Design for sustainable performance

For these young people, living responsibly means consumption based on necessity, reducing car usage and adopting public transportation for routine travel. They recognize the need to use less water and less energy; buying local products, recycling and composting materials are among the practices they are willing to adopt to improve the environment, emphasizing the importance of reducing waste in every form.

Seventy-one percent of UK consumer respondents for the Green Brands Survey felt that governments should mandate companies to recycle product packaging. Germany and other European nations already have stringent recycling policies and many other countries are driving material collection and reuse with regulation. The Brazilian government’s recent National Policy on Solid Waste (Politica Nacional de Residuos Solidos a.k.a PNRS), enacted in August of 2010, has become a pressure point for the local label industry. PNRS places the onus for collection and reuse of waste on the company that produces it, and seeks to achieve success using ‘reverse logistics’ systems.

In Canada, the government enacted a stewardship tax in 2010, forcing its large grocery retailers to pay for selling non-recyclable packaging on its shelves. The focus was rapidly shifted to the adhesive in the pressure sensitive labels used on PET clamshell containers. This drove the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) to quickly publish a test method in February 2011 for pressure sensitive RCAs that will not contaminate the plastic when recycled. The method is similar to APR’s methods for PET bottles.

Global consumption of pressure sensitive materials varies around the globe, with Western markets hitting the highest per capita consumption rates of 14-18 m2.

Developing markets consume only between 0.9 and 3 m2 per capita. Earth’s population is expected to increase by over two billion by 2050. At the same time middle class numbers are expected to continue rising, consequently driving a stronger global demand for consumer goods. It is clear that change is inevitable.

The key drivers of change are design and innovation. Brands and CPGs are being held increasingly responsible for the total carbon output of their products’ life cycles, and are therefore taking measures to highlight areas of waste and pollution within the cycle where improvements can be made. It is imperative that the label industry begin designing labels and packaging for products that can be reprocessed and reused easily, thereby reducing the carbon footprint. Some of the key stages in this process are summarized in Fig 6.1.

Stakeholders need to know and understand local recycling and recovery systems, the materials accepted and the possibilities of revalue that a package and its label have in the product’s region. Still, it’s all about giving consumers more sustainable options with the same quality and price as previously designed products.

On-pack Carbon Label schemes are maturing so that brands may clearly communicate the holistic footprint of a product on its package, empowering consumers to make more sustainable purchasing decisions at retail. Studies show that buyers have the most reduction power when it comes to harmful environmental emissions released into the atmosphere. Brands, and their suppliers through the value chain, must be able to offer low carbon products.

LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT

The methodology behind life cycle evaluation encompasses the environment and the livelihood of the consumers at large.

All new, more sustainable materials used in packaging and the label world to safely carry a product to market will continue to be effectively and scientifically evaluated for their impact on the planet, their recovery value and their ability to reduce product waste while ensuring consumers are still satisfied and safe.

Life cycle management is about going beyond the traditional focus on production site and manufacturing processes to include the environmental, social and economic impact of a product over its entire life cycle, from cradle to grave.

In an increasingly globalized economy the challenge for policy-makers is to streamline actions for ensuring a more sustainable management of resources, both renewable and non-renewable. However, a holistic approach to resources management is needed to better identify their inter-linkages and gaps in a systemic way.

The US EPA states that there are four basic stages of conducting an LCA: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and improvement analysis. The major stages in a LCA study are raw material acquisition, materials manufacture, production, use/reuse/maintenance and waste management. 

The PAS 2050 addresses GHG assessment issues:

• Business-to-business and business-to-consumer use of partial GHG assessment data in full GHG assessments of goods and services

• Scope of greenhouse gases to be included

• Criteria for global warming potential data

• Treatment of emissions from land use change, and biogenic and fossil carbon sources

• Treatment of the impact of carbon storage in products, and offsetting

• Requirements for the treatment of GHG emissions arising from specific processes

• Data requirements and accounting for emissions from renewable energy generation

• Claims of conformity

A number of other countries are in development of their own national specifications based on the PAS 2050 and ISO specs, including Singapore. UNEP and the SETAC’s Life cycle Initiative have a project group to support these product carbon standardization activities.

