It's a wrap

With increasing pressure to meet sustainability goals, we ask Julian Carroll, Managing Director of EUROPEN, to explain the risks, challenges and achievements of the packaging industry.

“I'm not so sure that consumers are really that interested in the environmental impacts of packaging. The number of people who take this seriously is still a small percentage of the total population”
-Julian Carroll, Managing Director of EUROPEN

The European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN) likes to think of itself as "The Voice of Industry for Packaging and the Environment". As an industry and trade organisation, EUROPEN is open to any company with an economic interest in packaging and packaged products. 

The membership of EUROPEN is made up of companies from all areas of the packaging chain including the producers of packaging materials, packaging designers, packaging manufacturers, companies involved in distribution and retail and national organisations. Companies who join EUROPEN do so in order to support a united trade and industry organisation that is dedicated to resolving the environmental challenges facing the packaging chain.

This is an area that is becoming increasingly important as sustainability moves up the agenda for governments, policy makers and consumers alike. Having a dedicated organisation that can provide support, information and guidance is a key benefit for the members, who are undoubtedly faced with meeting ever more stringent sustainability goals. Packaging in particular has been highlighted as an important area where improvements can be made.

Julian Carroll is Managing Director EUROPEN, a position he has held since 1993. Before assuming responsibilities at EUROPEN, Carroll was director of corporate affairs/ Europe for Lawson Mardon Group, a Canadian company now part of Alcan Packaging. He was responsible for group corporate environment policy and it was during this period that the idea for EUROPEN was conceived.

"The idea started back in the late 1980s when it was obvious that legislation affecting INCPEN (The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment) would come from Brussels" says Carroll. Accompanied by several other industry executives Carroll headed off to Brussels and Strasbourg to get a better idea of what was happening there. "I came back firmly convinced that what we needed was something like INCPEN in Brussels. Somebody said 'Yes, you're right. We need a kind of EUROPEN'.  And the rest is history," he explains. So in 1990 EUROPEN was founded and in 1993 Carroll took the reins.

EUROPEN is now a major catalyst of stakeholder dialogue and helps to promote greater understanding and acceptance of the function and vital contribution of packaging to resource efficiency and sustainable development. But as Carroll explains, EUROPEN is actually quite a unique organisation in Brussels in the fact that out of hundreds of trade associations, EUROPEN is the only one that deals uniquely with packaging and its environmental implications. The second unique feature is that EUROPEN brings all of the different actors in the supply chain together around one table.

However, when it comes to sustainability, EUROPEN have a very clear vision regarding sustainable packaging. To start with they avoid talking about 'sustainable' packaging as this is only one area that can help companies meet corporate sustainability goals and they believe packaging cannot be an end in itself. "You can't make any judgements on the packaging alone," says Carroll. "Any evaluation of packaging and its environmental performance has to be done in conjunction with an evaluation of what job the packaging must perform," he explains.

He goes on to explain that any company involved in selling products needs the packaging to deliver goods to the end user with the least environmental impact, at an economically advantageous price and in doing so, add some kind of social value. Packaging can therefore help contribute to achieving social sustainability goals by being part of an integrated life cycle based product system. It can also contribute by saving more resources than are used for the packaging.

Two further ways that Carroll suggests packaging can do this is by meeting consumer expectations of product protection, safety and information as well as saving costs in distribution and merchandising. He firmly believes that if every corporation works to achieve these goals, then collectively progress is being made towards achieving the European Union sustainability goals.

Meeting consumer expectations is a contentious matter however. Numerous studies have been conducted which emphasise the new consumer trend towards increased sensibility regarding the sustainable credentials of packaging. But Carroll seems sceptical. "I'm not so sure that consumers are really that interested in the environmental impacts of packaging. The number of people who take this seriously is still a small percentage of the total population," he declares.

"I think people would always say they are concerned when stopped on the street or if subject to a survey, but at point of sale I'm not so sure these lofty ideals translate into action. I think that the sustainability of food packaging is just one part of the total corporate USP, the selling proposition and the corporate image," asserts Carroll.

When asked if he believes whether the sustainability of food packaging really affects the choices that consumers make, his answer is very clear. "Not directly, but subliminally and collectively in conjunction with all the other issues, yes."

He is certain however, that companies cannot ignore these corporate social responsibilities and they do so at their peril. "Companies have to be seen to be doing something and they must back this up with facts."

