Responsible Packaging:
Organic Industry Collaboration Leads the Way
By Melissa A. Schweisguth
Today more than ever, packaging sustainability is becoming an important focus for many manufacturers, retailers and consumers. For organic companies especially, it’s about making sure the sustainability values at the foundation of organic agriculture are reflected throughout the entire product, inside and out. This is important to conscious consumers as well. As they seek to eliminate waste, they look to us to lead the way.
In the last year alone many steps have been taken to move businesses toward more authentically sustainable packaging. This past fall, Whole Foods Market announced packaging guidelines for its Whole Body department, requiring vendors to use materials that are easily recyclable and have the highest renewable or recycled content. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission released its updated Green Guides (ftc.gov/green), which now more strictly define the use of environmental marketing claims including those related to packaging such as “recycled,” “recyclable,” “biodegradable,” “compostable” and “made with renewable energy.” Rather than using generic claims like “eco-friendly,” specific claims must now be backed by certifications or verifiable independent data. The FTC has also pledged to step up enforcement, and has already begun to do so.
Although many companies are truly trying to find more sustainable solutions, choosing the “greenest” box, bag or bottle can be difficult given the complexities. First your company must assess design, materials, processes and lifecycle impacts (e.g., energy, emissions, waste) to determine where to focus. Then you must evaluate an array of materials and claims about their impacts, balance stakeholder and regulatory demands, and sort through multiple guidelines and recommendations.
Organic brands face additional challenges since existing frameworks don’t consider our industry’s unique requirements and values. The Sustainable Packaging Coalition, for example, has developed comprehensive guidelines and metrics, and an evaluation tool, to measure packaging sustainability impacts. These provide excellent general guidance but don’t call for the elimination of GMOs and synthetic chemicals. Although USDA Organic standards don’t extend to packaging, many organic companies are working to harmonize their principles from source to package.
The Responsible Packaging Project
To support the efforts of these companies, in 2006 Whole Foods Market’s Green Mission and Tom Wright of Sustainable Business Practices launched the Responsible Packaging Project. The goals of the Project are to:
• Provide educational venues presenting the best ecological science
• Critically examine materials and systems
• Align on organic industry definitions for responsible packaging
• Encourage sector-wide innovation
• Drive end-user education and engagement
• Support the development of recycling and composting infrastructures
In 2010, Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association (FTSLA) assumed leadership of the Responsible Packaging Project, which has now expanded into a nonprofit, trade-wide partnership to facilitate the development of Responsible Packaging Guidelines for the Organic Industry. In addition to FTSLA, partners include the Independent Natural Foods Retailers Association, the National Cooperative Grocers Association, the Organic Trade Association, United Natural Foods and Whole Foods Market’s Green Mission.
“The Responsible Packaging Project is an organic and natural products industry collaboration working to advance ecologically and socially responsible packaging. It seeks to raise the bar across industry through open inquiry and cross-supply chain collaboration and engage the trade in moving toward a zero-waste future,” says Natalie Reitman-White, executive director of FTSLA.
The Project also works to encourage continuous improvement through ongoing education and recognition. So far, it has produced ten Responsible Packaging Forums, addressing topics ranging from ecological principles (e.g., Natural Step, Zero Waste, Cradle to Cradle) and bio-based substrates to eco-labeling and marketing. These sessions, with numerous other workshops and webinars have informed and inspired hundreds of professionals representing diverse functions across food businesses, suppliers, academics, NGO’s and others.
Recently, the Project released the draft form of its “Responsible Packaging Guidelines.” These are founded on three pillars: commitment to transparency, extended producer responsibility and ecological systems design principles, with a strong focus on achieving zero waste. Interested stakeholders are encouraged to review the draft guidelines and share input on revisions. “We hope these guidelines will provide a common ‘open source’ framework that will guide action and catalyze innovation,” says Michael Besancon, senior global vice president of purchasing, distribution and marketing at Whole Foods.
Recognizing Responsible Packaging Revolutionaries
To inspire innovation, in 2010 the Project launched the Responsible Packaging Awards, which will be given on a bi-annual basis. The Project partners judge submissions considering factors such as:
• Environmentally preferable materials & energy conservation
• Materials reduction
• Reusable, Recyclable and/or Compostable
• Extended producer responsibility
• Cradle to cradle, zero waste & lifecycle and systems thinking
• Verifiable good labor and trade practices
• Protect and respect common resources
• Reduce greenhouse emissions & transportation impacts
• Organic principles (including prohibition of GMOs)
• Precautionary principle
• Honest, verified “green” claims, avoiding “greenwash”
2010 Award Recipients
Last year nearly 30 companies across a wide spectrum were recognized for moving sustainable packaging forward.
