Global companies attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos have made sustainability commitments on recycling and renewable energy.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is campaigning for a circular economy in the use of materials, announced in Davos that 11 companies had signed up to its new plastics economy initiative. This means that they have committed to working towards using 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025.

These companies are Mcor, Ecover, Evian, L’Oréal, Mars, M&S, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever, Walmart, and Werner & Mertz,  which together represent more than six million tonnes of plastic packaging per year.

The international brands will be using a range of methods to meet their targets. Coca-Cola which is one of the world's leading drinks firms used the WEF meeting to showcase its recently-launched World Without Waste programme.

Prior to arriving in Davos, Bea Perez, chief public Affairs, communications and sustainability officer at Coca-Cola wrote that the programme's vision: "Includes a bold goal: to help collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one we sell by 2030. Regardless of where it comes from, we want every package to have more than one life.

Working to create a litter-free world involves many moving parts. Companies like ours must do their part to make sure their packaging is recyclable. The opportunity also exists to engage more people and partners to join this journey on recycling."

Meanwhile, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation awarded a total of $1 million to five new recyclable and compostable packaging solutions to stop plastics becoming waste. According to the Foundation currently, more than 8 million tonnes of plastics enter the ocean each year, but the three biggest clean-ups deal with just 0.5% of that volume.

Ellen MacArthur also used the WEF meeting to sign a partnership agreement between her organisation and the UN Environment. MacArthur met with Erik Solheim, executive director of UN Environment, and they agreed to focus their joint efforts on stimulating public-private sector engagement with circular economy solutions. Shifting to a global circular economy is seen as seen as central to the achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Separately in a commitment to combating climate change, Budweiser announced at Davos that its products globally are to feature a symbol letting consumers know when the beer has been brewed using 100% renewable electricity.  It will appear on the label of every Budweiser brewed in the US beginning in spring 2018, using electricity sourced from a wind farm in Oklahoma through an agreement with Enel Green Power.

Budweiser said it aims to roll out the symbol globally by 2025, to help raise awareness of renewable energy among consumers. The company estimates that the new symbol will reach millions of people in the US alone and that when rolled out globally, 41 million Budweisers sold each day will create annual emissions savings equivalent to taking 48,000 passenger cards off the road for a year.

Brian Perkins, global VP, Budweiser said: “We know that climate change is an important issue for the consumer. However, they aren’t sure how their everyday actions can make a difference. The renewable electricity symbol enables consumers to make smarter everyday choices that can have a positive, meaningful impact.”

Budweiser's parent company AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, joined the RE100, in March 2017. This is a coalition of companies,  led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP, who have committed to sourcing 100% renewable electricity across their operations. The Climate Group said that 122 multinational businesses have now made the RE100 commitment.

The Climate Group also published its latest report on the progress of companies that have signed up to RE100. This showed that 25 members had reached 100% renewable electricity by the end of 2016, with Autodesk, Elopak, Interface, Marks and Spencer and Sky reaching this goal during 2016, while Equinix and Kingspan surpassed their interim targets during the same year.

The proportion of renewable electricity being sourced via power purchase agreements grew fourfold in 2016 AB InBev signed a major power purchase agreement in Mexico, home to its largest brewery at the same time as joining the RE100. Meanwhile, the quantity of electricity sourced from onsite generation increased fifteen times via supplier-owned projects and nine times via member-owned projects.

The survey of RE100 members found that 88% of respondents cited the compelling economic case for renewable electricity as a major driver – with 30 out of 74 reporting that renewable electricity was either cost competitive or delivered significant savings on energy bills.

Helen Clarkson, chief executive, The Climate Group, said: “I’d like to congratulate every RE100 member accelerating the roll-out of renewable energy through their investment decisions. Their leadership is vital for overcoming policy challenges, shifting global markets, and inspiring many more companies to reap the economic benefits of renewable electricity. Rapidly growing demand from world-leading RE100 companies – and increasingly their suppliers and peers – means governments can confidently look to ratchet up targets in 2020 for slashing greenhouse emissions, to deliver on the Paris Agreement.”