Month: March 2016

Categories
Sustainable Packaging Coalition

New SPC Executive Committee Member Q&A: Chris Davidson

The SPC Executive Committee serves as an advisory group to The Sustainable Packaging Coalition. The EC’s role is to provide advice, act as ambassadors for SPC/GreenBlue, and make recommendations on issues related to the SPC, including its goals, strategies, and projects.
We interviewed our three new Executive Committee members, Liza Blackwell (Nike), Kim Carswell (Target), and Chris Davidson (WestRock) to learn more about them and what they hope to accomplish while serving on the SPC Executive Committee.

Chris-Davidson-headshot-917x1024EC member name: Christopher Davidson

Title: Director, Corporate Sustainability

Company: WestRock

Q: When and how did you get into forestry?

I grew up in both England and Jamaica and I was very interested in fishing so I spent a lot of time outside. I went to high school in Jamaica and as I got closer to graduation, I realized I wanted to do something other than, what was in my mind, the typical career path. I was introduced to forestry at a local career fair; they handed out a pamphlet that described different careers, one of which was forestry. That led to me getting a summer job with the Forestry Department, and that experience is what really finalized it for me in terms of deciding  I want to become a forester”.

Q: And, from there, how did you get involved in the pulp and paper industry?

I actually started out with plans to work in the industry once I graduated. However, as I got closer to the graduation date for my bachelor’s degree I made the decision to just continue on and go straight into a masters program. At that point I wanted to become an educator, a professor. But my plan was to first go out and get some actual industry experience, then go back, get my PhD and teach. After I finished my masters, I worked in Florida as a land management forester for about 3 years before heading to Virginia Tech to work on my PhD. But I did it in a non-traditional way, working as a research associate full-time and working on my degree part-time, so it took me about 6 years. When I finished I was offered two industry positions and a teaching position at a smaller university. The university was focused on teaching and I really wanted to work at a research institution, so I told myself ‘I’ll just work for a few more years and get some more industry experience, then I’ll and come back to academia’, but as you can see, I’ve stayed in the industry, and it’s been a great decision for me.

Q: Where do you see the most opportunity for sustainability in the private sector? For sustainable packaging?

From a business perspective, there’s more opportunity because brand owners are becoming more educated about sustainability. There’s a greater willingness to partner and work with companies now. You see partnerships today that you would have never seen 10 years ago – forest industry working with brand owners and NGOs on issues that in the past, they were on opposite ends of the spectrum. I think there’s a recognition today that there’s greater opportunity, and greater benefits, if companies, brand owners and other stakeholders work together to try to solve problems, whether it’s on the raw material side or dealing with social issues around sustainability.

Q: What has drove WestRock to join SPC? And what in particular inspired you to run for the SPC Executive Committee?

We are a global packaging company and we make many different types of packaging. The majority of it is wood fiber-based packaging but a part of our business is making plastic caps, closures, and triggers. We are also packaging designers, we make partitions and displays, and we have a recycling business.
We know that the SPC is a well-regarded organization, and it’s a great opportunity to learn about what’s happening in the packaging space globally. Our vision is to be the premier partner and unrivaled provided of paper and packaging solutions globally. That means we need to understand exactly what our customers want, what consumers think about packaging, and potentially, what’s on the horizon. For us, working with an organization like the SPC helps us in each of those areas, it’s as simple as that. I consider myself to be a neophyte on the EC in terms of my packaging experience but I think I bring a lot to the table in terms of my industry experience regarding the raw materials that are used in much of packaging today. I really wanted to be able to develop a greater understanding of the packaging space as well as to continue to help the SPC develop projects and programs that the members find useful.

Q: What would you like to achieve during your time on the EC?

If there were one thing that I would like to be instrumental in achieving during my time on the EC, it would be broadening the understanding of what sustainable packaging means. And by that I mean if you were to go out today and go to a supermarket and ask 10 different people what sustainable packaging means to them, you would probably get 10 very different answers. Much of our packaging is wood-fiber based and there’s a lack of understanding of the benefits of using this particular resource for packaging. I’d like to think that I could potentially help SPC broaden that understanding, not only among the membership base amongst brand owners and consumers as well.

