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GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition Uncategorized

Sights and Sounds of Pack Expo

PACK EXPO International 2014 delivered on its promise to bring the leaders of processing and packaging technologies together for an event like no other. After all of the business cards were exchanged, stories of frustrations and successes were shared, and questions like “what’s next”, “do you know someone that makes…”, and “what is GreenBlue and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition” were answered, we can reflect on the 4-day blur.
A few trends that stood out at Pack Expo 2014:

  • Flexible packaging – I don’t think I was ever more than a stones throw away from a booth that offered some kind of flexible packaging solution. To this point, there were a handful of individuals that stopped by our booth specifically to discuss their technologies for recycling flexibles.
  • Recycling and sustainability – Many people stopped by our booth to ask about recyclability, or recyclable alternatives. GreenBlue’s How2Recycle Label (How2recycle.info) caught the eye of many exhibit wanderers, and combined with our leftover halloween candy, lead to fascinating conversations.
  • Show me the Green – Unlike the last time this event was in Chicago, many exhibitors were not actively advertising environmental attributes associated with their products or processes. Some of the exhibitors that I asked about sustainability gave half-hearted, stock responses, but I also got the impression that it isn’t something that their customers are asking for. The financial green is still the ultimate driver for many purchasing decisions. As one skeptical GreenBlue booth visitor said, “It will take a policy change for greater sustainability adoption.”
  • Evolution – Products and packaging evolve rapidly. To maintain relevance, it is essential to keep up with the changing times. For GreenBlue, being able to understand the evolution of packaging systems and materials will help advance our philosophy of Using Wisely, Eliminating Toxicity, and Recovering More.

For GreenBlue, Pack Expo was an opportunity for us to share our work with many people who were not familiar with our programs, and to hear sustainability challenges from people outside of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s membership. The questions and discussions with non-SPC members reiterates the importance of the work that we do. For some visitors, sustainability is just starting to enter their production streams, while for others (many of the smaller start-ups that stopped by), it’s already embedded in their products and company’s DNA.
While we value all of these new connections and topics to be discovered, Pack Expo also gave us an opportunity to meet with a lot of our current SPC members. With about 25% of our members having a booth at Pack Expo or Pharma Expo, it was a great opportunity to connect and learn more about the companies we work with. It was also nice to see many familiar faces walking around and stopping by the GreenBlue booth.
Photo Credit - Friend of SPC, Scott Ballantine
On behalf of the GreenBlue Team, we hope that everyone that stopped by our booth learned something and we want to thank everyone for sharing their unique stories. If you missed us in Chicago, but are interested in learning more about GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition, you can email Eric DesRoberts or join him on November 18, at 4:00 PM Eastern for an Introduction to the SPC Webinar.
 

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Eliminate Toxicity GreenBlue Recover More

Sustainable Materials Management – A Precursor to a Circular Economy

Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, production has followed a linear path of take, make, use, and discard in a system that wastes a majority of resource and energy inputs. While this model is continuously improved for efficiencies, many of the improvements only serve to accelerate the flow of materials and products to the landfill. This is because the linear economic model is fundamentally, if unintentionally, designed to create waste. A wholesale redesign of our materials-based economy is needed and is thankfully emerging.
The circular economy (CE) is a relatively new business model that is intentionally and deliberately designed as an interactive system of value-creating and regenerative loops as diagrammed below by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF).
circular economy
The most exciting aspect of a circular economy business model is that it is not a doom and gloom scenario of doing less with less. It is economic model that allows for increasing prosperity and access to goods and services, while keeping valuable resources in productive cycles and out of landfills. Collaborative studies commissioned by EMF and led by the management consulting firm McKinsey estimate an annual net material cost savings of up to $630 billion, based on only a subset of the durable goods manufacturing sectors. The studies further estimate as much as $700 billion in savings is available in the global consumer goods market for food, beverages, textiles, and packaging via a shift to a circular business model.
Taking a deep dive into circular economy literature shows that it is a powerful synthesis of several strategies, among them:

  • Design for environment (DfE) to include a variety of nontraditional or less common attributes such as modularity, upgrade-ability, refurbishment, disassembly, re-manufacturing, etc.,
  • Industrial ecology or symbiosis, which is based on the premise that the waste from one industrial system or process becomes a resource or material input for another,
  • Products of service, whereby a producer retains ownership of a product and leases its utility, taking back the asset at end of useful life or when the lessee no longer wants or needs it; then upgrading, refurbishing or re-manufacturing it into a next generation service-product,
  • Reverse logistics, the process by which products and materials are effectively collected and maintained in a closed loop supply chain.

