Use sustainability, value chain to gain packaging reduction

A dominant thread running through sustainability strategies is reduction in the amount of packaging. In early 2011, the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) reported that its survey of food and beverage manufacturers points to 4 billion pounds of packaging reduction by 2020. And GMA see that as contributing to reduced energy use and transportation costs as packaging gets lighter and more compact.

How can you make the process more effective? PTIS Senior Associate Barbara McCutchan says: Integrate sustainable packaging into your business management system. The system needs to include the value chain. Yes, having a grasp of the technology is important, but making sustainability a corporate goal is what makes the technology effective.

One illustration shows just how deeply it has to grow into business practices. Quality assurance and risk management functions have to become part of a company’s strategy, McCutchan says. A part of QA, for example, is that companies have to build in systems to check vendor sourcing, particularly where sustainability claims are made.

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More Resources on Sustainability

PTIS Sustainabiity Packaging Workshop

Click here for the PTIS Management Checklist: Build Sustainable Packaging into Your Management System

Click here for the PTIS Management Checklist: Be Sustainable, Create Financial Value

 Click here for the PTIS Management Checklist: Seven Factors to Manage Sustainability

 Click here for the article Embedding Sustainable Practices

 Click here for the article Packaging Points: Sustainable Packaging, February 2010,  Dairy Foods magazine

 Click here for the article Retailers Take on Sustainability