Q: What SPC product are you most excited about?

Well there are a couple, I think the foodservice ILC, obviously forest certification interests me, and then the How2Recycle Label. Working for a company with a recycling business, it’s very clear that one of the limitations to recycling is getting people to put the right thing in the right box, so the How2Recycle label and potentially the How2Compost label is very exciting as well.

Categories
Recover More Sustainability Tools

Making Zero Net Waste a Reality for the Plastics Industry

“Zero Waste.” Not too long ago that phrase seemed a lofty and unattainable idea. And yet, today many companies are increasingly finding success in diverting waste from landfills and finding the best and most efficient use for the resources. Companies publicly committing to zero waste are, in fact, becoming quite commonplace.
As companies like Toyota, Unilever, and Hershey reach their goal of sending zero waste to a landfill, it’s very likely they will begin to expect the same from upstream suppliers. In fact, as a brand owner or processor, you might have the same goals and expectations of your supply chain. Recognizing that responsibly managing material in the manufacturing phase is an increasing priority for industry, SPI launched the Zero Net Waste Program after an 18-month development process.
This program is a groundbreaking recognition program and tool that helps members decrease the impact of waste in manufacturing by evaluating waste-reducing opportunities and maximizing diversion from landfill. The ZNW program provides plastics companies a concrete set of resources they can use to pursue, and achieve, zero net waste in their facilities and offices. It also recognizes participants for these achievements once facilities demonstrate their progress.
The idea of the program came from the SPI Recycling Committee’s Emerging Trends Subcommittee, chaired by Kathy Xuan, CEO of PARC Corp, and was developed by a broad stakeholder workgroup of SPI members.
“As chair of the subcommittee and a recycler who provides zero landfill services, we feel this program will be instrumental in providing tools and resources to accelerate the industry’s pursuit of zero waste,” said Xuan.
Why Zero Net Waste?
ZNW-logo-DRAFTPeople will notice that SPI’s program didn’t just adopt the phrase “Zero Waste” to define the program. The phrase “zero waste”, in its purest interpretation, does not allow for diversion through energy recovery. While SPI recognizes energy recovery as a valuable solid waste management tool, we believe that energy recovery should only be used as an end-of-life management strategy for materials that cannot be mechanically recycled. For materials that cannot be mechanically recycled, we believe that responsibly recovering value through energy is the second best end-of-life management option. The SPI workgroup felt that the term “Zero Net Waste” was a better embodiment of the widely accepted “reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover” waste management hierarchy.
Guiding Members to Success
The cornerstone of the Zero Net Waste program is the manual, which includes real world, step-by-step tools and resources for companies throughout the plastics value chain to ensure that plastic materials and other byproducts of manufacturing are put to their highest and best use. From building the business case for pursuing zero net waste, to educating employees and offering practical guidance on finding the right service providers, the ZNW program manual is designed to enable companies of all sizes to take immediate steps to begin pursuing zero waste in their facilities.
Companies who participate in the program, and meet requirements of the two-step qualification and verification process will be recognized for their efforts and are allowed to use the Zero Net Waste logo. For those companies that go on to pursue third-party certification for their landfill reduction achievements, embarking on this program will align them for success in eventual certification.
“The Zero Net Waste Program isn’t just for companies looking for zero waste certification,” said Robert Flores, director of sustainability for Berry Plastics. “The accompanying manual is applicable to a wide variety of companies and provides the basics for how get started, as well as how to enhance existing programs that a company already may have in place.”
The Benefits of Zero Net Waste
There are a host of benefits that companies can enjoy from their zero net waste activities, both environmental and economic. On the environmental side, companies who reduce what they send to landfill are reducing their operational footprint. They are also being good community members by helping to extend the life of the landfill. The process of citing a new landfill once the old one reaches capacity can be an arduous process. Many communities emphasize the importance of recycling as a tool to extend the life of landfills. Through maximum diversion, our members can help communities achieve this.
The economic benefits of zero net waste can also be numerous. Many companies have not only found success dramatically cutting their garbage and landfill costs, but in some cases, are generating revenue from the sale of scrap materials. Other companies are using their landfill diversion success as a green marketing opportunity and market differentiator. This can translate to strengthening customer relationships and generating new business. In addition, companies that make sustainability initiatives a priority report higher, on average, levels of employee satisfaction and retention. People like working for companies that they feel are good stewards of their communities and the environment. This is a particular priority for millennials entering the workforce today.
The Right Direction For the Plastics Industry
Lastly, zero net waste efforts fit in with larger waste management goals nationally and globally. Calls for meaningful change in the way our industry manages our products throughout their life cycle have been building, reaching a crescendo recently at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos earlier this year. During that meeting, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation released the report “The New Plastics Economy – Rethinking the Future of Plastics”, which contended that by 2050, the world’s oceans will have more plastic than fish, by weight. The report calls for “a shared sense of direction, to spark a wave of innovation and to move the plastics value chain into a positive spiral of value capture, stronger economics, and better environmental outcomes.”
This move toward a circular economy and sustainable material management (SMM) thinking is very much in line with SPI values and the reason why SPI has developed the ZNW program.
“These are values being driven by many of the major brand owners in our industry today,” notes Nina Goodrich, Executive Director of GreenBlue. “GreenBlue and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition support SPI’s Zero Net Waste Program. Providing companies the tools and resources to demonstrate leadership in landfill diversion is an important step toward reducing carbon emissions and developing a circular economy.”
While the immediate goal of the program is to drive the plastics industry toward maximizing diversion of resources into the proper recovery channels, it is our larger goal to challenge the supply chain to think more broadly about the disposition of all plastic products, from production all the way through end-of-life. Furthermore, this program seeks to strengthen the link between the makers of plastic products and recyclers, which we believe can lead to more conversations about using recycled plastics, not just recovery of scrap plastics. SPI believes the ZNW program can be a vehicle for further strengthening the role of recycling as a pillar of the plastics industry.
To learn more about the Zero Net Waste program, please visit www.plasticsindustry.org/znw.
 

