Smurfit Kappa logo. Smurfit Kappa Group

Eccles: Garrett, thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Just to get started, mind telling me a little bit about your childhood?

Quinn: Happy to, Bob. I am the youngest of five children, a bit of an afterthought coming 15 years after my next youngest sibling. I was born in Dublin but moved to Cork in the ‘80s in the South of Ireland with my dad’s job in the meat processing industry. Three of my siblings also left Dublin in the early 80s following the well- trodden path to the U.S. looking for better opportunities as Ireland was a tough place for employment back then. At one point in the early 2000s, the family was spread across Dublin, Chicago, Atlanta, Madrid, and Buenos Aires. I remember my mum wondering “What had they done as parents to see most of the family living somewhere else!”

Eccles: Thanks, and could you tell me a bit about your school experiences?

Quinn: Yes, of course. In school, I studied the obligatory basics of English (Literature), Maths, and Irish as well as my chosen subjects of Business Studies, History, French, and Spanish. At the age of 14, I left my home in Cork and went to live with my sister and her family in Dublin so I could attend a local Dublin school. That was probably one of those moments in life that felt so insignificant at the time but was probably a key part of my development, having to balance the freedom I had with the need to pass my exams, and all while growing up. I have no doubt it was also a challenge for my sister and her family having to suffer me through my teenage years….

Eccles: We have four children, and I don’t wish the teenage years on anyone! Did you do anything to stay out of trouble?

Quinn: I really enjoyed sports, predominantly rugby and field athletics where I focused on the shot put, winning some provincial medals and one at the national level. Outside of school I loved (and still do) music and finding out about new bands, going to live gigs. I remember the days when you listened to all the songs on an album from start to finish, a conscious choice compared to today where the algorithm chooses your playlist.

Eccles: I remember those days too but try to avoid those algorithms! Before we get into your career with Smurfit Kappa could you tell me a little about your time in university?

Quinn: I managed to get a place studying Commerce at University College Dublin (UCD) in 1997. I struggled a little bit with the lack of supervision and attendance records but was delighted when I got my honours degree, graduating in the class of 2000. During my time at Uni, I remember doing a paper with my buddy Gus on Green Consumerism. We looked at whether consumers were willing to act in the interest of more sustainable outcomes, be that paying more or going as far as protesting. Our paper involved interviews with consumers in a grocery retailer (where we both worked part-time) as well as visiting and interviewing members of an eco-activist camp in Wicklow (south of Dublin). The latter set up a protest camp in a natural forest, campaigning against a planned road expansion project in the area which was quite high profile at the time. It shows how even in the 1990s the idea of green consumerism and eco-activism was relevant.

Safe&Green biodegradable punnets. Smurfit Kappa Group

Eccles: Little did you know how that experience turned out to be useful, right? What did you do right after graduating from college?

Quinn: Having completed my degree at 20 I applied to a couple of graduate programmes, one global FMCG brand and the other being Smurfit Kappa. An interview with one and not the other was gained. After an extensive interview process, I was delighted to have been offered a place on the Irish Management Graduate Training Programme of Smurfit Kappa.

Eccles: Why do you think you got the job?

Quinn: What I have learned since then is the focus of the hiring process was on people that had good charisma and resilience to complement their degree, which was seen as a proxy for intellect. It didn’t matter what degree you had as long as you had one. The idea being that as a future manager, you would need to be able to get on with people from the factory floor to the board room (charisma), but also the resilience to bounce back from challenges and failure as you will always have in operations. I had a degree so I must have cleared the bar on these other two criteria.

Eccles: To be honest, I’d never heard of Smurfit Kappa until we met and that’s probably true with most readers. What does the company do?