While not explicitly called out in the CE literature, sustainable materials management (SMM) offers another possible pathway to a closed loop business model. Since materials of all types are the basis of our global consumptive economy, SMM provides the critical building blocks that can enable a company to prepare and position itself to become a CE business.
At GreenBlue we promote the adoption of SMM practices to help companies become more sustainable enterprises based on three core principles: Use Wisely, Eliminate Toxicity and Recover More. All three are tied to design, which is the most critical element in a circular economy. Use Wisely governs the selection, sourcing, and optimization of resources and sets the stage for re-utilization. Eliminate Toxicity, removes potential barriers to product recovery, component separation and material revalorization, ensuring those molecules can stay in play in either a technical or biological cycle as depicted in the EMF diagram, above. Recover More requires development of the technologies and infrastructure, to track product assets, collect and efficiently transport them to a revalorization facility. As companies become adept at these three core principles they can develop design strategies, industrial synergies, logistics, information, financial accounting systems, and performance metrics that will allow them to make the ultimate paradigm shift to a fully circular business model.
Watch this blog for further discussion of the three core principles and building blocks as GreenBlue proceeds to develop a detailed roadmap and rigorous step-by-step implementation framework for best sustainable materials management practices.

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Uncategorized

USGS reports U.S. Water Use Down

The US Geological Survey has just released the latest data on water use across the US, and the good news is that it is down dramatically – 13 percent lower than in 2005. Even though our population is growing, water conservation tools and practices by farmers, factories, and households are becoming widespread and are having a noticeable effect.
Despite the overall reduction in water usage across the country (and that’s a great achievement, don’t get me wrong), we need to do a lot more to use our water resources wisely. This is important everywhere across the country, but of critical importance in the western third of the US, where according to the US Drought Monitor, more than 50 million people are currently living in drought conditions. According to the Monitor, the entire state – yes, 100% – of California is experiencing at least a minimum level of “moderate drought,” with 58.4% of California’s area suffering the maximum level of “exceptional drought” conditions.
Of interest to all who live in California should be the fact that Californians continue to use the most water of any other state (11% of total withdrawals of all water categories and 10% of total freshwater withdrawals).
Total water withdrawals by State
The top use of water in California, by a wide margin, is for agricultural irrigation (60.7%). Next comes thermoelectric power generation (17.4%), followed closely by public use (16.6%). Yes, it’s important to continue installing more efficient cooling systems in thermoelectric power plants and encouraging residents to conserve water at home. But we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room: unless we address the delivery and use of water in agriculture, the big picture won’t change much. We need to support the agriculture industry, but we also must insist on finding and implementing technology and irrigation practices that use our water wisely, leaving more for the natural environment while still growing the food we need to feed our population.

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GreenBlue

celebrating our nation's forests

This week GreenBlue joined the president in celebrating our 54th National Forest Products Week.
President Eisenhower signed the first proclamation September 15, 1960, calling on the people of the United States to “observe the week beginning October 16, 1960, as National Forest Products Week, with activities and ceremonies designed to focus attention on the importance of our forests and forest products to the Nation’s economy and welfare.”
The world’s forests protect our environment, economy, and way of life. GreenBlue has a long history of collaborating with the forest products industry to protect and conserve this critical natural resource. And with National Forest Products Week coming to an end, we’d like to say thanks to all of the organizations and individuals that have worked with us this year to identify opportunities and create solutions for continuously implementing sustainable materials management practices further into the forest and paper products industry.
Read this year’s presidential proclamation here.

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Eliminate Toxicity

October Fun Facts: Eliminate Toxicity

This is the second of three Fun Fact entries focusing on GreenBlue’s mission alignment to Sustainable Materials Management, a robust framework with three main foci 1) Use Wisely looks at material sourcing; 2) Eliminate Toxicity from products and packaging, and 3) and Recover More value from the waste stream.
Eric DesRoberts continues his series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand materials used in products and packaging. You can check out his past Fun Facts here.

