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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