Quinn: Smurfit Kappa is a FTSE 100-listed global paper-based packaging company, essentially making cardboard boxes to protect products in our customers’ supply chains, whether this is in the retail environment, B2B, or direct to the consumer. As part of making the packaging, we collect 100% of our packaging for recycling to make new boxes (see image below). As the #1 player in Europe and the only significant Pan-American player, we work with all the global brands you can think of and across all industries from pharma to e-commerce and FMCG to industrial. That is one of the main reasons that makes working at Smurfit Kappa so exciting. As a commercially oriented manager of a plant you could be dealing with an e-commerce start up one minute and then the world’s largest food company the next minute, all with specific needs and challenges.

Circular operations model. Smurfit Kappa Group

Eccles: So, we are likely to have come across Smurfit Kappa packaging without even realising it?

Quinn: Yes, if you are based in Europe or in the Americas that is very likely! If you order from an online retailer and your clothes or make-up arrives in a cardboard box (corrugated), that is probably one of ours. If you are in the supermarket and see products on the shelf displayed in a cardboard box, that is also probably ours. I remember seeing a picture of Daniel Craig (James Bond) snapped by paparazzi carrying a box of champagne (Bollinger) and you could see our logo on the bottom of the box, which was exciting and probably demonstrated (lest there be any doubt) that I was very proud of working for Smurfit Kappa.

Eccles: That’s really interesting! I will look a little more closely at the packaging my food, clothes, or drink comes in now.

Quinn: We also manufacture Bag-in-Box, a packaging solution that is ideal for drinks and liquids, such as wine and juices, because it provides practical benefits as an alternative to glass bottles by extending the product shelf life and it’s easier to transport with a lower carbon footprint.

Eccles: You became CSO only two years ago, so what was your career like before that?

Quinn: Yeah, the role I hold now didn’t even exist when I started out in the company, and I think that shows the opportunities you get when you pick the right company with the right values and culture.

Eccles: It sure does.

Quinn: The graduate programme gave me the opportunity over the first two years to experience four distinct placements in different factories across the Irish business covering quality management, logistics, sales, and procurement. What was also really cool was for my third year in the programme I had the opportunity to spend a year in Argentina learning Spanish and broadening my understanding of papermaking and recycling. I then moved into sales development for two years before getting the keys to my first plant at the age of 26. This was a fantastic experience at a relatively low risk to the company as there were only 17 of us in this particular factory, but I had full P&L responsibility, as well as being the sales manager and general jack of all trades.

I then moved to France to shadow the head of our European business as his PA, supporting the division which had tens of thousands of employees. From there I moved to Manchester to take on my first General Manager (GM) role of a great plant in Stalybridge. I then took over an acquisition we made before taking on a regional director role based out of Norwich in Southeast England, a role I did for four years. So, I had a wide variety of operating roles in the UK for seven years. And I cannot stress how important and grateful I am to my wife Emma throughout, supporting me as we moved around, and with the additions of Tom and Catherine along the way….

Eccles: What happened next?

Quinn: With the appointment of a new CEO, Tony Smurfit, in 2015 and a new CFO, Ken Bowles, in 2016, I had the opportunity to move to a completely different role as head of investor relations, which I did for five years. Here I gained capital markets experience including an equity raise, a green bond issuance, strategic investment plans, and some M&A. During this time, I witnessed the growth in sustainability investment funds, moving away from what initially looked like a lot of box ticking. This got me interested in sustainability, so during COVID I took the opportunity to develop my expertise in sustainability by doing a post-graduate course with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

Eccles: It’s unusual to go from being Head of IR to CSO. Why did you do this?

Quinn: Given what I saw going on in the capital markets, the growing demands of our customers and being aware of the onslaught of sustainability reporting requirements, I saw it as an opportunity to do something different in a highly important, rapidly growing area, and so I was fortunate enough to get the job whilst continuing to report to the CFO.

Eccles: You’re a good example of what Alison and I heard in our research interviews. CSOs are increasingly people with a strong background in core business functions as opposed to being experts in a particular aspect of sustainability, like climate, or more of a background in stakeholder engagement.

