FMI 2010: Is Sustainable Packaging Possible for Retailers and Manufacturers?

At a Tuesday workshop at the FMI 2010 Customer Connect conference, Keely Wheaton of Target, Anne Johnson of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and Paul Hepperla of Verisae discussed what's being done to advance the cause of sustainable packaging.

The panel identified numerous trends in this area, including:

• Packaging light-weighting
• Extended Producer Responsibility (with legislation in two states and pending legislation in eight states)
• Growing consumer awareness of environmental and waste issues
• Increased focus on package recovery
• Increased use of sustainability metrics
• Growing use of lifecycle analysis
• Increasing demand for data and transparency
  

The panel talked about a voluntary effort by the Consumer Goods Forum (a European trade association), working with the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association, to establish metrics on packaging sustainability. Mr. Hepperla stressed that the players needed a better understanding of what happens to consumer packaging in its lifecycle -- i.e., how it is used and where it winds up -- so that they can establish baselines and metrics for activities in this area, and make changes that can be measured.

The bottom line seems to be that manufacturers and retailers, for the most part, agree that the environmental impact of packaging needs serious rethinking. The sustainable packaging initiative aims to address numerous components of the problem.

Discussion Questions: What retail or consumer products environmental packaging initiatives are you aware of that are working? What suggestions do you have for retailers and consumer products manufacturers?

Author's comment: Meanwhile, as the industry forms sustainability plans, the Pacific garbage patches continue to grow, a new garbage patch was recently discovered in the Atlantic, and we're still throwing a lot of packaging that releases methane as it degrades into landfills. For some encouraging news, we can look at countries like Belgium, where there is an extraordinarily high recycling rate, and at initiatives like that of sailor Mary Crowley (see link below) who has a fledgling campaign going to actually get sailors to take their boats to the Pacific to help pick up trash.

• Sustainable packaging doesn't exist - Packaging Digest
• Sustainable Packaging Coalition
• FMI Offers Members Free Online Carbon Calculator - New Resource from Verisae Provides Opportunity for Retailers to Reduce Carbon Footprint - Food Marketing Institute
• Sustainability Resource Planning - Verisae, Inc.
• Researchers Find Atlantic Garbage Patch - SustainableBusiness.com
• A passion to clean up the Pacific Ocean's great 'garbage patch'- The Christian Science Monitor