Sun Chemical pushes carbon footprint calculations to 12,000 products and cuts water usage by 6 percent

Translating sustainability into industrial metrics

The publication of an annual sustainability report is a standard corporate exercise, but the real value for the printing and converting sector lies in the raw industrial data hidden within the pages. On November 9, 2026, Sun Chemical released its sixteenth annual Sustainability Report, shifting the focus from broad environmental pledges to measurable operational adjustments across its global manufacturing network.

The ink, coatings, and adhesives manufacturer recorded a 6% reduction in water supply during 2025 compared to the previous year. In a highly resource-intensive chemical production environment, this drop represents a significant optimization of plant resources. Alongside water conservation, the company reported a 5% decrease in waste sent to landfills and a 3% increase in recycling rates across its facilities.

12,000 carbon footprint calculations for the packaging supply chain

Beyond factory-level improvements, the most critical takeaway for packaging converters is the massive expansion of product-level data. Sun Chemical has completed approximately 12,000 Product Carbon Footprint calculations across its portfolio. As brand owners increasingly demand precise Scope 3 emissions data from their packaging suppliers, providing granular carbon metrics for individual inks, adhesives, and coatings becomes a decisive competitive factor in the converting industry.

To address its own Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, the company has activated targeted renewable energy projects at key manufacturing sites, specifically highlighting operations in Nussdorf, Austria, and Yumbo, Colombia. These infrastructure investments align with the broader strategy of the DIC Group, Sun Chemical's parent company, which operates with combined sales exceeding $7 billion and a global workforce of over 21,000 employees.

Michael Simoni, Director of Global Sustainability at Sun Chemical, emphasized that the current objective is to translate high-level sustainability priorities into strictly measurable actions across operations, innovation, and customer collaboration. This approach is reflected in the continuous reformulation of their product lines, which are increasingly engineered to enable substrate recyclability, compostability, lower curing energy requirements, and higher bio-renewable content. For the global packaging and graphic solutions market, these metrics confirm that the supply chain is moving past theoretical eco-design and demanding hard, verifiable data at every stage of production.