The award, which recognises the significant role business can play in implementing UN targets for reducing poverty, was presented on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum and the International Chamber of Commerce.
Presenting the award in New York at a special ceremony during a session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mary Robinson, says Tetra Pak and nine other award recipients are being recognised for their “pursuit of innovative and productive approaches to sustainable development, targeted at achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.”
“Receiving such a prestigious award is an honour for Tetra Pak and a validation of our more than 50-year experience of combining good business practices with development projects,” says Tetra Pak CEO, Dennis Jonsson.
At the heart of Tetra Pak’s innovative and productive approach to sustainable development lies the belief that development programmes should be built around economically viable investments. To that end, in 2000 the company established the Tetra Pak Food for Development Office (FfDO), which initiates and supports school feeding and agricultural development programmes through public-private partnerships. FfDO also provides local entrepreneurs with the company’s technology and market know-how to help them develop local food production.
“Our school feeding and agricultural development programmes go beyond ordinary business, but they are not charity,” says FfDO global director, Ulla Holm. They represent a long term development effort that improves the nutritional status of children and contributes to the development of the agricultural sector in developing countries, while at the same time creating and developing new markets for Tetra Pak.”
Tetra Pak has been involved in school feeding programmes for children around the world for more than 40 years. Today, more than 40 million school children, 15 million of them living in developing countries, are served milk and other nutritious drinks in Tetra Pak packages.
Recent examples include a school feeding and dairy development programme in cooperation with Kazakh entrepreneurs and the government of Kazakhstan, a school feeding and agricultural development programme in cooperation with the government of the State of Nasarawa in Nigeria, and a school feeding and dairy development programme in cooperation with the Guatemalan government.
“Only by engaging in true public-private partnerships and by employing the private sector as an engine for economic development can the UN’s Millennium Development Goals be realised,” says Jonsson.
As a world leading company in food processing and packaging, Tetra Pak’s motto, “protects what’s good”, reflects the philosophy upon which the company conducts its business in order to make food safe and available, everywhere.
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