        1. The list within the list -The NRDC lists Five Dangerous Pollutants in the Air You Breathe Everyday:
          1. Diesel exhaust is a mix of more than 40 toxic air contaminants and has been linked to cancer, asthma, and premature death. Many Americans live or work near diesel hotspots such as bus terminals, truck depots, and busy intersections, and some studies have found that kids riding inside diesel buses can be exposed to higher levels of harmful diesel emissions than people in nearby cars.
          2. Formaldehyde has been linked to lung cancer, and may also cause leukemia and asthma attacks. It is used in the manufacturing of insulation, pesticides, and disinfectants, but a significant piece of the industrial emissions comes from the lumber industry and the production of plywood. Proper treatment and applications of indoor construction materials should be employed to reduce potential exposure to formaldehyde.
          3. Benzene is a carcinogen that causes leukemia and a number of other illnesses. It is used in motor fuels, solvents, detergents, and many other substances. Common exposure points include gas stations, cigarette smoke, and diesel exhaust.
          4. Particulate matter are fine particles that become embedded in your lungs and impair their ability to function. Most particulate matter comes from burning fossil fuels or wood.
          5. Ground-level ozone forms when nitrogen oxides and other pollutants emitted by cars, trucks, buses, coal-fired power plants and other fossil-fuel burners react with sunlight to form the principal ingredient in smog.
        2. A recent Harvard study found that sub-lethal exposure to the neonicotinoid class of pesticides (widely used in corn, soybeans, cotton, apples, and many other crops) may be a key driver of Colony Collapse Disorder. It is suspected that the collapse is partially due to the impairment of neurological functions. Bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in increased crop value. As we transition into bio-based materials, we need to work to better understand the effects of using chemical treatments for higher yields.

bee

  1. Though the actual number is unknown, it is estimated that there are 115 million animals used in laboratory testing worldwide. The cosmetics industry is an often cited as employing animal testing, where some practices include skin and eye irritation tests (chemicals are rubbed onto the shaved skin or dripped into the eyes of restrained rabbits), repeated force-feeding studies (looking for signs of general illness or specific health hazards such as cancer or birth defects), and “lethal dose” tests (animals are forced to swallow large amounts of a test chemical to determine the dose that causes death).
  2. Top ten polluted waterways lists:
    Watersheds Receiving Toxic Releases by Volume (lbs)

    • Lower Ohio-Little Pigeon Rivers (IN, IL, KY) – 14,727,205
    • Upper New River (NC, VA) – 7,338,166
    • Middle Savannah River (GA, SC) – 5,025,161
    • Muskingum River (OH) – 4,414,602
    • Blackbird-Soldier Rivers (IA, NE) – 4,372,706
    • Lower Platte-Shell Rivers (NE) – 3,726,866
    • Buffalo River-San Jacinto (TX) – 3,557,254
    • Brandywine Creek-Christina River (DE, PA) – 3,416,615
    • Lower Des Moines River (IA) – 2,902,489

    Watersheds Receiving Toxic Releases By Toxicity (based on EPA Toxic Weighting Factors – see source above)

    • Lower Brazos River (TX) – 33,474,792
    • Lower Grand River (LA) – 1,926,751
    • North Fork Humboldt River (NV) – 1,042,622
    • Nooksack River (WA) – 1,028,364
    • Noxubee River (AL, MS) – 593,695
    • Lower Cape Fear River (NC) – 550,152
    • Lower Sulphur River (AR, TX) – 508,181
    • Lower Tennessee River (KY) – 474,284
    • Bayou Sara-Thompson Creek (LA) – 341,414
    • Middle Pearl River-Silver River (MS) – 328,186
  3. A study from Columbia University’s School of Public Health found that prenatal exposure to pollution correlated with developmental delays at age 3, fewer IQ points at age 5, and behavior problems at age 7. If New York City reduced its pollution from sources like diesel fumes by a 25%, affected children could expect to earn an additional $215 million in their lifetime.
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Recover More

