How to Evolve Sustainability Goals Without Losing Momentum

In 2025, global brands like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Mars openly acknowledged they will not meet certain packaging-related sustainability targets. While these companies set ambitious goals, they faced real and unpredictable challenges. Learning from these obstacles, companies have the opportunity to refine strategies, ground them in measurable progress, and apply lessons learned to create targets that are both bold and achievable.

For packaging leaders, the challenge is balancing long-term vision with operational reality through goals that are clear, measurable, and adaptable—this requires both the ambition and flexibility to navigate an evolving sustainability landscape. In this blog, we’ll break down some helpful methods to set your sustainability goals up for success and look at the ways those goals can make a meaningful business impact.

What makes a good sustainability goal? Use SMART as your guide.

Effective sustainability goals must strike a balance between ambitious and achievable—grounded in operational reality while designed to evolve as industry conditions, infrastructure, and regulations shift. When done right, these goals drive innovation, enhance brand loyalty, build consumer trust, and improve financial performance. The key is treating sustainability targets like the most successful New Year's resolutions: they're specific, realistic, and adaptable enough to survive real-world challenges, while still pushing meaningful progress forward.

The SMART framework—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—provides a practical structure for setting and evolving goals without eroding trust.

1. Specific: Define exactly what success looks like

Specificity is where strong sustainability goals begin. Without clear definitions, ambiguity can stall progress and confuse both internal teams and external stakeholders. The most successful sustainability goals avoid vague terms or generalities. Instead, they clarify what success actually means: 

• Define your terms precisely: Is "recyclable" or "compostable" based on technical possibility, third-party certification (Biodegradable Products Institute®, How2Recycle®), or real-world accessibility? Does 'recyclability' include store drop-off programs or only curbside programs?
• Establish clear parameters: For net-zero commitments, specify which emission scopes and categories (1, 2, or 3) you’re addressing, if carbon credits will be used, and what percentage of your target they can represent.
• Connect goals to business value: Articulate why each goal matters—whether it's aligning with industry standards, meeting customer expectations, enhancing brand values, driving employee engagement, or creating shareholder value. This clarity helps maintain internal buy-in and external credibility.

2. Measurable: Quantify your goals and establish a clear baseline

Strong sustainability goals require concrete numbers and reference points that allow you to track meaningful progress over time.

• Set specific targets with baseline years: Rather than committing to "reduce plastic use," specify "reduce virgin plastic use by 30% by 2040, using 2022 as the baseline year." The Pregis 2K30 goals exemplify this approach, reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 2030, compared to a baseline year of 2019. These specific benchmarks create clear accountability and progress tracking.
• Plan your measurement approach: Map out how you'll track these metrics, including intended data sources, tracking systems, and reporting frequency. Outlining your approach ensures accountability and transparency from the start.
• Use complementary metrics: For complex areas like waste, energy, and emissions, consider tracking both absolute numbers (total tons of waste reduced) and intensity metrics (emissions per dollar of revenue or waste per pound of product). This dual approach provides a complete view of progress, especially as your business scales.
  

3. Achievable: Ground your ambitions in operational reality

The most impactful sustainability goals are those that stretch your capabilities while remaining firmly rooted in what's actually possible within your business model and market conditions.

• Align with your core operations: Avoid sustainability pledges that fundamentally conflict with how your business operates. Goals should challenge your current practices while building on existing strengths and capabilities.
• Account for real-world constraints: Consider material availability, cost structures, and infrastructure limitations when setting targets. For instance, reusable packaging systems may not work if you can't reliably get the packaging back from customers or don't have the logistics network to collect and redistribute it.
  

4. Relevant: Connect your goals to broader impact and stakeholder expectations

Sustainability goals carry the most weight when they align with established frameworks and address the priorities that matter most to your customers, suppliers, and industry peers.

• Leverage established standards: Industry frameworks like the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Ellen MacArthur Foundation guidelines, Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and reporting standards from SASB and GRI provide proven foundations for goal setting.
• Align with stakeholder priorities: Benchmark your goals against competitor commitments and align with customer and supplier expectations. This alignment with key stakeholders positions your company as an industry leader driving meaningful progress.
• Account for legislative objectives: Proactively adapt sustainability strategies to meet evolving regulations—such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)—to avoid rising compliance costs and align your operations with the momentum of legislative progress. 
  

5. Time-bound: Set deadlines that drive action while allowing for course corrections

Effective timelines create urgency and accountability, while maintaining the flexibility needed to navigate an evolving sustainability landscape.

• Establish clear deadlines with built-in flexibility: Set specific target dates to drive accountability and maintain momentum, but build in checkpoints that allow for adjustments as industry conditions, regulations, and your business model evolve. This approach ensures goals remain ambitious yet achievable as circumstances change.

When sustainability goals follow the SMART framework, they become powerful drivers of business value that extend far beyond environmental impact. 

Sustainability drives business performance

Forward-thinking companies have seen their sustainability commitments yield strategies that perform. From operational efficiencies to enhanced brand reputation, strategic sustainability investments generate measurable returns across multiple business dimensions. Ambitious sustainability strategies deliver more than environmental benefits. They drive: 

• Innovation and efficiency: Companies that rethink their operations, packaging designs, and materials choices accelerate innovation and increase efficiency with efforts like right-sizing, down gauging, and material reduction.
• Brand loyalty: 43% of consumers have cited environmental impact as a key factor in purchasing decisions.
• Financial performance: In the United States, the country with the largest number of rated companies, ESG leaders earned an average annual return of 20.3% compared to 13.9% for laggard companies, according to Kroll’s analysis of 13,000 companies. 
• Operational savings: The U.S. EPA notes that waste reduction programs lower purchasing, operating, and storage costs. Switching to renewable energy can cut energy expenses by 20–50%, per the Carbon Trust.
  

Sustainability goals require ongoing attention and adaptation. As we've seen with major brands recalibrating their initial targets, getting sustainability right requires strategic planning, realistic frameworks, and the flexibility to adapt as conditions change. Setting clear, actionable targets that evolve over time will help your organization navigate these complexities while staying competitive, building trust, and driving meaningful change.

At Pregis, sustainability is foundational to who we are. We understand the challenges of translating ambitious goals into operational reality. Contact a Pregis representative  to help you develop packaging strategies that turn sustainability targets into competitive advantages.