“Begin with the end in mind” to advance sustainable packaging, notes from TSC Summit
by Cheryl Baldwin, PH.D.
17 April 2017
Leading firms and organizations in sustainability gathered at The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) annual summit in Washington, DC this week for an energizing couple of days of sharing insight and exploring opportunities to advance environmental and social responsibility. I facilitated a workshop on sustainable packaging that included presentations from Nina Goodrich from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, John Mulcahy from Georgia-Pacific, and Amit Jain from Pharmavite, along with several group discussions. We discussed challenges with making progress and the solutions that companies are using and that are on the horizon.
A key insight I gained is that “beginning with the end in mind” is particularly applicable to packaging. There are design approaches that could substantially improve the recyclability of packaging. Companies have at their disposal recent innovations such as spray nozzles with all plastic parts, recyclable flexible pouches, and labels and adhesives compatible with recycling. Another tool is the How2Recycle program, since it helps provide consumer recycling communication for packaging options.
Challenges to optimize the package’s end-of-life may persist that call for collaboration and new solutions with suppliers, competitors, and waste stream partners. TSC may be able to play a role in enabling these approaches and this was explored during the workshop. TSC has been able to support pre-competitive efforts in other areas, such as establishing common key performance indicators (KPIs) for sustainable products and packaging.
Walmart and other retailers use these KPIs with their suppliers. Recyclable packaging is measured with these KPIs. TSC’s 2016 Impact Report (the 2017 version is forthcoming) found that consumer product packaging has 67 percent recyclable content and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows that one-half of containers and packaging are recycled, with the rest landfilled or incinerated. However, this is led by steel and paper/paperboard, with less than 15 percent of plastic containers being recycled. The Walmart Sustainable Packaging Playbook, that Pure Strategies helped develop, noted that “every category has at least one supplier using 100 percent recyclable packaging.” This is a call to action to have more packaging be recyclable and have a favorable end-of-life.
Pure Strategies is proud to be a new member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, which enables these kinds of approaches and we look forward to engaging in this forum and with our clients to further advance sustainable packaging.
Written by Cheryl Baldwin, PH.D.
Cheryl Baldwin, Ph.D., is a Vice President of Sustainability Consulting for Pure Strategies where she partners with corporate clients to develop and execute sustainability strategies to improve performance across retail, food and agriculture, home and personal care, and cosmetics industries. She also leads the firms’ global market research to generate new insights to accelerate business transformation.
Cheryl’s recent projects include helping develop sustainability goals for TAZO, create a sustainable packaging strategy and implementation tools for Walmart, and facilitate the development and implementation of a sustainable chemistry program for Ahold Delhaize USA.
Cheryl authored Pure Strategies’ market research reports: Planet-Forward Strategies, Connecting to the Farm, Reaching the New Corporate Frontier, Advancing on the Path to Product Sustainability, and other reports. She wrote the book, The 10 Principles of Food Industry Sustainability and is the lead author/editor for two additional books on sustainability, Greening Food and Beverage Services and Sustainability in the Food Industry and holds U.S. and international patents.
Prior to Pure Strategies, Cheryl led the life cycle research and sustainability standard program for the non-profit ecolabel organization Green Seal. Cheryl also worked in Research and Development for Kraft Foods, Inc. where she was involved in all phases of R&D from novel ingredient development to global product commercialization. Cheryl holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Cornell University and a B.S. from the University of Illinois, all in Food Science.
Cheryl has been named one of the Top 50 Women Leaders of DC for the second consecutive year, based on a methodical review of women executives and leaders across the area. She was identified for her career track record, including her leadership position at Pure Strategies. The recognition came from Women We Admire (WWA), a membership organization of over 1,200 of the most accomplished women leaders in business, law, consulting, education, non-profit and other sectors. based on a methodical review of women executives and leaders across the area. She was identified for her career track record, including her leadership position at Pure Strategies. The recognition came from Women We Admire (WWA), a membership organization of over 1,200 of the most accomplished women leaders in business, law, consulting, education, non-profit and other sectors.