Durable Litter: A Profile from a River Walk

A couple of weekends ago a group of us celebrated summer’s end on the banks of the Shenandoah River in Virginia at the Watermelon Park Music Festival. It was a car-camping affair with family clans arranged in loose camps under the clear blue day sky and starry nights. The three thousand or so people gathered for near non-stop merrymaking involving music, food and fun in the river. In that there was success!
On Saturday morning I led a river clean up along the accessible banks within the festival grounds. The idea was to see what we could find in 45 minutes and talk about the durability of materials, the flow of litter into oceans, and rate of decomposition of common items. Of course, the rates of decomposition are not precise, but serve as a good reminder of how durability of a material is called upon to serve many one-time-use purposes in our convenience-based consumptive economy. It was a chance to also discuss how uncontrolled disposal can create macro pollution in one place that can contribute to micro pollution in distant places, such as the accumulation of plastic fragments in the oceans.
On a cool, foggy Saturday morning, the clean up volunteers met at the beautiful Shenandoah River and set off on their quest for river trash. Among the group were a few little people who were the most excited by the treasure hunt. The wee ones were thrilled to have their own giant latex gloves. We joked that the little ones were the detail crew finding smaller bits while the adults moved rapidly to comb the riverfront. The adults, too, were diligent. After 45 minutes, the total recyclable booty included two plastic grocery bags full of cans, can tops, and plastic and glass beverage bottles. The recyclable items were predictable since this riverfront park is routinely used for family camping and as a tubing destination. The trash part of the litter filled four grocery bags.
The trash included two diapers, fishing line, plastic beverage holders, a ‘styrofoam’ cup (properly called expanded polystyrene or EPS), garment fabric, a sock, two golf balls, lots of cigarette butts, a sturdy dog frisbee, a child’s sand scoop, assorted pieces of metal, ceramic tile shards, two left-foot flip flops, a baseball cap, and a bunch of junk fragments of containers, packaging, and fabric. The recyclables and the trash were pretty beat up by the water action over shallow rocky river bed. The result of such degradation is fragmentation of litter (macro pollution) into ever smaller bits (micro pollution) that become unrecoverable permanent pollution. The type of pollution that floats out to sea, and can be confused by wildlife for food, or can cause general environmental damage through accumulation. The material refuse represents significant technical and financial investments employed for one-time uses.
Since the river condition offers variable current strengths and a relatively rocky riverbed, many types of materials deteriorate faster than if the same litter were to be found in a ditch beside a highway. The graphic below estimates the lifespan of many of the items listed above in marine conditions and serves as a guide for this discussion.
How long until it's gone?
Graphic by NOAA
The durability of most of the materials used in common items we collected is startling, and highlights the need for material stewardship policies that apply to the whole society and positively affect the behaviors of both product producers and citizens. It also identifies the critical role of the citizen in making sure litter is avoided and collected when found. Sustainable material management depends on you and me to do our part to use materials wisely through considered consumption habits; by understanding that materials have inherent toxicity (if not directly to us than indirectly through the food chain and the environment); by practicing material recycling and composting at home and work places; and picking up trash instead of ignoring it and walking by. Together there is a chance to reverse the trends of growing material consumption and improving material stewardship.
Learn more: An article on the demographics of litter flows. | Information on marine debris | Plastic marine debris | U.S. EPA’s annual report on solid waste in the United States.

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Sustainable Packaging Coalition

A Student's Perspective on SPC Advance

Carol Pan is pursuing a master’s degree in packaging science at Rochester Institute of Technology, and attended SPC Advance as a student volunteer. Her impression of the event:
SPC Advance provided a wonderful opportunity to meet and learn from professionals engaged in sustainability from different sectors. The theme of educating consumers came up in many of the sessions, especially those focusing on the implementation of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s How2Recycle on-package recycling label, the launch of the American Chemistry Council’s W.R.A.P. (Wrap Recycling Action Program), Target’s “Made to Matter” curation of 16 sustainable brands, and the FTC’s clarification of their “Green Guides” for on-package labeling. In addition to the presentations, I especially enjoyed the hands-on tour of the 3M Innovation Center where we were able to interact with a few of its core technologies that are versatile in many everyday applications. SPC Advance added to my packaging knowledge with real life examples and current trends, and also broadened my professional network — all of which are invaluable for a future packaging professional.

