, labour management, and packaging material and waste.

“We are honoured to receive such high recognition from MSCI for our continued efforts to increase transparency and prioritize key environmental and social issues across our global business, while strengthening Berry’s resilience to long-term ESG risks,” said Tom Salmon, CEO of Berry Global. “This improved 'A' rating reflects our ongoing investments in our workforce as well as our commitment to reducing the environmental impact of packaging and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”

Berry’s greatest improvement year-over-year was in the 'carbon emissions' category due to its long-term emissions reduction trend, external assurance of value chain (Scope 3) emissions, and its recent commitment to net-zero by 2050. Berry also gained recognition for ‘labour management’ as a result of its efforts to measure and improve employee engagement and its broad use of variable incentive (bonus) programs. And the company earned the highest rating among plastic packaging peers in the ‘chemical safety’ category, recognising its robust efforts to ensure Berry’s products meet high standards for consumer safety through its Restricted Substances List and Product Safety and Quality Management Policy.

MSCI ESG ratings aim to measure a company’s management of financially relevant ESG risks and opportunities. MSCI uses a rules-based methodology to identify industry leaders and laggards according to their exposure to ESG risks and how well they manage those risks relative to peers. The top-level assessment is the overall company ESG rating, an industry-relative seven-point letter rating scale from AAA to CCC, the company said in a press release.

The methodology focuses on publicly available data, including company financial and sustainability disclosures such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).