But the key factor has to be communication, both at a regulatory and a corporate level. "My view is that if we aren't successful in communicating the right message to consumers we are going to find ourselves in a situation where there is utter consumer confusion followed very quickly by consumer disconnection from the issue and a lack of trust in both the regulator, who is trying to do something in this area and the corporation," he explains.

In his opinion we have reached a point where we seriously risk shooting ourselves in the foot because there is so much happening in this area right now. He cites a number of cases across Europe that may be leading to further confusion. For example at the regulatory level the French government has already passed a law called Grenelle one and now another entitled Grenelle two, which is aimed at giving more information to consumers about products and packaging. In Germany and Sweden industry is also working with government along the same lines. Even the European Commission has its sustainable consumption and production action plan.

The latest example at a corporate level comes from Walmart who recently announced plans to develop a worldwide sustainable product index requiring their 100,000 suppliers to provide detailed information regarding their green credentials.

Carroll stresses the importance of getting this right in order to prevent complete confusion and disinterest on the part of consumers. However he is quick to note that on a corporate level progress is already being made towards a European or even global framework and there has been a meeting of minds on what the key principles and objectives are. The challenge that now remains is how to communicate this to less informed consumers.

There is however an element of competition that Carroll believes enters into the equation at the stage when companies and suppliers have agreed the key principals. He has witnessed a certain one-upmanship amongst companies who struggle to outdo each other in terms of the green credentials they can offer. He has noticed that this is particularly prevalent in the retail industry where green consumerism is seen as a competitive tool.

But at the same time he believes there is now a greater understanding between businesses that using green credentials in this way is actually a dead-end street and companies are now starting to move beyond this.

Work towards a global framework in is the offing, but one of the major obstacles to this is the current lack of a clear-cut definition of what actually constitutes sustainable. EUROPEN are on the case though and recently published a guidance document aimed at corporate decision makers which is designed to achieve a common understanding of sustainability principles among packaging supply chain stakeholders.

The guidance document entitled Packaging in the Sustainability Agenda: A Guide for Corporate Decision Makers, was co-chaired by Tesco and Nestlé and stressed the importance of all supply chain partners, from the design stage right through to waste management, all working together.

"The reason we did this project was because we saw different actors in the supply chain, particularly retailers, going off with different announcements and pronouncements in policy," says Carroll. "The danger of this is that we were ending up with different demands for packaging, for the same product, from end users. The eco-efficiencies and economic efficiencies in the supply chain that we fought so hard for were at risk."

In producing this guide, EUROPEN have furthered progress towards a global approach. But other developments have also helped champion the cause. The Global CEO Forum was a platform which brought together the CEOs from the biggest branded goods companies in the world, principally in fast moving consumer goods, and the biggest retailers in the world, such as Tesco, Walmart and Carrefour for example. Carroll explains that the Global CEO Forum, having seen the work that EUROPEN was involved with, decided that something similar was needed on a global level.

In response to this, the Global CEO Forum has merged with CIES, the pre-eminent food and consumer goods industry body, and the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), a global retailer and manufacturer collaborative platform. The new entity, which has a mandate to work on the principals of sustainable packaging, common definitions and a common understanding, is named the Consumer Goods Forum. The main participants include EUROPEN, The Brand of Goods Association (AIM), The Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA), the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and The Sustainable Packaging Coalition in the USA is also involved as experts on the packaging side.

But it doesn't stop there. Something else on EUROPEN's agenda is ISO Standards and making the European CEN standards global. They are already in discussions with China, Japan and the US and ISO has already taken a vote to create a working group to take on this task.

So the coming months appear to be a very busy time for EUROPEN in their fight for a global packaging framework. But Julian Carroll seems sure that if all companies at every stage of the packaging supply chain work to achieve the sustainability goals, then collectively progress can be made towards a global framework.

 

Carbon Labels

The use of carbon labels on products to show the environmental impact throughout the product's lifecycle has been in discussion for some time now. In May 2007 the UK government, in conjunction with the Carbon Trust, BSI British Standards and DEFRA, launched a carbon calculator initiative aimed at introducing carbon labelling for all products. UK retailers such as Tesco, Marks and Spencer and Walkers were all quick to adopt carbon labelling and now over 60 companies have signed up to the scheme.  

More recently the French government has followed suit with a progressive introduction of carbon labelling for products, which will become obligatory as of 2011 as a result of the Grenelle 2 law. Carbon labelling was debated during the "Grenelle de l'environnement" think-tank, which focussed on environmental issues and took place between July and October 2007.

Private companies have been acting on their own initiative however, before such schemes were introduced by governments. In France, both Casino and Leclerc introduced their own eco-labels in 2008.