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Sustainability Tools Sustainable Packaging Coalition

How Talkers and Walkers Use Data

One phrase that especially stuck with me at SPC Advance came from Domtar’s vice president of sustainability, David Struhs, explaining that sustainability data is better suited as a windshield rather than a rear-view mirror. I think it is a helpful reminder that while measurement tools and scorecards are important, we have come a long way in making them better, what is more important today is how we use the data to set real goals and take meaningful action.
Mr. Struhs is featured in a recent MIT Sloan Management School report Sustainability’s Next Frontier: Walking the Talk on Sustainability Issues that Matter Most that emphasizes this point. The report provides clear data on how sustainability strategy provides measurable business value. But  maybe more importantly, the report also makes clear that while businesses agree with and understand the data behind sustainability’s business value, they are, for the most part, not taking action to mine this business value. The MIT Sloan report, which includes a survey of more than 5,300 executive and manager respondents from 118 countries, explains:
“There is little disagreement that sustainability is necessary to be competitive — 86% of respondents say it is or will be. Sustainability’s next frontier is tackling the significant sustainability issues — or, in the parlance that is gaining currency, “material sustainability issues” — that lie at the heart of competitive advantage and long-term viability. Yet many companies struggle to match their strong level of sustainability concern with equally strong actions. They still wrestle with settling on which actions to pursue and aligning around them.”
There is all kinds of data out there for better decision making. Scorecards for every question. The challenge is how do we use this information? There is little doubt that leadership companies from the banking and forest products industries to IT and healthcare are connecting sustainability with profits. One aspect that sets them apart, however, is that these leadership companies leverage data not just to see where they have been, but also, where they want to go–what MIT Sloan describes as moving from  a “talker” to a “walker.”
For more info you can read MIT Sloan’s report including “Portrait of a Walker: Domtar” at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/projects/sustainabilitys-next-frontier/.  

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Recover More Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Collaboration as a Tool for Advancement

During the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s recent event, SPC Advance, I couldn’t help but notice the underlying theme of collaboration among attendees and their respective organizations.
Discussions and sessions made it clear that collaboration is necessary and frequent among organizations practicing sustainability regardless of their role in the supply chain. The Value of Forest Certification working group elaborated on the need for big-name brand owners to have an affiliation with forest-friendly NGOs in order to push their business forward. Partnerships with forest certification systems assist brands in building the trust of their consumers and the rest of the supply chain, especially at times when the environmental ethics of large corporate practices are put into question.
The same interaction is evident in the plastics industry, as identified by the sessions on the current and future state of flexible packaging recovery. Shari Jackson of the American Chemistry Council called on retailers to join WRAP, a campaign aimed at educating consumers and facilitating plastic film recycling. Wegmans Food Markets was identified as an exemplary campaign partner, as new signage and marketing materials has successfully engaged their customers in film recycling, resulting in a 20% increase between Earth Day 2013 and Earth Day 2014. During Jackson’s presentation attendees participated in the conversation and encouraged the WRAP campaign to engage more logistical partners to help with commercial film backhaul, as the opportunities in film recycling expand beyond brand owners and retailers.
In such a competitive business, it’s impressive and inspiring to see major corporations engage one another to derive best practices. From the mingling in the hotel lobby to the late night chats following the pub crawl to the inspirational case studies detailed in the sessions, there is no question that SPC Advance attendees recognize the value of collaboration in advancing sustainability.

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Member Spotlight Sustainable Packaging Coalition

A Tour of Aveda: Vision and Mission in Practice

One of my favorite parts of SPC Advance was our tour of Aveda’s headquarters, which includes production facilities for almost all of their products.
Aveda is known for their plant based beauty products and vision to connect beauty, environment, and well-being. They have extensive social and environmental goals for products, packaging, production, and distribution. Aveda’s organizational beliefs include themes of leading by example, empowering employees, wellness, social responsibility, and treating the people and planet with respect. In my opinion, the headquarters’ operations reflected these values.
After a brief introduction, attendees broke into groups to tour the facility. We observed receiving, production, filling, packaging, research and development offices, a gym, and onsite daycare. After the tour, attendees participated in a Q&A session with an Aveda packaging professional and visited the on-site store.
Our tour reflected many of Aveda’s values, creating a consistent message from corporate goals through production and product. I observed:

  • A place for employees to suggest improvements for themselves or co workers;
  • Employee suggested safety improvements & their outcomes;
  • Color coded reporting of “almost incidents” and incidents of all types;
  • A recently hired professional devoted to ergonomics & worker health and safety;
  • Recycling bins; and
  • A very knowledgeable staff.

Why does this matter? Aveda’s values are evident in their focus on worker health and safety, empowerment, and sustainability. Integrating values from words to actions delivers on organizational goals and strengthens their brand. They are an example of focusing on many aspects of sustainability, which is at the heart of the SPC’s Definition of Sustainable Packaging.
Aveda shows that sustainability can work, it can work for you, and it can work for your employees. Ultimately, consumers are given a brand they can trust.