Celebrating tms’ sustainable efforts for Earth Day

It’s Earth Day today –  a time when all businesses and people should consider their impact on the planet and highlight the need for continued change. While Earth Day is a great day to recognize the current global environmental issues at hand, tms takes pride in finding sustainable solutions for our clients everyday to help combat climate change. Learn how our VP of Global Sustainability and Innovation at tms, Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, is working with colleagues and clients to drive more sustainable efforts:

MIntel’s 2024 Global Consumer Trends report shows that incorporating sustainability is not enough. This points to the general movement of consumers who expect more from brands. Harvard Business Review also recently pointed out that sustainability fosters trust, especially with younger audiences – the ones who hold the future purchasing power. 

This year’s Earth Day theme is ‘Planet vs Plastics’, uniting individuals, groups, and businesses to commit to calling for the end of plastics for human and planetary health. This dovetails with our own commitment to zero waste through our Better Future Blueprint, our commitment with our parent company HAVI which outlines ways tms and its customers can advance sustainability efforts. 

Some examples of the continuous work that we do with brands includes progress with a global specialty coffee brand to design reusable cups including a 100% recycled resin tumbler (with 25% PCR), a mug created with 30% recycled ceramic, and a cup made with 85% recycled stainless steel with a 100% recycled resin lid.

We continue to explore ways to reduce plastic waste and achieve greater circularity for clients. Right now our focus is on designing cold cups to be more sustainable.  While resin cold cups and paper cups that are lined with a resin coating have demonstrated recyclability at the processing state, they still present numerous hurdles including the cost of collecting and sorting these materials. To overcome this we are sourcing recycled and biobased materials for resin cups, strawless lids, and testing alternatives to replace the plastic lining for hot cups. These changes might not be immediately noticeable to some consumers, as they will have the full functionality of the containers they are using but be made out of more sustainable materials. 

Our sustainable efforts have been recognized by acclaimed institutions like Planet Mark, where we recently received the Planet Mark Certification for the fifth consecutive year. To qualify for the Planet Mark Certification, organizations must report a 5% or more reduction in carbon footprint year over year, from our offices and commutes to business travel. As part of our Better Future Blueprint, tms is committed to meeting our enterprise pledge of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In 2023, our buildings emissions decreased by 40%, and business travel emissions remain below pre-pandemic figures. 

Not all brands and businesses are able to immediately change their entire stock and offerings to consumers, but there are always changes they can make on their way to zero waste or zero plastics use. This is where we are really proud of our work towards a cleaner planet – on Earth Day, and every day.