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The Environmental Paper Network is a diverse group of environmental organizations joined together to support socially and environmentally sustainable transformations within the pulp and paper industry.  The Network developed the Common Vision as a framework to guide necessary shifts in production and consumption.

The following tools and resources are provided in an effort to increase the knowledge base regarding paper and its impacts and solutions for advancing innovation.
    

1.  Paper Purchaser's Guide

2.  The Paper Calculator

3.  Paper Related Statistics

4.  Educational Materials

5.  Reports

6.  Organizational Links

7.  Maps

8.  Pulp Tracking Forms

9.  Glossary of Terms

THE WAL-MART SUSTAINABILITY SCORECARD

It’s likely that you’ll soon have to comply with your customers’ sustainability initiatives as well as your own. That's the case if you provide products for the Wal-Mart chain of retail outlets.

Wal-Mart has taken a "lifecycle approach" to packaging with objectives covering reduction in waste and renewable energy. Nine weighted parameters of Wal-Mart's sustainability scorecard are measured for their prospective and current vendors.

Wal-Mart has told its buyers that, starting in 2008, they should consider the packaging scores when choosing among various products for its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. Matt Kistler, Vice President - Package and Product Innovations, Sam's Club Wal-Mart

Part of the challenge in rolling out greener products is informing customers about changes that affect their perception of savings. Wal-Mart's April 2008 "Earth Month" promotion is highlighting its greener products and informing customers how making better choices, especially on a large scale, can cause a difference. Wal-Mart is featuring more than 50 products in stores and 500 online, from transitional cotton shirts to mulch made from rubber to Clorox Green Works products.

The majority of Wal-Mart's environmental footprint comes from suppliers. The company has direct control on about 8 percent of its footprint, with the remaining 92 percent coming from its supply chain.

To green its supply chain the company launched a it's "Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard" in 2007 . By filling in information about products' packaging, suppliers are rated and find out their rank in relation to peers. Kistler said Wal-Mart works with suppliers, telling them what they can do to improve and let them know what other suppliers have done to reduce packaging.

TIPS For Packaging  (and) Consultants in General

• The package is often one of the last things that a company introducing a product thinks about. Also, many packaging engineers obtained their positions by accident and do not know how a packaging system actually fits into the company—a consultant can help.

• Hire a consultant when temporary assistance is required—new business deadlines, short-term business problems, independent advice needed, searching for cost savings, etc.

• Do not hire a consultant if your needs are unclear or if your needs are long term. You may want to consider employing an expert on a retainer.

• Do not expect a consultant to fix a nonviable project.

• Determine the consultant's scope of work: Where will they work? On what specific project? When can they start and finish? What resources do they need? What results do they need to deliver to you? Be as specific as possible.

• Write your contract as specific as possible. Write work exclusions into the consultant's contract to help prevent other company departments from taking a consultant away while he or she is working on your project.

• Pay your bills on time—consultants will sometimes put a "pay by x date to receive a percentage discount."

• Keep consultants on track so they are doing what you need done, in the time frame you have both agreed upon.

• Know that most consultants will not take a job for work they are weak in—they will often point you to someone else. However, be prepared to release the consultant if they are not doing the work as expected; a release clause should also be written into the contract.

• Expect to pay a consultant from $120 to $250 per hour plus expenses.

• If you require global consultants, go to that specific country for specialists in those countries, or hire consultants that have experience in the other countries.

Jan Gates, principal sterile barrier (packaging) engineer, Abbott Vascular, offered the following recommendations when considering hiring a consultant, or working with consultants. Her comments are also applicable for those outside the pharmaceutical space seeking or using consultants. Her comments come from the January 28 MD&M (Medical Design & Manufacturing) West Conference in Anaheim, CA, and were reported on in the April 11, 2008 newsletter issue of Healthcare Packaging.

 
SOURCE: Packworld

Greater frequency is a mandate stemming from a core concept of sustainability, namely, that sustainability is never achieved once-and-for-all, but rather is approached through constant, incremental improvements.

Sustainable practices change!  There is tremendous opportunity for improvements as new materials, new processes, and new supply chain practices rethink and refine their environmental impact.  And we have a LOT of room to grow.

Increased precision is a mandate owed to the fact that sustainability and profitability are dual, simultaneous pursuits; hence, the objective of sustainable distribution packaging should be protection and overall performance at optimal cost and at a level valued by the consumer.

Business isn't simple -- or everyone would be doing it!  But the SYSTEM that is put in place by a company and an industry work together to deliver solutions for customers...and eventually, end consumers.  System thinking takes into account multiple objectives -- such as environmental survival and company survival. 

The great news about this month vs. a year ago...is that multiple benefits can be found in "going green" with product design fitting into the glove of protective and marketing motivated packaging.  New materials, new machines, new transportation ... and the rising cost of raw materials are all working together to make conservation and smart design the mantra for business success.

DISTRIBUTION PACKAGING

Distribution packaging (a.k.a. transit packaging) is more than just a corrugated box and interior packing, for example. It includes pallets, slip sheets, strapping, films, netting, returnable containers—even methods of blocking and bracing within the transportation vehicle. Any greener version of any component should be tested for its effect on overall distribution packaging performance.