The carbon emissions from the in-use phase of a product’s life cycle is significant, so these groups are working to educate consumers on how to reduce their personal impact during this stage.

GHG PROTOCOL

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) is probably the most widely used international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, measure, track and manage greenhouse gas emissions. The GHG Protocol, was developed jointly by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

The GHG Protocol is the basis of framework for nearly all GHG standards globally including the ISO 14067. The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard provides standards and guidance for companies, governments and other groups in developing a GHG emissions inventory.

It covers the accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2)

• Methane (CH4)

• Nitrous oxide (N2O)

• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

• Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)

• Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

The GHG Protocol was designed to meet these objectives:

• To help companies prepare a GHG inventory that has standardized approaches and principles

• To simplify and reduce the costs of compiling a GHG inventory

• To provide business with information that can be used to build an effective strategy to manage and reduce GHG emissions

• To increase consistency and transparency in GHG accounting and reporting among various companies and GHG programs

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard was built on the input from over 350 leading experts in businesses, science, NGOs, governments and accounting groups. Over 30 companies in nine countries have tested it. The goal is to harmonize carbon accounting so that figures can be effectively used in global trading lines without contradiction.

It should not be used to quantify the reductions associated with GHG mitigation projects for use as offsets or credits. The GHG Protocol for Project Accounting provides requirements and guidance for this purpose. Label and packaging companies involved in the development of the protocol include: 3M, Alcoa, Amcor, BASF SE, DuPont, Gold’N’Plump Poultry, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and SC Johnson.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard focuses only on the accounting and reporting of emissions so as to create an inventory, and does not provide for how a verification process should be conducted. The GHG Protocol does offer a number of calculation tools that fall in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for compilation of emissions at a national level and are considered to be modern best practices.

Following the success of the Corporate Standard the GHG Protocol is developing two new standards:

• Product Life cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard

• Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard

The new GHG Protocol standards will provide a standardized method to inventory the emissions associated with individual products across their full life cycles and of the world’s value chains, both upstream and downstream of a company’s operations. With a comprehensive approach to GHG measurement and management, business leaders and policy makers can hone opportunities to reduce emissions within the full chain, hopefully leading to more sustainable decisions about products bought, sold and produced.

Tesco supermarkets use the Carbon Label on a variety of its products. It made the decision to work in collaboration with the Carbon Trust in 2007 to assess the footprint of many of its products. Today it sells more than 100 products across a wide range of household applications that bear the Carbon Reduction Label.

The idea is that consumers in turn will reward the private brand with increased sales and loyalty. In 2011 the large global retailer set ambitious goals to reduce the carbon emissions of the products sold in its stores by 30 percent by 2020, while at the same time it has committed to assisting its suppliers in reducing their own carbon footprints by 50 percent in the same year.

The objective of The Carbon Label is to empower the consumer to be more aware and informed to be a more responsible buyer.

It is clear that with the movements being made within the greater packaging industry that label and package print converters need to be more conscious of the primary package being used to contain a product, so that the label is compatible with the recycling streams already in place, as well as those being developed.

Also, that any waste materials can be successfully recovered and valuably reused in another form. The industry will need to conduct more science-based studies to uncover the properties of label materials used in construction to ensure that there will be no contaminate potential in the recovery streams.

This is the point where design drives innovation and modern solutions to reduce a product’s environmental footprint for the betterment of the world’s people and planet – profitably. Biomimicry, using nature’s systems and processes as a resource for product design, is one way to ensure sustainable progression in the label and packaging industries.

A recent example of Biomimicry was found in the 2008 Beijing Olympic swimming pool, where leading athletes used Speedo’s engineered Fastskin swimsuits that mimic the shark, nature’s fastest aquatic creature.

