Sustainable packaging needs increase

A Tompkins’ Supply Chain Consortium survey of top retail- and manufacturing-related companies reveals that more than 65% of companies have some type of sustainable packaging policy in place, while 28% are currently developing a policy.

“When projecting the evolution of sustainable packaging, the future appears to be bright,” said Bruce Tompkins, executive director of the Consortium and author of the Packaging Sustainability Report (registration required). “Sustainable packaging is a very important issue for all types of companies across all aspects of their supply chains, and it continues to be thought of as a long-term, higher-level strategic process that provides overall direction to the organization.”

For 79% of companies, packaging sustainability impacts their strategic direction in the area of energy and material costs, and 76% see an impact in environmental and economic concerns. At the same time, executives see less of an impact in the areas of increasing competitiveness and access to new markets, indicating that sustainable packaging may be more about “hard” savings rather than “soft” benefits.

To improve their use of packaging sustainability initiatives, respondents say that they need: A better collection and recovery process; higher end-user awareness; abetter designed supply chain; and a life-cycle analysis process that identifies the cost effectiveness of sustainability initiatives.