2010 Sustainability in Packaging study: A deeper shade of green

The 2010 Sustainability in Packaging study shows that the packaging sector has an increasing knowledge of environmental issues and is placing a greater emphasis on material choices and design for sustainability.

John Kalkowski, Editorial Director -- Packaging Digest, 10/27/2010 5:19:45 PM

Sustainability has taken root as a major driver of change and innovation in the packaging sector, according to results of the 2010 “Sustainability in Packaging” survey. Nearly two-thirds of respondents say sustainable design has become an important factor in packaging decisions.

The fourth annual study, which was conducted in October by Packaging Digest and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, drew 630 responses from the gamut of packagers, material and machinery suppliers, consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) and retailers. The benchmarking surveys conducted over the course of four years show the evolution of sustainability in packaging from a point where packagers were asking, “What is sustainability?” to “How do we effectively measure our success?”

One of the primary changes has been in the growing awareness of the issues involved with sustainability in packaging. Today, 98 percent of the 2010 survey respondents say they are familiar with sustainability issues, versus 53 percent in the first survey performed in 2007. Those who said they were “not at all familiar” shrank from 10 percent of the audience to 2 percent during that same period.

Respondents identify sustainability leaders
This year, survey respondents once again gave Walmart the most votes for leadership in sustainability among retailers, while Procter & Gamble garnered the most tallies among CPGs (see table below). While an increasing number of packaging materials and equipment suppliers have begun offering more environmentally friendly products, their recognition factor is lower compared to the consumer-facing marketers of the retailing and CPG companies. Eighty-seven respondents wrote in that they felt no single supplier company demonstrated leadership in sustainability.

The study also reveals that nearly two-thirds of the respondents feel that their companies are placing increased importance on sustainability in their packaging, with 61 percent saying their customers also are placing more importance on sustainability improvements.

While recognizing the growing influence of sustainability in their companies’ packaging strategies, 81 percent of survey participants say too many companies are “greenwashing” their packaging by making false or unproven claims on its environmental benefits.

One respondent points out that “Greenwashing has become so saturated that the sincerity of companies’ actual efforts are lost; consumers are now suffering from ‘green exhaustion.’ It’s very unfortunate that our (sustainability) efforts get lost in the noise of others claiming to be environmentally-friendly.”

Another survey participant considers the potential marketing benefits: “We just have to keep in mind that there are many companies that are greenwashing, and that will just enforce our strengths as a sustainable company. Creating a plan to educate our employees and our consumers on the many sustainable efforts we make as a company will prove our success. It will also be a positive chain reaction that will get everyone thinking about people, planet and profit.”

Three quarters of those surveyed say industry needs a set of defined sustainability metrics that can be used globally, and 60 percent say vendor scorecards or ratings are needed to compare packaging suppliers’ sustainability practices.

Packagers slow to establish policies
Those respondents whose companies have sustainable packaging policies has risen slowly from 32 percent in 2007 to 45 percent this year. Companies increasingly are formalizing their sustainability policies, with a quarter of respondents saying the policies have been codified, and 35 percent say their companies are making those strategies public.

The most popular guidelines included in the sustainable packaging policies include: energy consumption (62 percent), recycled content specifications (54 percent), design guidelines (49 percent), and bans or limits on specific materials usage (43 percent).

Just over eight out of 10 respondents say it is the “customer” who is driving them to implement practices that produce packaging that is more environmentally friendly, and these customers are unwilling to pay more for sustainable packaging. Of course, who that customer is depends on the respondent’s place in the supply chain. Many survey participants claim it’s retailers and CPGs that are driving the trend toward sustainable practices—not the consumer. Over half say the percentage of customers who actually require more sustainable packaging is less than 25 percent of their customer base.

As one survey participant says: “I still think that the ‘greenness’ of packaging is about the fourth most-important thing on people’s list of packaging needs following cost, durability and appearance.”

Brands, reputation at risk
Nonetheless, exactly two-thirds of survey participants agree that a failure to improve their sustainability practices would represent a risk to a company’s reputation. As one respondent wrote: “Sustainability is like a quality program: You don’t absolutely need it to run a business, but you’d better if you plan to be around in a year or two.”

More than nine in 10 respondents say that being more efficent and cost savings are important to any sustainability effort.

Nearly two-thirds say that sustainability efforts have been difficult to advance during the current economic downturn. Several factors impact their efforts to produce more sustainable packging, with 42 percent citing pricing pressure and 37 percent pointing to competitive pressure. Respondents say the biggest challenges to making their packaging processes more sustainable include: raw materials costs (49 percent), lack of alternative materials (38 percent), ability to produce comparable-quality packaging (35 percent) and compatibility with existing systems (24 percent).

Due to the major role that materials play in sustainability, recycled content is the most-cited criterium used to evaluate sustainability.  Other recycling-related material factors include design for recycling or composting (36 percent), toxic or harmful chemicals (35 percent) and probability a material will be recycled (29 percent). The second most-cited criterium overall was energy consumption (42 percent). Measurement tools, such as life cycle analysis, carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions, also were frequently mentioned.