The Fastskin emulates the hydrodynamic efficiency of the dermal denticles of a shark’s skin, allowing the body to slip through the water more smoothly.

Stakeholders need to know and understand local recycling and recovery systems, the materials accepted and the possibilities of revalue that a package and its label have in the product’s region. Still, it’s all about giving consumers more sustainable options with the same quality and price as previously designed products.

On-pack Carbon Label schemes are maturing so that brands may clearly communicate the holistic footprint of a product on its package, empowering consumers to make more sustainable purchasing decisions at retail. Studies show that buyers have the most reduction power when it comes to harmful environmental emissions released into the atmosphere. Brands, and their suppliers through the value chain, must be able to offer low carbon products.

LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT

The methodology behind life cycle evaluation encompasses the environment and the livelihood of the consumers at large.

All new, more sustainable materials used in packaging and the label world to safely carry a product to market will continue to be effectively and scientifically evaluated for their impact on the planet, their recovery value and their ability to reduce product waste while ensuring consumers are still satisfied and safe.

Life cycle management is about going beyond the traditional focus on production site and manufacturing processes to include the environmental, social and economic impact of a product over its entire life cycle, from cradle to grave.

In an increasingly globalized economy the challenge for policy-makers is to streamline actions for ensuring a more sustainable management of resources, both renewable and non-renewable. However, a holistic approach to resources management is needed to better identify their inter-linkages and gaps in a systemic way.

The US EPA states that there are four basic stages of conducting an LCA: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and improvement analysis. The major stages in a LCA study are raw material acquisition, materials manufacture, production, use/reuse/maintenance and waste management. 

The US EPA defines LCA as a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process or service by:

• Compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases

• Evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases

• Interpreting the results to help decision-makers make a more informed decision

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) works to promote resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production in both developed and developing countries. It strives to educate public and private decision-makers to establish policies and take actions for this purpose.

UNEP Life cycle Initiative - The main mission of UNEP’s Life cycle Initiative is to bring science-based Life cycle approaches into practice worldwide.

The International Life cycle Partnership (Life cycle Initiative) for a sustainable world is a joint program developed by UNEP and the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) to promote the use of life cycle thinking in the global economy.

The initiative responds to the call by governments around the world for a life cycle economy in the Malmo Declaration (2000).

UNEP’s Life cycle Initiative aims to:

• Harmonize existing and emerging life cycle approaches methodology

• Facilitate the use of life cycle approaches worldwide by encouraging life cycle thinking in decision-making in business, government and the general public related to natural resources, materials and products targeted at consumption clusters

• Expand capability worldwide to apply and improve life cycle approaches

In order to establish LCA best practices, UNEP highlights a few tools:

• Information system for easy access to peer reviewed Life cycle Inventory databases

• Recommended available Life cycle Impact Assessment methods, models and factors

• Manuals for simplified tools and practical applications

Europen – LCA The European Commission funded a report that showed that a LCA study for packaging waste is ‘unlikely to produce a universal, regional or even national hierarchy between reusable and non-reusable packaging’. It agrees that a case-by-case approach is necessary, and that ‘regional or local conditions to a large extent determine which of the options (reuse, recycling or recovery) is more preferable from the point of view of a high level of environmental protection’.

Europen states, ‘The benefit of LCA is that it provides a flexible and dynamic alternative that can take account of local conditions rather than a rigid hierarchy of options.’

The overall aim must be to maximize the efficiency of resource use throughout the product life cycle. The report also found that LCA data shows that, in some cases, the reuse and recycling of packaging materials can actually increase environmental burdens compared to disposal. For this reason too, life cycle analysis is an important part of accepting or rejecting specific packaging materials and the collection and reuse of some materials.

Still, Europen feels that the industry should work together to reduce the amount of packaging used for product distribution. The group notes that LCA is not the answer to all environmental issues with regards to packaging, but rather that it should be used as a decision-making tool when selecting materials to construct packaging, to optimize its total life cycle.

DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Design for Sustainability (D4S), or sustainable product design, is a globally recognized method for companies to improve profit margins, product quality, market opportunities, environmental performance and social benefits. Label converters can succeed in the modern business world by improving efficiencies in the products and services they design and deliver.

D4S is much more than manufacturing a ‘green’ label or package. It brings value to products and packaging by looking at its impact across social, economic and environmental aspects. Life cycle analysis and supply chain management should be looked at as tools for evaluating material flows, material recovery, potential revalue and environmental impacts in a product’s life cycle. D4S empowers designers to identify areas for improvements and provides opportunity for innovation.

Pollution prevention in the label and package print industry includes label and package design, transport logistics, material collection and component reuse.

Label and packaging innovation with regard to sustainability lends to the development of products that generate value. To be sustainable, product innovation must meet social expectations and create an equitable distribution of value along the global value chain, and the innovation must work within the capacity of the local infrastructures and ecosystems.

Environmental and social criteria must be integrated across product development, minimizing the product’s impact throughout each phase of its life cycle. It requires multi-disciplinary industry collaboration, such as working committees found in the industry’s leading trade organizations like TLMI and FINAT; and it must cross borders.

Evaluation of label constructions with regards to primary packaging has made a rapid leap in Canada since the beginning of 2011. The Canadian government recently mandated a stewardship tax on its leading grocery retailers – Safeway, Metro and Walmart to name a few – for the use of plastic containers that cannot be recycled within its current infrastructures. Modern PET thermoform containers are not recyclable because of the pressure sensitive label that gums up the recycling process, contaminating the PET flake.

This quickly led to a focus on the adhesive used in such pressure sensitive labels and a call by the grocery members of the RCC (Retail Council of Canada) for a test protocol of the recyclability of label adhesives by APR (Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers) in coordination with NAPCOR (National Association for PET Container Resources).

Both APR and NAPCOR are asking producers of pressure sensitive labels for PET thermoforms to participate in its PET Thermoform Program to jointly review the effects of adhesives and the recyclability of the container. More information can be found here: www.plasticsrecycling.org/pet-thermoforms.

Package design/LCA software programs - There are a number of tools available to the greater packaging market to produce more sustainable packaging. Dedicated reports, design and prototyping software educate and guide designers towards creating low carbon footprint packaging that effectively works within established and developing material recovery infrastructures.

The key advantage to using dedicated LCA for packaging software is that it provides an environmental snapshot within minutes, significantly less time than required for a comprehensive LCA. Leveraging their capabilities is critical to assisting label converters in supporting retailers and brands to meet their goals of zero waste to landfill.

SPC Design Guidance Resource - The SPC has released a design guidance resource for packaging designers and developers. It provides a framework for sustainable packaging design while outlining various design strategies and reference materials.

The complete report:

• Provides education on elements of sustainability as they relate to packaging

• Includes issues beyond simple compliance

• Illustrates how sustainability and environmental considerations are part of the packaging design process

• Provides an overview of sustainability and the SPC's definition of sustainable packaging

This report includes various design strategy sections:

• Design sustainability

• Design for transport

• Design for environmental best practices

• Design for fair labor and trade practices

• Design for renewable virgin materials

• Design for reuse

• Design for recycling

• Design for composting

COMPASS - Compass (Comparative Packaging Assessment) is a web-based tool for brand owners, packaging and label designers and engineers to compare environmental profiles of packaging alternatives based on life cycle assessment metrics and design attributes.

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition developed Compass with support from the US EPA and input from packaging industry and life cycle assessment experts.

Launched in 2009 and updated in 2010, Compass allows for such tricks as modeling of transportation impacts associated with packaging distribution, creating multipacks, and the ability to evaluate single use packages compared to refill alternatives.

Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson are among the 80-plus companies that have adopted Compass since its introduction. Michigan State University and Rochester Institute of Technology use the Compass software within their packaging science curriculum.