Categories
Uncategorized

Woodland Owner-Brand Owner Summit allows for open, honest dialogue on sustainable forest management

This past week GreenBlue’s Forest Products Working Group, and the American Forest Foundation (AFF) hosted a successful, first-of-its kind summit, Woodland Owner and Brand Owner: Opening a Dialogue about Sustainable Forestrythat brought together a diverse set of America’s family forest owners and several well-known marketplace brands, including Mars, Incorporated; McDonald’s USA; Time, Inc; McMillian Publishing; and Staples. The event truly achieved its goal, and opened up dialogue between the two groups about their respective values and challenges relative to sustainable forest management and how they might work together to meet their goals.
AFF event logoFamily landowners make up the largest ownership group in the United States, collectively owning more than one-third of forests in the country, more than the federal government or corporations. These forest lands belong to 22 million individuals, whom all have unique motivations and reasons for owning land. These family lands are a key source for wood fiber that flows into supply chains that later become coffee cups, paper, candy packaging, and much more. Nationally, the US Forest Service (USFS) estimates 47 percent of all timber removed from forests in the US comes from family lands. In the South, specifically, 51 percent of wood removed from forests and supplying companies comes from family-owned land.
The Forest Products Working Group, last fall, initiated a partnership with AFF, the leading conservation nonprofit in ensuring we have sustainable wood supplies, clean water, and wildlife habitat come from family-owned woodlands. The partnership focuses its work in promoting constructive and transparent dialogue across the forest products supply chain to address shared sustainability challenges and opportunities.
The Summit, which was held in Chattanooga, TN, opened up honest and thoughtful discussions between both ends of the supply chain.
LogosTo kick off the Summit, woodland owners described why they each owned land, noting family legacy, income, and a love of nature. Responding to questions from brand owners, they also described challenges they face such as insects and disease, natural disasters like wildfire and hurricanes, high management and property costs, and declining markets. Concerns about trust, and the future of the land as it is passed on to future generations were voiced as well.

“I finally feel like I have a seat at the table,” stated one landowner from Georgia. “I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this event and to collaborate on how we can work together.”

