How Green Is My Package?

Life Cycle Assessment

A life cycle assessment of an organization’s product, service, or packaging aims to take a holistic approach to analysis and help reduce harm to the environment. An LCA, or “cradle-to-grave” approach, estimates the impact of a set number of representative environmental criteria—eutrophication, global warming, acidification, waste, and so on—throughout the lifetime of a product, including its design, use, and disposal. This enables better understanding of the most significant effects throughout the supply chain.

Life cycle thinking has become the backbone of many environmental regulations, and the ISO 14040 series provides guidance and regulatory standards on the accurate performance of assessments of a product in order to attain international recognition for the standards to which it adheres. Once the life cycle of a product, service, or piece of packaging is known, an effective and targeted solution can focus on such things as design improvement and raw material usage. Until the most significant impacts are understood, a green or sustainable packaging strategy could be ineffectual. The analysis helps to compare environmental benefits with costs and addresses the technical performance that can enhance the marketability and value of a product through a “green claim.”

Green Claims

A green claim is a very generic term that is used to group together a variety of different tools organizations can use to promote the environmental credentials or properties of a product, piece of packaging, or service. The most common form is an eco-label, but a green claim could also be a statement or a marketing campaign, in which an organization may state that its product does X, which is better than Y. These claims can be based on the same environmental impact criteria outlined above for an LCA, or on another set of criteria recognized by the market. An organization may use several types of eco-labels and declarations based on the ISO 14020 series. The standards and principles must not only be adhered to but must also:

• Be accurate, verifiable, relevant, and not misleading;
• Not be an obstacle to international trade;
• Be based on scientific methodology with accurate and reproducible results;
• Provide information concerning the procedure, methodology, and any criteria used to support the environment;
• Take into consideration all relevant aspects of the life cycle of the product;
• Not inhibit innovation;
• Be applicable;
• Include an open, participatory consultation with interested parties; and
• Provide information on environmental aspects of the product to purchasers.

One type of eco-label is a self-declaration, which is based on the international standard Type II ISO14021. It is a voluntary, multiple criteria-based, third-party program based on life cycle considerations, which awards a license that authorizes the use of environmental labels on products. The label indicates the eco-friendliness of a product within a particular product category. Examples include:

• EU – Eco-Label;
• Nordic Swann; and
• Blue Angel.

Another type of eco-label is the Environment Product Declaration based on Type III – ISO 14025. This is a measure of the quantified environmental data for a product against pre-set categories of parameters based on the ISO 14040 series standard. Type III declares lifetime environmental impact information in the form of quantities, based on LCA. A green claim is a good way to set a product or service apart from the competition and gives consumers more complete information about what they are buying. If an organization decides to make its own green claim using internationally defined criteria, it may need an external third party to verify this claim. Otherwise, if the claim proves to be inaccurate, it may damage a company’s reputation and increase the risk of noncompliance-related fines.

Put It All Together

Green packaging, LCA, and green claims are very closely related responses to greater demand for environmental awareness on the part of companies and industry. To understand how to make packaging more sustainable or green, an organization must understand the life cycle of the packaging in order to use a targeted, efficient, and appropriate solution to maximize the environmental and economical benefits of its processes. Once an organization has improved or changed its approach to and strategy for packaging, it may wish to demonstrate this to the consumer through a green claim. An organization may choose to set its own criteria and/or have a third party verify its claim, or it may wish to use one of the existing eco-labels on the market.