It allows for the rapid evaluation of a product’s overall environmental footprint, providing details on such aspects as resource consumption, emissions and attributes such as material health, recycled or virgin content, sourcing and solid waste.

The program contains life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) data on raw material sourcing or extraction, packaging material manufacturers, conversion, distribution and the end-of-life phases. Average transportation and purchased electricity within manufacturing and end-of-life phases is also included.

• Consumption metrics: fossil fuel, water, bio-source, mineral

• Emission metrics: greenhouse gas, clean production – human impact and water toxicity, eutrophication

• Packaging attributes: content (recycled or virgin), sourcing, solid waste

The Compass life cycle metrics were developed through a stakeholder method, using the SPC definition of sustainable packaging and ISO 14044 to guide the process. The software, in collaboration with EskoArtwork, uses production-weighted, industry-average data.

The consumption and emission metrics used in Compass are calculated using industry-average life cycle inventories that have unit process level data. The US Life cycle Inventory (LCI) Database and ecoinvent, a Swiss LCI database, are the main sources of LCI data. In some instances, European data from ecoinvent is used were US data is not applicable.

For non-European data where European data is temporarily used, appropriate electricity grid data from US and Canadian markets are plugged in. The program currently has data sets for Europe, Canada and the United States.

The Compass program only incorporates primary packaging for the time being.

However, GreenBlue says that it is working on creating lists of important secondary packaging materials, such as pressure sensitive labels, to include in forthcoming phases of the design program.

Fig 6.6 overleaf shows a list of materials currently in the Compass database.

The conversion processes available in Compass are:

• Blow molding

• Extrusion, plastic film

• Foaming, expanding

• Injection molding

• Stretch blow molding

• Thermoforming, with calendaring

• Production of paper bags

• Production of carton

• Production of corrugated boxes

• Cutting

• Sheet rolling

• Production of steel can

PIQET - PIQET (Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool) is a web-based life cycle analysis tool for product packaging developed by the Sustainable Packaging Alliance (SPA) based in Sydney, Australia, to give packaging designers and manufacturers the ability to identify, review and reduce the environmental impact of packaging at the critical design stage.

Development of the GHG Protocol Product and Scope 3 Standards was launched in 2008 with initial drafts introduced in 2009. Over the course of 2010, over 60 companies tested the draft, providing feedback on usability and practicality in the business world. The Product Standard is set to be published in September 2011.

Most testers agreed that the standards help in identifying areas with GHG reduction opportunities, engage suppliers and supply chain management, help in understanding the risks involved with emissions in the supply chain, create a competitive advantage and product differentiation and improves credibility and the transparency of GHG reporting.

CARBON LABELING

The Carbon Trust is a not-for-profit UK consultancy that works with national government and consumers to educate them about the impact of product usage and carbon emissions. It developed and introduced the Carbon Reduction Label to help buyers quickly understand which products are working to reduce its carbon footprint.

The system was designed to encourage manufacturers to reduce their products’ footprints. Brands that use the label must calculate the exact footprint of the product in question with regard to the PAS 2050 standard. Consumers will also need to take environmental and social concerns – in addition to price, convenience and quality – into account when making their consumption decisions.

The Carbon Footprint labeling system communicates to the consumer the total amount of emissions released in bringing a particular product to market.

The system takes these stages into account;

• Growth/extraction

• Manufacture

• Packaging

• Distribution

• Use-phase

• Post-use/disposal

Once the footprint of the product has been certified and measured, the brand must set goals to further reduce the product’s carbon emissions.

Every two years the product’s carbon footprint is remeasured and progression in carbon reduction must have been made. If advancement is not made, then the label is removed from the product and its packaging.

Walker’s chips was the first brand to include the Carbon Footprint Label, however it did not include use-phase emissions information. As noted before, the Carbon Trust labeling scheme now includes use-phase emissions.

