Tetra Pak was a partner in the EIT Urban Mobility and Drive Sweden co-funded Travalytics project. In autumn 2024, the company piloted Travalytics and provided invaluable feedback that helped shape the product at an early stage. Anna Stankovski Clark spoke with Ola Trulsson, Environment Manager Sweden at Tetra Pak in Lund, to understand the company’s motivation for joining the pilot and their reflections on the experience.

Tetra Pak is a global company known for its innovative food processing and packaging solutions. Operating in more than 160 countries, the company is firmly committed to innovation, sustainability, and corporate responsibility.

Why commuting matters to Tetra Pak

Commuting affects both climate impact and employee wellbeing — two equally important components of Tetra Pak’s sustainability work.

“It is part of our global policy to promote sustainable commuting. We gain benefits in terms of healthier employees and reduced CO₂ emissions,” explains Ola.

Although commuting falls within the broader sustainability agenda, it is not primarily regulatory developments like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) that drive Tetra Pak’s work in this area. This is partly because the formal reporting obligations do not begin until 2028, and partly because commuting data accounts for only a small fraction of the company’s total emissions. Most importantly, Tetra Pak prioritises action over box-ticking.

That said, it is essential that all efforts are aligned with emerging regulations. With the introduction of CSRD and the growing importance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics, understanding and improving environmental performance is increasingly relevant — and Tetra Pak recognises the strategic value of acting early.

Beyond reporting: creating real change

Ola highlights the distinction between their sustainability policies, and their sustainability reporting at Tetra Pak. “Promoting sustainable mobility” is included in their global policy, but sustainability reporting - which has a very strong emissions focus - does not focus on commuting because commuting-related emissions are never going to be a significant component of total emissions.

Tetra Pak have a programme focused on sustainable commuting, in Lund there is a strong focus on measures to support active mobility. Reliable data is not just a baseline — it’s essential for tracking progress and making informed decisions about where to act.

Why pilot Travalytics?

Since 2019, Tetra Pak has conducted annual web-based travel surveys and collected complementary data from car and bicycle parking occupancy. While these traditional methods offer useful insights, they are prone to biases — both in who responds and how they respond.

Travalytics offered a new method to collect more objective data with less burden on respondents, making it a compelling option to test.

“Travalytics offered a smoother, higher-quality alternative to collect more accurate data: an automated, app-based tool that enables continuous, anonymised travel pattern tracking over time,” says Ola.

In addition to passive data collection, the longer measurement period and automated analytics were seen as key advantages.

“We were impressed with the detailed report that could be created with very little effort from employees. Insights regarding active commuting, trip chaining, and short car trips not only help us understand our impact but also identify areas where we can put measures in place.”

Continuing the work

Tetra Pak will continue its efforts to promote sustainable commuting. The company is also a partner in the CoAction project in Lund, which runs for two years from June 2024. As part of this initiative, 30 workplaces conduct annual web-based travel surveys and implement selected measures to support more sustainable commuting.

Changing the data collection method midway through the project is not ideal — and asking employees to participate in several methods in parallel can be confusing. However, there is interest in evaluating improved approaches to data collection as the CoAction project concludes. One aspect to consider is how best to collect qualitative data as well as quantitative data in the future.

While Travalytics provides objective, high-quality commuting data with low respondent burden, it is also important to capture the human perspective. Insights such as how employees perceive implemented measures, their willingness to change behaviour, and the barriers they face are important for designing and evaluating interventions.