Quinn: I’m not surprised this is happening. In my case, the idea is that I understand the value offering of our products, I know our operations in detail, and I have some decent understanding of the mystique of the capital markets. This background has been invaluable for taking on this role. It requires explaining how sustainability contributes to our corporate strategy, dealing with new and complex reporting standards, and engaging with our stakeholders.

Eccles: You mentioned earlier the need for resilience as a characteristic in Smurfit Kappa. I can see that is a useful characteristic with the sheer volume of reporting frameworks, regulations, directives, and reporting standards. In light of this, how have you seen the corporate sustainability function evolve, and how are you seeing it continue evolving?

Quinn: I certainly think that we are in a time of change for the sustainability corporate function with the increase in reporting requirements, and all acronyms of course! Like CSRD, EFRAG, ESRS, TCFD, GRI, ISSB, TNFD, SASB, SBTi and CS3D, to name a few. For us, the key ones are the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) being established by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group for the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Regulatory standards for sustainability reporting make this topic a much higher priority for CSOs, akin to what financial reporting is for CFOs.

Typically, we look to act beyond legal requirements, as we know ESRS will be mandated for us, but we expect to implement the ISSB’s standards as well and keep our eye on good practice as this evolves. I have been fortunate to have inherited a well-oiled reporting machine under Outi Marin, which has been reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative’s standards for some time and with a Science-Based Target initiative approved target, all supporting the external view of our performance and reporting quality.

Eccles: For sure these new sustainability reporting standards must be a top priority for CSOs. Anything else come to mind?

Quinn: CSOs need to make sustainability more understandable to as many people as possible. I think this is key to society in general as there is a lot of confusion as to what we should do as citizens and where our actions are best directed. We see this as key for integrating sustainability into our corporate strategy at Smurfit Kappa. We are moving from a place where the sustainability department is where all the questions are directed to from stakeholders, to a place where all 47,000 employees can have a front-line engagement on the topics, and only role out “the experts” when a highly technical requirement is needed.

Eccles: You’ve been kind with your time so just a few more questions. What are a few projects you’re working on now that you’re particularly excited about?

Quinn: From a customer perspective we continue to see the move to more sustainable packaging materials and so we are gaining from this move across our markets. We launched a corrugated (paper) alternative to a rigid plastic detergent box which is growing strongly and really well received by consumers, retailers and our customers (see image below). I expect this, and other similar solutions, to keep growing.

Replacing plastic packaging with Click-to-Lock detergent box. Smurfit Kappa Group

Within our operations Smurfit Kappa has invested €1 billion in the reduction of CO2 emissions since 2005, delivering a reduction against that bassline of almost 44%. In late 2022, we announced the $100 million investment in a bio-mass boiler in Colombia which will deliver over 6% reduction from 2025. And it’s not just emissions in 2022 alone, we invested €26 million in water treatment projects.

Another example is our paper mill in Saillat, France which was the world’s first paper mill to successfully trial hydrogen. Our plan is to trial 100% hydrogen this summer. The nice thing here is the project is not based around a significant plant reconfiguration but actually focuses on retrofitting existing technology; this makes it much more pragmatic in terms of scaling and financial outlays. It is a project which is largely funded by the EU and involves industrial partners as well as European universities who will make social and technical assessments. It’s quite exciting (see image below).

Trialling green hydrogen at Smurfit Kappa Saillat paper mill. Hyflexpower project

Eccles: Looking ahead, how do you see the role of the CSO evolving further and what changes are you anticipating in sustainability reporting standards?

Quinn: I certainly see the sustainability function and the role of the CSO continuing to evolve in response to the dynamic landscape and increasing reporting demands. In terms of reporting standards, we hope to see an increase in harmonisation and a convergence of frameworks creating a global standard, as the current increase poses a significant challenge to the business community. But also, a global standard will make a like-for-like comparison easier, and further support anti-greenwashing claims. The key word here is “interoperability.”

Eccles: Thanks for your time, Garrett, and good luck with whatever you do next at Smurfit Kappa!