Gold N Plump - In the US market GNP Company was the first poultry company to introduce The Carbon Reduction Label on its Just BARE product packaging. The company is committed to creating a more sustainable package. However, this poses an on-going challenge since many of the greener materials available are not able to provide the durability needed to ensure food safety through the entire production and distribution chain.

Still, steps forward have been made. For example, the company’s Just BARE brand of poultry uses a #1/PET/PETE plastic tray that is accepted by some, but not all municipal recycling sites, and it recently switched to use a linerless pressure sensitive label, thus eliminating the need for a release liner, and the additional waste from its product’s life cycle footprint.

Tesco supermarkets use the Carbon Label on a variety of its products. It made the decision to work in collaboration with the Carbon Trust in 2007 to assess the footprint of many of its products. Today it sells more than 100 products across a wide range of household applications that bear the Carbon Reduction Label.

The idea is that consumers in turn will reward the private brand with increased sales and loyalty. In 2011 the large global retailer set ambitious goals to reduce the carbon emissions of the products sold in its stores by 30 percent by 2020, while at the same time it has committed to assisting its suppliers in reducing their own carbon footprints by 50 percent in the same year.

The objective of The Carbon Label is to empower the consumer to be more aware and informed to be a more responsible buyer.

It is clear that with the movements being made within the greater packaging industry that label and package print converters need to be more conscious of the primary package being used to contain a product, so that the label is compatible with the recycling streams already in place, as well as those being developed.

Also, that any waste materials can be successfully recovered and valuably reused in another form. The industry will need to conduct more science-based studies to uncover the properties of label materials used in construction to ensure that there will be no contaminate potential in the recovery streams.

This is the point where design drives innovation and modern solutions to reduce a product’s environmental footprint for the betterment of the world’s people and planet – profitably. Biomimicry, using nature’s systems and processes as a resource for product design, is one way to ensure sustainable progression in the label and packaging industries.

A recent example of Biomimicry was found in the 2008 Beijing Olympic swimming pool, where leading athletes used Speedo’s engineered Fastskin swimsuits that mimic the shark, nature’s fastest aquatic creature.

The Fastskin emulates the hydrodynamic efficiency of the dermal denticles of a shark’s skin, allowing the body to slip through the water more smoothly.

Breit Technologies’ cast and cure technology is an example of biomimetic innovation for the label and packaging industry.

The cast and cure process allows converters to apply a reflective coating to substrates without the use of pigments, giving reflection similar to a butterfly’s wings.

Laminating machinery is attached on top of the printing press where a micro-embossed film is laminated to the substrate and embossed while wet.

The film is then removed, leaving holographic foil-like qualities. The film can be reused up to 12 times, which greatly reduces a package or label’s environmental footprint.

There are significant cost savings found – as much as 35 cents less per MSI than foil decoration – by using cast and cure on added-value packaging. Furthermore, the technology allows an affordable upgrade on packaging for products that previously could not afford the added value.

P&G uses cast and cure to decorate a number of its Colgate boxes found in North America.

INTERACTIVE PACKAGING

Interactive packaging such as QR codes and the SnapTag will continue to help brands and retailers innovate the way that they communicate sustainability to consumers. Such systems deliver the opportunity to provide information in a completely transparent and smart way. By directing a buyer to an informative website or educational game or by collecting data through purchasing habits and casual surveys, buyers will connect to items on the shelf like never before.

The possibilities for interactive packaging, communication and education, and the benefits that can be found in linking the supply chain are endless.

Interactive packaging empowers consumers to make educated choices like never before. The market will no doubt see a drive for package recycling and carbon footprint education via smart phone transmission, and this, could very well be the key to increasing recovery rates and reach, and to reducing carbon emissions globally – by combining the digital and sustainable worlds through labels and packaging.

Already there are applications that instantly inform consumers of the various life cycle impacts that a product has. For example, The Good Guide smart phone application provides information on sustainability, health and safety considerations of products as well as the companies that manufacture them.