The facts help make better decisions.  And testing gives you specific facts for your peculiar circumstances.

Traditionally, distribution package testing has been performed less frequently than testing associated with the design and function of the primary package, the simple reason being that new or redesigned primary packages come down the pike more frequently. By contrast, it's common for the same shipping box to accommodate a variety of primary packages.

Standardization has been a big benefit for distribution packaging.  Pallets, standard size cartons, and even standardized equipment helped meet lean manufacturing goals. The infrequency of distribution package testing is also a result of the practical benefits of standardization.  And that's not so good in today's marketplace that is concerned with new, greener, more sustainable improvements.

Distribution packaging can yield savings and efficiencies not only in transportation, but also in material handling and storage.

Less is more

For years,  graphic designers have promoted a clean, uncluttered design to communicate more effectively than crowded design.

Simplicity also lends itself to sustainability -- less packaging means more eco-friendliness. Consequently, even a company with a successful record of source reduction will face constant pressures to achieve greater sustainability.

A host of stakeholders including retailers such as Wal-Mart’s packaging initiatives demonstrate that retailer demand for LESS is not limited to disposal preceding display. Selling from the pallet—the staple of club-store merchandising—is also gaining presence in nonmembership venues.

Selling from a pallet demands less distribution packaging, which not only facilitates disposal, but also floor display and consumer access. Case display demands that the distribution package must not appear any worse for wear, since consumers are loath to buy anything visibly blemished.

Coordinating with Product Design

Further complicating things is that many types of products are being designed/redesigned for sustainability by reducing the amount of materials in them. However, if the new design increases product fragility, it places more demands on the distribution packaging. This underscores the importance of fragility curves and designing the product and packaging as an integrated whole.
 
IN SUMMARY, there are too many factors impacting distribution packaging to know whether they’re being managed optimally, unless that knowledge comes from a well devised and executed testing program. Companies that presently don’t test ought to immediately start. Companies presently testing ought to reevaluate their programs for areas for improvement.

READ MORE AT THE SOURCE: Packaging Insights Packworld.com

The Global Package Gallery wants your package designs!

For a limited time, upload your design portfolio for free!

The Galley is a global repository of high-resolution package photography from 38 countries, with over 5,000 images. The Gallery will be used by package designers and consumer packaged goods companies all over the world.

Contact the gallery's curator for details. EMAIL: curator@globalpackagegallery.com

   

Kraft Foods is one company working to reduce the environmental impact of its packaging materials.

Roger Zellner, Director of Sustainability R&D at Kraft Foods, says the company focuses on four key areas to drive sustainability:

• Leverage material and design lighter packages.
• Incorporate tools and measures for sustainability.
• Make progress toward incorporating renewable packaging materials.
• Influence recycling and recovery.

According to Kraft management, two packages that are successful in these areas are the redesigned bottle for Kraft Regular and Light Salad Dressing which reduces PET usage by three million pounds annually. A material substitution from paper and foil to film in Milka chocolate bar packaging has reduced material usage by 58%.

Decision-making on issues related to sustainability requires the ability to easily quantify and communicate benefits and risks. To do so,  product manufacturers use tools and measures that provide clear results. Brand owners as a whole could seek common industry metrics and data to further the sustainability goal.

"The focus on packaging and sustainability has required the industry to view packaging through a different lens and evaluate how packaging adds value throughout the entire supply chain with an 'end-to-end' or 'cradle-to-cradle' perspective," Zellner explained at the 2007 Packaging Strategies Sustainable Packaging Forum in Pittsburgh, PA. "Anytime you bring a new perspective such as sustainability and challenge the status quo, you will get questions and, consequently, differing opinions and ideas. These are the foundation of every vibrant society, organization, or industry."

SOURCE:  Shelf Impact Newsletter

Green Packaging and Product Design your goal? G08 Conference to discuss leading-edge approaches

If you want to operate at the forefront of sustainable packaging, the Greener By Design conference will offer you the strategies, tools, and markets to get there.



Summit Publishing, which publishes Shelf Impact! and Packaging World magazine, will be the conference's exclusive media supporter.

Speakers will include Anne Johnson, Director, Sustainable Packaging Coalition; Matt Kistler, Senior Vice President, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; Matt Kohler, Brand Manager, Clorox Green Works; Lorrie Vogel, General Manager, Considered Products, Nike; Josh Handy, Senior Creative Director, Method Home Products; Jeff Renaud, Corporate Director of Sustainability, GE; and Peter White, Director for Global Sustainability, Procter & Gamble.

Jim George, Editor of Shelf Impact!, will moderate a panel discussion on "The Packaging Revolution."

'Green' Gurus@Play™ is a dynamic program of exclusive intimate sessions with innovative green product designers from some of the most well respected companies in the world.

Designated 'Green' Gurus — speakers and panelists from the program — will hold two 45-minute round table segments, to a limited amount of participants.  This is a unique opportunity to participate in a small group to obtain answers to your burning questions. There will be a limited amount of seats available during the conference, available on a first-come, first-served basis.

