How Green Is My Package?

Implementation of ecodesign thinking is required under the EuP (ErP) Ecodesign Directive. Ecodesign is a crucial factor in the minimization of a product’s environmental impact. As a preventive approach, ecodesign determines the processes, materials, and energy required to produce a product and its functionalities and to reach its destination at the end of its life cycle, as determined during the design stage. Its function is to help secure future energy sources and reduce consumption. Its initial aims are to take the worst performing energy-using products off the market and to provide the standard structure of a technical documentation file for all kinds of products. Implementing measures give two kinds of requirements, specific to each product group: generic requirements that aim at improving environmental performance without setting limit values and specific requirements that aim to improve a selected environmental aspect of the product within set limits.

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Steps to Eco-Packaging

At present, ecodesign is aimed at energy and is not specific to food products and packaging. However, a movement in France that seeks to transfer the life cycle of different product categories to a single eco-label is gaining momentum. This movement would give consumers environmental indicators for each product group in order to inform their purchasing choices. The success of this movement would mean regulations that would more than likely spread across Europe. It could even become a legal requirement to understand the life cycle of a product, including its packaging.

Other factors driving greater numbers of organizations to look at the life cycle of their packaging in order to enhance sustainability include:

• A drive to enhance the transparency of the packaging process through stating the whole life cycle, thus enhancing communication with suppliers and consumers.
• A drive to improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of the packaging process, by understanding what the main costs are in both environmental and economic terms and looking for targeted solutions to reduce raw material costs.
• A drive to enhance engagement with the buyer or improve the manufacturer-consumer relationship through green claims to enhance a product’s or organization’s brand and sustainability image.
• A drive to improve product value through green claims, making it a consumer first choice, or to maximize the profit margin with lower packaging costs.

More and more organizations seek to reduce packaging costs by performing packaging LCAs. More and more companies are also benefiting from the added value of such strategies to their bottom line. Furthermore, a greater number of consumers are concerned with the overuse of packaging and are choosing products that have lower environmental impact. One way organizations are choosing to demonstrate a commitment to sustainability to consumers is through green claims and eco-labels. Can you afford to be left behind?

Ian Allard is a sustainability consultant at SGS Consumer Testing Services in the U.K.