2009 Sustainable Packaging Forum Offers Urgent Message:
Act Strategically To Face A Changing World

Brad Casper urged attendees to measure and validate sustainability efforts.

The 2009 Sustainable Packaging Forum, held Sept. 22-24 in Atlanta, moved the discussion of sustainability from one of definition and understanding to a new focus on how to successfully implement within a packaging organization.

As many conference speakers attested to a full house of more than 300 people, the triple-bottom-line-oriented work is arduous, can mean starting from scratch, and requires a comprehensive look at corporate systems and cultures. With more pressure being placed on the packaging industry to meet both economic and environmental goals, sustainability initiatives are achieving urgent status.

Takeaways From This Influential Annual Event:

• Sustainability must be “baked into the fiber of your company,” measured and reported transparently, integrated into core processes, and become a strategic initiative, said Brad Casper, President/CEO, The Dial Corporation
• Sustainability always drives innovation but the reverse is not true – all sustainable innovations are not positive, said Phil Berry, Senior Consultant, Domani
• The “conscious consumer”  who wants authenticity in brands is an emerging group that is starting to understand packaging, said Hilary Bromberg, Strategy Director/Partner, egg Sustainable Lifestyle Marketing
• Brand owners must do more to establish internal alignment and collaboration technologies with suppliers to meet their sustainability goals, said Edna Conway, Senior Director, Advanced Compliance & Social Responsibility, Cisco Systems
• Brand owners are being asked by retailers and stakeholders to disclose carbon emissions and will ask suppliers to better quantify emissions on their end, said several members of a Brand Owner Sustainability Strategists Panel
• Many of the recycling claims today are overstated, inappropriate, and misused and do not meet U.S. state and federal requirements, said Victor Bell, President, Environmental Packaging International

• Watch SPF09 Video Presentations on PSTV Featured on PSTV: Brad Casper, Edna Conway, Victor Bell, and the Brand Owner Sustainability Strategists Panel (shown)

  The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) is working on a project to better label containers to communicate how a package can be recycled after use, said Anne Bedarf, Project Manager and Martha Stevenson, Senior Project Manager of SPC
• Carbon taxes and emission trading schemes can be unfair and complicated, and companies need to stop focusing on who is “guilty” in generating the most emissions but look at making incremental improvements, said Gerald Rebitzer, Director of Product Sustainability and Nina Goodrich, Director of Sustainnovations, Alcan Packaging
• Extended producer responsibility is one means to ensure that global sustainability standards can be harmonized across countries and continents, said Julian Carroll, Managing Director, EUROPEN

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