View the program agenda and registration details at http://www.greenerbydesign08.com/.

Complying with Environmental Marketing Guides:
FTC Publication Environmental Marketing Claims.

This article provides excellent details on legal approaches to environmental claims: Lawpublish.com

The FTC looks at all advertising from the ... standards for environmental performance or prescribe testing protocols.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeks to prevent deception and unfairness in the marketplace. The FTC Act gives the Commission the power to bring law enforcement actions against false or misleading marketing claims, including environmental or "green" marketing claims. The FTC issued its Environmental Guides, often referred to as the "Green Guides," in 1992, and revised them most recently in 1998. The Guides indicate how the Commission will apply Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices, to environmental marketing claims.

Claims must provide

• Substantiation
• Specificity

Eco-Seals, Seals-of-Approval and Certifications

Environmental seals-of-approval, eco-seals and certifications from third-party organizations imply that a product is environmentally superior to other products. Because such broad claims are difficult to substantiate, seals-of-approval should be accompanied by information that explains the basis for the award. If the seal-of-approval implies that a third party has certified the product, the certifying party must be truly independent from the advertiser and must have professional expertise in the area that is being certified.

Symbols

Many consumers are confused about what they can recycle in their communities because so many products display the universal recycling symbol. Often called the "three-chasing-arrows" or "Mobius loop," this image is likely to convey that the packaging is both "recyclable" and "recycled." Unless both messages can be substantiated, the claim should make clear whether the reference is to the package's recyclability or its recycled content.

National Center for Environmental Economics

NCEE analyzes relationships between the economy, environmental health, and environmental pollution control. This includes:

• Economic benefits and costs
• Economic incentives
• Size, composition, and effects of the pollution control industry
• Risk assessment data used in economic analyses

SOURCE: EPA Natinal Center for Environmental Economics

Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

AERE provides many forums for exchanging ideas relevant to the allocation and management of natural and environmental resources.

AERE Business Office
Marilyn M. Voigt
AERE Business Office
1616 P Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: 202-328-5125
Facsimile: 202-939-3460
voigt@rff.org
http://www.aere.org

Knowing your customer is the heart of marketing...but we get intellectually smug or arrogant or caught up in staring at a computer screen... and assume "THEY"  "just want something new."

Not so... even big companies like Ikea learn the hard way. And discarding wrong-sized products is just NOT green!

Green marketing is smart about right-sizing, right-coloring, right-thinking.

Julie Desrosiers, the bedroom-line manager at Ikea of Sweden, visited people's houses in the U.S. and Europe to peek into their closets, learning that "Americans prefer to store most of their clothes folded, and Italians like to hang." The result was a wardrobe that features deeper drawers for U.S. customers.

The American market poses special challenges for Ikea because of the huge differences inside the U.S.

"It's so easy to forget the reality of how people live," says Ikea's U.S. interior design director, Mats Nilsson.

In the spring of 2004, Ikea realized it might not be reaching California's Hispanics. So its designers visited the homes of Hispanic staff. They soon realized they had set up the store's displays all wrong. Large Hispanic families need dining tables and sofas that fit more than two people, the Swedish norm. They prefer bold colors to the more subdued Scandinavian palette and display tons of pictures in elaborate frames. Nilsson warmed up the showrooms' colors, adding more seating and throwing in numerous picture frames.

Ikea is particularly concerned about the U.S. since it's key to expansion -- and since Ikea came close to blowing it. "We got our clocks cleaned in the early 1990s because we really didn't listen to the consumer," says Kanter. Stores weren't big enough to offer the full Ikea experience, and many were in poor locations. Prices were too high. Beds were measured in centimeters, not king, queen, and twin. Sofas weren't deep enough, curtains were too short, and kitchens didn't fit U.S.-size appliances.

"American customers were buying vases to drink from because the glasses were too small," recalls Goran Carstedt, the former head of Ikea North America, who helped engineer a turnaround. Parts of the product line were adapted (no more metric measurements), new and bigger store locations chosen, prices slashed, and service improved. Now U.S. managers are paying close attention to the tiniest details. "Americans want more comfortable sofas, higher-quality textiles, bigger glasses, more spacious entertainment units," says Pernille Spiers-Lopez, head of Ikea North America.

SOURCE: Read the full story about Ikea's business experiences at BusinessWeek.com

Jacquelyn Ottman’s keynote speech to Sustainable Brands '07 in New Orleans, September 27, 2007 contains a serious reminder: making environmental claims is governed by federal law. And her research results show that many companies are ignoring or ignorant of the requirements that make a product recyclable, compostable, recycled, etc.

Read her excellent overview of green marketing, "Next-Generation Green Marketing: Beyond Billboards," Sustainable Life Media

Eco-innovation, she points out, contains concepts that have substance both at the consumer's end and the design/manufacturing end of the chain.

• Introduce a new product concept that includes environmental attributes in production and transportation of goods.
• Affect an entire system to reduce waste or impact
• Provide services vs. products to reduce intensive use of natural resources