The application has bar code scanning capability, which can make the process extremely fast and simple. Overall scores are provided for health, environment and societal factors.

Good Guides currently includes rankings for more than 120,000 different products in a number of personal care, household, electronics, toy and food sectors, and is adding more each month. These modern shopping capabilities will dramatically change the way in which consumers review products in-store and make their purchase.

In 2011 Nestlé introduced its mobile app 123Recycle, for Singapore only at the moment, that through barcode scanning and email follow-up, tells the consumer how to sort and dispose of the various pieces of a product’s packaging. It was developed by the local Nestlé Singapore team and the Nanyang Polytechnic School of Information. The global consumer brand company hopes to develop the application for other countries and regions moving forward.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS

UPM Rafalatac

UPM Raflatac has introduced a dedicated Life Cycle Analysis tool called Label Life, providing an objective environmental footprint estimate for its materials processing. For the time being Label Life serves the company’s sales team only, but it is anticipated that the web-based software program will be translated for customer use as well, with transparency for end users as the final objective.

Already, over 300 products can be evaluated based on facestock, adhesive and liner combinations. The analysis includes raw material sourcing, labelstock manufacturing, delivery to converters and the end of life destination of the material. While the label printing process has been kept out of the evaluation, customers are able to request custom comparisons that can be used around a modeled label printing process inclusive of gravure, flexography, offset and screen.

Label Life allows the end of life to be evaluated for the entire label construction inclusive of the liner: recycling, incineration and landfill.

Environmental impacts on energy consumption, water usage and carbon emissions are delivered in an easy to review format.

Sustainable Packaging Coalition

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has released COMPASS (Comparative Packaging Assessment), an online streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) tool tailored for packaging design evaluations. COMPASS puts the LCA in the hands of design professionals so that key environmental performance criteria can be easily incorporated into the concept development and material selection steps.

COMPASS provides consistently modeled data sets for USA, Canada and Europe tailored for materials and processes used for packaging to allow reliable apples to apples comparisons of multiple scenarios. In addition, regionalized solid waste modeling provides a waste profile of each scenario to help understand the end of life (EoL) implications of packaging designs. 

DEVELOPING AN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FOR SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE

Whilst the selection of label materials, energy usage and efficiency, solid waste management, transport and distribution, are perhaps all areas that a label converter can readily understand and begin to take action towards becoming more sustainable, the concepts of life cycle assessments and designing for a more sustainable product performance are undoubtedly not so well understood.

Hopefully this article goes some way to making these somewhat complex topics more understandable. Done well, they become part of the process of regularly evaluating the sustainable performance of materials and processes, as well as working with employees, suppliers and customers to reduce the environmental impact of the labels being produced.

To assist label converters in building an environmental policy statement for sustainable performance this series has drawn up a guideline policy statement that can be used or adapted to their own company operations and environment. This is set out below.

Environmental policy on designing for sustainable performance

General

• We are fully committed to reducing the environmental impact of the labels we produc

• We aim to work with our customers in designing labels for products that can be reprocessed and re used easily so as to reduce their carbon footprint

• Specific measures introduced

• We educate our employees and customers on the life cycle possibilities of the various label materials used when manufacturing labels, and how their construction impacts on the environment

• We continually review local and industry recycling and recovery systems, the materials accepted and the possibilities of re value in the product’s region

• We look to evaluate new, more sustainable materials for their impact on the environment, their recovery value and their ability to reduce product waste

• Wherever feasible, we ask our materials suppliers for a LCA impact assessment on the materials being supplied

• We use LCA materials information as a decision-making tool when selecting materials

• We look to improve efficiencies in the products and services that we design and deliver

• We are working to better understand, measure, track, manage and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions

• We are pleased to work with product manufacturers to produce Carbon Footprint labels that are compatible with recycling streams in place, and those being developed

• We strive to reduce the carbon footprint of our products and our overall business to bring value throughout the supply chain