Smurfit Westrock has published its 2025 Sustainability Report, outlining how the newly combined paper and packaging group is embedding circularity, climate action and water stewardship across its global operations. Formed in 2024 through the merger of Smurfit Kappa and WestRock, the company now operates at major scale, with around 97,000 employees, 57 paper mills and activities in 40 countries.

The report comes at a time when paper-based packaging is under growing pressure to prove its environmental value through measurable performance, not only broad recyclability claims. For Smurfit Westrock, sustainability is closely linked to its business model: renewable fibre, recycled materials, integrated production and packaging solutions designed to support a circular economy.

For global packaging producers, sustainability is no longer a separate programme; it is becoming a core operating system for growth, compliance and customer value.

The company’s stated targets include reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 28% by 2030, using 2019 as the baseline year. It also aims to reduce water intake by 22% over the same period. These goals reflect the most material environmental pressures facing paper and board production: energy use, fibre sourcing, water management and waste reduction.

Smurfit Westrock is working to reduce emissions by lowering energy demand, improving energy efficiency and transitioning from fossil fuels to lower-carbon and renewable energy sources. This is especially important for paper mills, which are energy-intensive assets and therefore central to any packaging company’s decarbonisation strategy.

Fibre sourcing is another key pillar. Around 45% of the fibre used in Smurfit Westrock’s products comes from virgin materials sourced from responsibly managed forests. The company’s challenge is to balance demand for renewable fibre with protection of biodiversity, forest ecosystems and long-term material availability. This makes responsible forestry and certification systems essential parts of the packaging value chain.

Water stewardship is also prominent in the report. More than 90% of the water used by Smurfit Westrock is returned to nature, while the remaining portion evaporates during production processes. The company is focused on improving discharge quality, reducing total water intake and better understanding water-related risks across its sites.

• Climate action is focused on energy efficiency and lower-carbon energy sources.
• Circularity is supported by recycled fibre use and packaging designed for recovery.
• Water management targets lower intake and improved discharge quality.
• Responsible forestry supports renewable fibre supply and biodiversity protection.
• Integrated operations help connect mills, recycling depots and converting facilities.

Circularity remains one of the strongest elements of the company’s sustainability platform. In 2025, Smurfit Westrock’s paper mills consumed approximately 13.1 million tons of recycled fibres. The group also operates a large recovered-paper network, including 25 depots in Europe, 32 in North America and 13 in Latin America. These sites collect recovered paper from municipalities, retailers, industrial sources and the company’s own corrugating and converting operations.

This network is strategically important because circular packaging depends on more than recyclable design. It requires collection, sorting, recovered material demand and industrial capacity to turn used packaging into new products. Smurfit Westrock’s integrated structure gives the company more control over that loop and allows recovered fibre to remain a valuable production input.

The report also highlights the importance of helping customers reduce waste. Corrugated packaging is already one of the most widely recycled packaging formats, but brand owners are asking for lighter, stronger and more efficient designs that reduce material use while protecting goods through complex supply chains. This is particularly relevant for ecommerce, retail-ready packaging and food distribution.

Smurfit Westrock’s leadership also points to a more complex external environment, including evolving regulation, geopolitical uncertainty and changing customer expectations. In this context, sustainability performance must be linked to operational excellence and disciplined execution. Packaging companies need to meet climate and circularity goals while maintaining supply reliability, quality and cost competitiveness.

The 2025 report shows how large paper-based packaging groups are moving from sustainability commitments toward integrated systems of measurement, governance and material recovery. For the wider packaging industry, Smurfit Westrock’s progress underlines a clear direction: circular packaging will depend on scale, fibre management, recycled-content infrastructure, water responsibility and continuous innovation across the full value chain.