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Executive Conference Shows Sustainability is Here to Stay
November 1, 2008 By: Kristin Smith Official Board MarketsCorrugated packaging executives met on Oct. 22 and 23 in Chicago to learn about a subject that most agree isn’t going anywhere: sustainability. The information-packed, two-day “Sustainable Business Executive Briefing and Conference” held by the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC) in collaboration with the Corrugated Packaging Alliance (CPA) gave the more than 100 attendees the opportunity to hear from dozens of experts on various topics and ask them questions.
Certification was a major focus of the conference. John Heckman, director of Five Winds International, shared information with the attendees about ISO 14001 certification and the process of implementing Environmental Management Systems (EMS). His company helps companies in their certification process. He says the process isn’t as difficult as it sounds.
“If your organization takes the environment seriously, odds are you can actually be certified right now,” he says.
Kathy Abusow, president and ceo of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) discussed Chain of Custody certifications. She explained that Chain of Custody Certification doesn’t mean that a plant’s entire supply is certified. It means that it is all being tracked as either certified or uncertified. She says there are four different organizations that certify forests: SFI, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), CSA (Canadian Standards Association), and PEFC (Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and despite that, only 10 percent of the world’s forests are certified. She also says there has been one certification a day in the last year.
Abusow and Heckman were part of a panel discussion on implementing certifications along with Kenneth Isaacson, sales representative, ARVCO Container; Elias Ortiz, manager, sales and marketing coordinator/account manager, Orange County Container (OCC); Chris Davidson, manager of environmental certification and EHS, International Paper; and Mac McCullough, vice president of quality, Pacific Southwest Container.
Isaacson says being certified gives ARVCO a competitive advantage. Ortiz agrees. He recounts one of OCC’s customers saying, “If you don’t have SFI certification, we won’t talk to you.”
The panelists also discussed the compliance audits. McCullough says, “Surprisingly it wasn’t a big deal.” ISO 14001 audits can either be done annually or every six months. The six-month audits are shorter and some of the panelists preferred those audits over the annual audits.
Of course a major component making certifications relevant is retailer Walmart. Brian O’Banion, vice president of the Fibre Box Association (FBA), gave an update on the Walmart Scorecard, which has certification elements to it in its revised extra credit, including:
•All wood and paper-based material sources for the packaging materials of this item are certified by FSC, SFI, PEFC, or CSA.
•All production facilities for the packaging materials used for this item (i.e. from raw materials through conversion into a package) are ISO 14001 certified.
Other items on the revised extra credit include:
•All packaging materials contain post consumer recycled content greater than industry average as listed on the “Material Metric Definition.” Each individual packaging material must exceed industry average.
•All packaging materials use less energy for production of the packaging material without decreasing the percentage of renewable energy. This requires an LCA for each material showing lower greenhouse gas emissions and at least equal renewable energy compared to the “Material Metric Definition.”
•All packaging materials use a higher percentage of renewable energy without increasing the total energy used. This requires a life cycle analysis (LCA) for each material showing higher percent renewable energy and equal or lower green house gas emissions compared to the “Material Metric Definitions.”
•An open field for “Truly Innovative Ideas.” A field is provided for a description, which is then reviewed by a steering committee.
Development is already underway for Phase II of the Walmart Scorecard. It will be implemented in 2010.OBM