Saving Trees/Diverting Paper Waste From Landfills
Many companies made huge strides in reducing the use of tree-based packaging materials including 3 Sisters and Nature’s Path Foods, which both created bagged bulk-sized “eco-packs” that offer several boxes-worth of cereal in one large bag and forgo the exterior cardboard box. Nature’s Path reports estimated annual savings of 60 to 66 percent in materials, and 437 tons of paperboard compared to standard retail cereal units. Natures Path also received an award for “right-sizing” granola bar and cereal boxes to remove excess materials (“dead space”), and using FSC-Certified, 100 percent recycled paperboard for these and all paperboard packaging items. The redesigned cereal box uses 10 percent less paperboard, saving 144 tons of materials and waste each year. The slimmed down granola box requires 36 percent less paperboard, saving 472,000 gallons of water and 46 tons of waste yearly while reducing packaging materials weight by 27 percent. It’s also enabled the company to increase pallet packing from 120 cases to 196 cases per pallet, effectively taking six trucks off the road and reducing greenhouse gases by 114,499 lbs (39 percent) annually.
Other companies have found ways to use cardboard packaging to actually sequester carbon and help consumers connect with the environment. Host Defense’s cardboard Life Box (www.lifeboxcompany.com) is infused with tree seeds and mycorrhizal fungi and the compostable cardboard acts as a mulch. The company’s website offers step-by-step instructions on how to plant your own mini forest and even allows you to track it through online and smart phone applications. Don’t have room to plant a mini forest? Through Host Defense’s website you can connect with Treelink.org where you can search by zip code to locate a local organization who will plant your trees. Pangea, an organic personal care company, also is a pioneer of this type of plantable packaging, and uses post-consumer recycled paperboard embedded with seeds for its products.
Additionally, FCO Systems was recognized for its reusable produce shipping container system that utilizes durable plastic totes to replace single-use cardboard boxes, which are often waxed and not easily recycled or locally compostable. The company states that these slash solid waste by 95 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 29 percent versus corrugated boxes. Another company cutting cardboard use is Stone Hearth Pizza, which created a reusable, recyclable BPA-free to-go pizza box that eliminates 125 pounds of cardboard over its lifetime when compared to single-use corrugated takeout boxes. ECOvention also created a 100 percent post-consumer recycled content pizza box that converts to a smaller size to store leftovers efficiently.
Other awardees included New Leaf Paper for pioneering a business model based on offering only recycled (high post-consumer content) and FCS-Certified fiber-based packaging materials, Gaia Herbs for converting to a 100 percent PCR cardboard package and sorghum-based packing peanuts, and Numi Tea for its 100 percent recycled paperboard (85 percent post-consumer content) tea boxes with an eco-audit table quantifying environmental benefits, conserving forests and resources, and educating end-users about the impacts of their choices. According to the company, this greener packaging redesign saves around $30,000, 5,200 trees and reduces landfill load by 334,560 pounds yearly.
Recycling/Reducing Plastics
Eliminating the use of virgin plastics is an important step in reducing petroleum use, plus the use of post-consumer plastics supports various recycling efforts by creating a market for recycled goods. Many companies were recognized for use of recycled plastics including Dr Bronner’s, Earthbound Farms, Eldorado Springs Water, Method, NAYA and Naked Juice which have switched to 100 percent recycledPET (rPET)containers, as well as Whole Foods Market 365 brand and Rainbow Light which both use 100 percent recycled HDPE (rHDPE) bottles for their supplement lines.
Also lightening the load in landfills, Stonyfield Farm was honored for reducing the weight and materials used in its 6-oz yogurt cups and multipacks, and for the implementation of post-consumer recycling initiatives. The company switched from #2 HDPE to lighter weight #5 PP plastic for the cups, reducing weight by 17 percent per year, and replaced the cup’s rigid plastic lids (with a plastic film underwrap) with a single foil peel-off lid, reporting 16 percent less energy use, 12 percent lower water use and 6 percent less waste annually. They also invested in equipment to mould and fill multipacks on-site rather than using pre-made packaging that was shipped in, saving 730 tones of materials and $1.8 million in associated costs each year. To facilitate recycling of #5 PP, which is less commonly accepted by local recycling programs, Stonyfield has partnered with Preserve and TerraCycle, and implemented its own mail-back program.