Brand owners, in return, shared their distinct company goals, with many encompassing common threads.
Reducing their companies’ environmental footprint was very important, as companies want to be able to provide goods and services, without unintended consequences, or social and environmental impacts. Brand owners also shared a desire to have more visibility into their supply chains to better understand where the fiber is coming from, reduce risks and to be more inclusive of family woodland owners in their sustainability planning process. And brand owners described a desire to build trust with their customers and demonstrate the sustainability of their suppliers and the complex network of indirect suppliers that help them source their materials.

“Its important to my company to know that our supply chain is reducing its impact,” said one brand owner. “We loved hearing directly from landowners, very interesting and insightful.”

20160302_103424
Emerging from this session were three key themes: building and maintaining trust, ensuring the long term or future of forests and its sustainable fiber supplies and building new markets – all of which were further explored in roundtable discussions.
Trust, brand owners stated, is vital to developing relationships with their customers, who want to know their products come from sustainable sources. “We use certification now as a tool to demonstrate sustainable and create trust, because it’s the only tool we have, but it does not always satisfy our needs,” said one brand owner.
Land owners described how they conversely desire to feel trusted. “We have been doing good management for years, because it’s in our best interest and we want to leave the land better than we found it.”
Both brand owners and land owners spoke about their desire to ensure the future of the forests and the wood supply that comes from it, particularly in the Southeast. One brand owner said, “we get nearly 95% of our wood supply from the Southeast. There’s less risk sourcing from there and it logistically makes sense. We want to help make sure this supply is available in the future.”

“My landhas been in my family for five generations,”stated a landowner from Tennessee. “I have had to deal with some challenges based on what future generations did, so I want to make sure that my children don’t inherit these issues as well.”
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Thinking of the future, opportunities for new markets were discussed in detail as well. “What will happen to that resource [forests] if there isn’t demand for it?”stated a brand owner. “A little competition could have a positive impact.” Emerging markets such as biomass and more green building with cross-laminated timber were noted, as well as the need for further research and development around wood fiber.
Building on insights gained at the Summit, in the coming months, GreenBlue’s Forest Products Working Group and AFF plan to continue the discussion, expanding the dialogue with other key partners in the forestry sector to help inform new strategies or the refinement of existing ones to encourage and verify sustainable forest management in the U.S.
This event was made possible through the generosity of our sponsors Staples,McDonald’s and Georgia-Pacific.
 

Categories
Member Spotlight Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Q&A with new SPC Executive Committee member Liza Blackwell

The SPC Executive Committee is an Advisory Committee to The Sustainable Packaging Coalition. The EC’s role is to provide advice, act as ambassadors for SPC/GreenBlue, and make recommendations on issues related to the SPC, including its goals, strategies, and projects.
We interviewed our three new Executive Committee members, Liza Blackwell (Nike), Kim Carswell (Target), and Chris Davidson (WestRock) to learn more about them and what they hope to accomplish while serving on the SPC Executive Committee

Elizabeth-BlackwellEC member name: Liza Blackwell
Title: Packaging Sustainability Manager
Company: Nike

Q: What are your hobbies?
I’m an outdoors person, which works out really well in the Pacific Northwest. I really love hiking, snowshoeing, camping, or just generally exploring the coast and canyons of Oregon. It’s a great place to get outside. I also enjoy volunteering with a few area animal rescue organizations. Outside of that, being new to home owning, I can be found, more often than I’d like, being mediocre at home repair.
Q: What are your favorite activities to do in Portland?
Portland is fantastic for its food and beer scene. You can hit a different restaurant every week, and never be disappointed. Additionally, there is no short supply of interesting places for vegetarians, which I appreciate. Portland also has a fantastic theater community. There are a lot of really great shows here done by smaller companies. You can see everything from gripping crime dramas, to outrageous parodies, to emotional coming of age stories, all with an audience of 30 people or less. It’s a fantastic town. It’s something to consider when we are planning for SPC Advance (in Portland, September 19-21, 2016).
Q: Since SPC Advance 2016 is going to be in Portland, what’s the one must-do if you come to Portland and you do nothing else?
Powell’s City of Books would have to top the list. If you do absolutely nothing else, go there. It’s an entire city block, three floors, and is a fantastic experience. If a drink and a movie is more your thing, the quirky and historical McMenamins properties are a-can’t miss. If you can only see one site, the Columbia Gorge would get my vote. The best part is that because Portland is so easy to navigate, you could hit all three in one day and still have time to catch a Timbers soccer match.
Q: Can you tell me a little about your role at Nike?
My title is Packaging Sustainability Manager. The responsibilities sound rather broad, and they are. My role is to review and advise the packaging used for any apparel, footwear, or equipment product. This includes any packaging used in transport, consumer-facing packaging, or packaging in a retail environment. I look for opportunities to make design changes, material-usage changes, or process advances that would reflect our commitment to sustainability. I oversee the content management and vendor compliance of our Packaging Restricted Substance List. This is a document that requires our packaging suppliers to remain compliant with Nike packing standards. I also assist with the strategy and facilitation with packaging waste reduction initiatives.

