Conference gives insight into Chinese label market

Sustainable development

Jari Haavisto, vice president of UPM Raflatac China, Heini Lehti, manager of the global sustainable development project at UPM Raflatac, and John Li, senior packaging development manager at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Group Asia-Pacific, jointly gave the keynote address, providing practical advice about how to combine sustainable development with the daily challenges faced by commercial enterprises. Jari Haavisto said: ‘In emerging markets, there is still growth potential and time to make it more sustainable.’

Haavisto explained that there are already globally recognized standards of sustainable development, such as ISO14001 and sustainable forestry certification. ‘But it goes beyond this. A sustainable company knows what happens to its waste – not just that you pay someone to take it away and forget about it. Think about how you will take back matrix waste.’

UPM Raflatac has developed a checklist to help label converters become more sustainable: ‘Thinner substrates are better. With more labels on roll and pallet, you can optimize label size, plan for less roll changes, and invest in more modern, wider equipment. Is a label over-engineered or designed for purpose?’

This requires the full value chain to work together, said Haavisto. ‘It is best to start from packaging design and work backwards to the material suppliers.’

Heine Lehti, global sustainability projects manager at UPM Raflatac, explained how the company’s LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) tool Label Life works – ‘It allows us to focus on the sustainability hot spots for a particular material or process. This may tell us, for example, that incineration is sometimes a better option than recycling.’

Lehti presented the results of a case study carried out with Unilever, which showed that the printing and converting process can represent anything from 4-59 percent of the sustainability impact of a label. ‘The main factors printers should pay attention to are: raw materials, the number of printing stations, use of solvents, use of cold or hot foiling, and use of energy in these different stages. So a printer can contribute and make a difference to overall sustainability – we are all together in this.’

John Li, senior packaging development manager at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Group Asia Pacific, shared a platform with UPM Raflatac, as the two companies have worked together closely to develop sustainable labeling products.

Johnson & Johnson’s global Healthy Future 2014 program is designed to give practical effect to a long-standing commitment to preserve the environment and natural resources, but Li stressed that sustainability must go hand in hand with profitability. ‘It is not realistic to talk about one without the other. You can plant trees but they will not survive if there is no profit.’

Johnson & Johnson aims to design for sustainability using benchmarks derived from a Life Cycle Analysis, said Li. Sustainable design criteria include: is it designed to minimize waste; can it be smaller or lighter; is it designed to be durable or multi-functional; does it use renewable resources; is reuse practical and encouraged; is it made with post-consumption materials; does the material come in less toxic form; does it come from a socially and environmentally responsible company; and could it be made locally.

E-commerce and variable data

Under the current government strategy of ‘Adjust economy structure, focus on quality’, the rate of growth in the Chinese economy is slowing, and this has reduced the growth rate of the label and packaging industry to around 10 percent. But several speakers said opportunities are still opening up for label converters.