Organic Essence compostable cardboard lip balm tube was another award-winning eco-innovation. Using compostable cardboard as well as non-toxic adhesives and soy ink, these tubes can be tossed in any household compost bin. The company is also offering its design to other lip balm companies which could prevent millions of plastic tubes from ending up in landfills.
Other companies are avoiding plastic altogether and choosing other materials that are durable enough to be washed and reused to package their product time and time again. Both Straus Family Creamery and Crescent Ridge were honored for creating returnable glass beverage bottles, which are reclaimed for reuse regionally. EcoNature Care’s refillable aluminum body care containers also reduce plastic use and promote packaging reuse, while Preserve Products, which makes recycled-content toothbrushes, offers mail-back envelopes for recycling, demonstrating extended producer responsibility and
facilitating reclamation.
Another one of the most environmentally unfriendly packaging options, Styrofoam, has been given a green makeover. KTM Industries was recognized for its Green Cell shipping foam and coolers, which are made from Non-GMO corn. Green Cell products are not only recyclable and compostable, but also can be burned without emitting the chemical toxins released from Styrofoam. Other award-winning products include Burt’s Bees 80 percent rHDPE lip balm tube, Seventh Generation’s 90 percent rHDPE Bottle and Sagomonian Farm’s 70 percent rPET clamshell manufactured with 50 percent onsite solar.
Chemical Aversion
Another important factor for organic ompanies is to avoid the use of chemicals in packaging, especially those that could leach into food. According to the Environmental Working Group, studies have shown that trace levels of the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA), commonly used to line cans for pasteurized foods, can disrupt the endocrine system and trigger a wide variety of disorders from reproductive abnormalities to impaired brain and neurological functions, cancer and more.
To avoid this risk, organic pioneer Eden Foods launched the first BPA-free cans for low-acid foods. The company’s website explains, “All Eden organic beans, refried beans, chilies and rice & beans are cooked in steel cans coated with a baked-on oleoresinous c-enamel that does not contain BPA. Oleoresin is a non-toxic mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from plants such as pine or balsam fir.” Eden says that these cans cost 14 percent more than standard cans, however they’ve clearly made the choice to invest in consumer and environmental health—and its values.
Learning From the Leaders
Organic companies that are working to improve their packaging footprint offer valuable models for others, in terms of associated processes, challenges and rewards. Albert Straus of Straus Family Creamery notes that the company’s decision to use reusable, returnable bottles has enhanced revenue and maximized quality while reducing landfill waste significantly. “We’ve seen steady growth among very dedicated consumers and have a higher quality organic milk because of the inert property of the glass.” He offers this guidance: “Look at the full lifecycle of the packaging. Consider if the long term effects will [also] be more sustainable.” Straus admits there were bumps in the road, but the company’s drive for better practices kept them moving.
“There were challenges getting proper equipment, setting up the distribution system and gaining acceptance from retailers and consumers. I restored ancient bottle washing equipment from the 1960s so we would be extremely water efficient. We worked with everyone to set up the process, [from] distributors to retailers, and educated consumers how to wash and return bottles.” In the end, Straus has seen an 80 percent return rate and the program is profitable—success all around.
Tish Winters of Numi Tea notes that its use of 100 percent recycled paperboard has garnered marketplace support. “Customers and consumers know Numi’s business model is designed to minimize waste. They appreciate that we are always examining ways to use even fewer resources and striving for improvement,” she remarks.
Like Straus, Numi’s efforts are mission-based and leadership-oriented. Winters states, “We wanted to be pioneers in the industry. After searching worldwide, we found the highest content post consumer waste (PCW) available. We partnered with the manufacturer and have worked with them for 5 years.” Finding a manufacturer and building sufficient supply took time and resources. Winters advises others to stay focused. “Strive for constant improvement. Take on leadership and create an environment where what you’ve already accomplished is ‘never enough,’” she says. “You’ll experience some complacency with suppliers after a small sustainable victory. You must keep the momentum to continue to drive change.”
Straus’ and Winters’ words are a powerful call to action to unpack a real opportunity for business, people and planet. To get started, visit the Responsible Packaging Project at responsible-packaging.org and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition at sustainablepackaging.org.
Melissa Schweisguth is the director of membership and education at the Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association, a freelance writer and consultant focused on socially responsible business and communications. You can reach her at melissa@ftsla.org.