2000px-Logo_NIKE.svg 2Q: Nike was a found member of the SPC in 2004, over 10 years ago. What inspired Nike, and you, to get involved with the SPC?
We believe that no single organization can drive the system change we all desire. When we came to this realization more than a decade ago, we sought like-minded companies and people who were committed to the same goal. At the time we helped found the SPC, packaging was our single largest volume waste stream, and so stimulating industry collaboration to reduce waste, was a necessity. It’s still a necessity today but through the SPC we are making significant progress..
On a personal level, I want to be involved because I benefit by having meaningful discussions with others in our industry. And in my role as a Nike employee, I can bring that information and energy back to Nike and incorporate it into our standards and practices. Worldwide, conversations are happening that will affect the future of our planet. I feel we’re at a tipping point in our stewardship of the environment. And there is more urgency than ever for a responsible packaging industry to drive industry change.
Q: Following on to that, how did you first become interested in sustainability?
It goes back to the first question and answer of “what are my hobbies? I like to be outside.” It started for me before the term environmental sustainability was a thing. Professionally, I had been going in the direction of print production and packaging production, and being in packaging production was the first time that I felt like I could make a difference. I could make some choices in my job that directly reflected my personal values. For example, when I started with Nike as a packaging producer, one of the changes I was able to implement was moving all of our golf ball packaging to FSC certified paper. I thought, “This is fantastic. This is possible!” Obviously you’re doing it with support of others. But it was the first time I figured out that one person could actually make a difference. We struggle with that in daily society, where it’s often, “Yeah, I could recycle but really how much is that helping?” In the packaging industry, we know how much it is helping, but your average person, I think, may not understand just how much one person can help. So getting into the packaging industry was a revelation that I can personally make a difference. This is fantastic.
Q: What inspired you to run for the Executive Committee?
It’s important for Nike and me to be engaged with the industry, helping to move some of these important industry discussions forward from the front. An example is the biodegradability additives position paper the SPC just released. It’s a great example of an approach in which I’m really interested. I think it’s really important that the industry is making these larger statements about what works in reality for the environment and what doesn’t to both help inform business and the consumer. The opportunity to lead from the front is something I certainly didn’t want to miss.
Q: You mentioned the position paper on biodegradability additives. What other initiatives within the SPC are you involved with or planning to get involved with, and what would you like to achieve during your time on the EC?
Right now the one I’m most excited about are the SPC meetings, especially SPC Advance 2016 comes back to Portland. I’m certainly planning on being involved in that! I’m also excited about the educational opportunities that the SPC is providing. A big focus for me will be pulling groups into the SPC who are there as members but are not as engaged as they could be, and of course I’ll be focused on new membership. It’s so important that groups like the SPC can act as an industry driver and as a place where we who come from different industries and different brands can make effective decisions. Whether it’s around chemical or material use, or process and design development, we can all learn from each other. The thing I’m most excited about SPC is the chance to bring industry together to make meaningful progress toward our goals..
Specifically, I’d like to take a good look at how SPC members could use packaging as a potential material source, and how we encourage other organizations to – either on their own or through partnerships – to look at packaging as a potential material source. How can we set up processes that can be duplicated across the industry? And how do we grow the SPC. Involvement and collaboration are key to moving the entire industry forward?