Overwhelming support for green bond
Owens-Illinois reports overwhelming support for its green bond offering earlier this month, furthering its commitment to sustainability throughout its global manufacturing operations and glass packaging. The offering was upsized from €300 million to €500 million and priced a historically low coupon rate for O-I at 2.875%.
“Glass is a highly attractive package for the new green economy, given its clear sustainability attributes – it is pure, healthy and infinitely recyclable” commented Andres Lopez, Chief Executive Officer. “Sustainability is woven into everything we do and the green bond formalises our intentions to positively impact our products, operations and financials. We believe this commitment will gain investors’ confidence in our company and our product.”
The company will allocate an amount equal to the net proceeds of this offering to finance and/or refinance a variety of eligible green projects made during the three years prior to the issuance of the green bond and the three years subsequent to its issuance. This includes projects and investments aimed at replacing fossil fuel energy with renewable energy (wind and solar); investments in energy efficient solutions (eg LED lighting); the use of new technologies aimed at reducing water consumption in the manufacturing process; projects, investments and research and development aimed at improving the production technologies and processes at manufacturing facilities and facilitating the use of alternative resources; projects aimed at using circular economy programmes, including waste collection and/or glass recycling processing facilities; and projects aimed at decreasing the use of raw materials and using sustainable raw materials to produce environmentally-friendly products.
