SPC: Sustainable Packaging Coalition
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SPC Articles

Click on these links to see what leading industry publications have to say about the SPC.

June 2009

U.S. Needs Consistent Labeling to Explain Package Recovery

Source: Packaging Digest

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition continues to explore how a similar labeling system can work in the U.S. through a number of partnerships. Though the drivers for participation aren't the same in the U.S., the goal is similar: To establish a harmonized and transparent messaging approach for all materials and packaging formats to encourage greater participation and to incentivize development of better recycling infrastructure.

May 15, 2009

Starbucks' Cup Summit: Does the Cost of Recycling Runneth Over?

Source: GreenBiz.com

As the nation's leading resource for lifecycle analysis data on original materials used in manufacturing packaging, the GreenBlue Institute has established criteria for determining costs, carbon footprint, compatibilities and end-of-life properties through its Sustainable Packaging Coalition, which was represented at the Starbucks Cup Summit by Senior Fellow Martha Stevenson

April 2009

How to Spur Innovation in Recycling

Source: Packaging Digest

At the SPC's annual spring meeting last month, it was evident that the discussion of sustainable packaging has expanded its focus to the post-consumer side of the supply chain. The first day of the meeting focused on end-of-life issues, reflecting the coalition's evolution from an emphasis on packaging design toward a greater recognition that the current U.S. recycling system and lack of sorting technology is a barrier to the effective recovery of many types of packaging materials and to developing more sustainable packaging systems.

April 9, 2009

Podcast with SPC Project Manager Anne Bedarf

Source: Natural Foods Merchandiser

Tiffany Plate discusses sustainability in the personal care industry with Anne Bedarf, project manager for the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.

April 2009

COMPASS Software Steers Choices for Packaging Design

Source: Packaging Digest

The growing emphasis on all things “green” has forever changed the package-development process. Traditionally, a packaging designer considered cost, technical performance, appearance and regulatory compliance when designing a new package. The demand for more sustainable packaging has introduced new considerations and opportunities for improvement and differentiation.

April 2009

COMPASS Software Steers Choices for Packaging Design

Source: Packaging Digest

The growing emphasis on all things “green” has forever changed the package-development process. Traditionally, a packaging designer considered cost, technical performance, appearance and regulatory compliance when designing a new package. The demand for more sustainable packaging has introduced new considerations and opportunities for improvement and differentiation.

March 2009

Communicating the Recycling Message Is Harder than It Seems

Source: Packaging Digest

Inaccurate claims such as recycling abound in the marketplace. However, most aren't intentional and many are sincere efforts to try to promote recycling. So why is it so hard to communicate to consumers about recycling?

March 2009

Compostable vs. Biodegradable vs. Recyclable

Source: QSR Magazine

If carefully worded assertions can fool someone who has been entrenched in the green restaurant movement for almost two decades, how can the rest of the industry hope to understand the complexities of terms such as “compostable”, “biodegradable”, and “recyclable”?

March 2009

Getting Online with Sustainability

Source: Package Design

Taking a different approach, and accounting for impacts not specifically addressed by the Walmart Scorecard, Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) developed the COMPASS (Comparative Packaging Assessment) tool. COMPASS is an online software tool that allows packaging designers and engineers to compare the human and environmental impacts of their designs.

March 19, 2009

New Software Compares Impacts of Packaging Designs

Source: GreenBiz.com

A new tool developed by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) allows packaging makers to see the life cycle impacts of their design choices and guide them to better decisions.

February 1, 2009

Legislation in Packaging: A Push for Extended Producer Responsibility

Source: Packaging Digest

While much attention is paid to technological innovations and consumer shifts, legislative policy is a driver with tremendous implications for the future of packaging. Laws and regulations focused on packaging design are most familiar, such as recycled-content requirements and the elimination of heavy metals, but new policy trends address packaging at its end-of-life, through climate-change legislation or extended producer responsibility schemes.

January 1, 2009

Trying Times May Test Sustainability Efforts

Source: Packaging Digest

Since we are experiencing the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression, it's no stretch to think that 2009 will be defined by rapid changes both in our economic systems and in our policies.

January 1, 2009

Finding Efficiencies in Shipping

Source: Beverage Media

Fuel prices are directly impacting the nation's shippers and they are passing those costs along to businesses and consumers. It has the potential to eat your business from the inside out.

December 2008

“Biodegradable” is one of Packaging’s Most Misused Terms

Source: Packaging Digest

If I were to select the single most misused and misunderstood word used today in the packaging arena, I would have to say “biodegradable.” After polling vendors about biodegradability claims and what data substantiates these claims, it seems that the term, “biodegradable” should raise a greenwash warning flag, especially when applied to fossil fuel-based plastics.

November 4, 2008

ConAgra Discusses Sustainability Programs

Source: Packaging Digest

"When I started looking at [sustainability metrics], it was the hardest thing to determine what we should track. You can’t improve on something you don’t measure... The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has helped tremendously. I’ve looked to them for leadership for me and the industry. If I measure things that my peers, suppliers and customers don’t, then I don’t know how useful that is. I think the SPC offers a tremendous value in that regard."

November 1, 2008

Imagining New Systems in the Wake of the Economic Downturn

Source: Packaging Digest

We find ourselves straddling history as we depend on the production systems of the past but recognize the fundamental need for more sustainable materials and processes for the consumer demand of the future. We have not figured out how to do it yet and for good reason. To change, we have to overcome the inertia of the past and fundamentally shift our energy systems and the scale and magnitude of our production systems.

October 31, 2008

Winery Sees Clear Benefits in Lightweight Glass

Source: Associated Press

Trimming packaging to cut costs and lessen the environmental impact has been catching on in other industries as well. Some of the changes include redesigned cans that use less aluminum and super-concentrated detergents that prevent shipping water cross-country. “It’s about money and somewhat about marketing to that piece of the market that responds to environmental messaging,” said Martha Leflar, senior project manager for the Virginia-based Sustainable Packaging Coalition.

October 16, 2008

Sustainability Drives Packaging Growth

Source: ICIS Chemical Business

Green packaging has not only become a new profit source but a cost-saving solution for the long term, especially with the growing need to cut costs in feedstocks, operations, materials and transportation. In a 2007 survey by nonprofit group Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) and trade magazine Packaging Digest, both US-based, 73% of 1,255 respondents who are involved in packaging reported that their companies had increased their emphasis on sustainable packaging.

September 1, 2008

Assessment Can’t Replace Life-Cycle Thinking

Source: Packaging Digest

As the packaging industry increasingly engages in discussions of metrics and scorecards to assess environmental performance, it is important to distinguish between two terms: Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment.

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