Category Archives: product stewardship

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD): Benefits and challenges

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Christine Burow, President of Christine Burow Consulting
Thursday, April  26, 2012
2 p.m. ET | 11 a.m. PT
FOR A RECORDING OF THIS EVENT, please contact us.

LCA and EPD are two acronyms that are getting increasing attention and use. While it’s straightforward to understand what these tools mean in the broad sense, it’s not as straightforward to understand how these tools work and how to use them. In this i2live webinar, Christine Burow, President of Christine Burow Consulting, will provide a practical guide to understanding and using LCAs and EPDs with several examples of how they are driving change in the lumber, paper, and packaging supply chains. This webcast presentation will be useful to people interpreting or commissioning LCAs and EPDs.

Christine Burow worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Forest Products Association of Canada on “Life Cycle Assessment and Forest Products: A White Paper”. During the webinar, she will walk participants through the steps needed to commission an LCA analysis or to interpret an LCA report. Ms. Burow will discuss the four fundamental steps of setting up a LCA: goal and scope definition; inventory analysis; impact assessment and interpretation. Attendees at the webinar can expect to come away with a clear understanding of some of the primary reasons for conducting an LCA, which include driving performance improvement, effective marketing communications, meeting stakeholders’ expectations, complying with and anticipating legislative requirements and understanding the limitations of LCA.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Christine Burow runs an independent consulting company focused on business-to-business strategy with an emphasis on marketing and sustainability. Christine’s clients include large and small businesses as well as government and cover multiple industries such as forest products, renewable energy, cleantech and manufacturing. She has developed business plans and market strategies and helped drive their implementation. She is the Co-Chair of The Sustainability Consortium’s Paper Sector, acting as the Forest Product Association of Canada’s representative. She is also a Team Member of Leapfrog Sustainability Inc.

Christine has a Masters of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Waterloo.

Webinar: Sustainable Packaging: Will We Ever Close the Loop?

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Liz Shoch, Closing the Loop Project Lead of GreenBlue’s Sustainable Package Coalition
Thursday, May 10, 2012
2 p.m. ET | 11 a.m. PT
FOR A RECORDING OF THIS EVENT, please contact us.

As a measure of sustainability performance, packaging’s end-of-life fate has become a topic of great interest to the packaging industry. Accordingly, Extended Producer Responsibility schemes for packaging are attracting attention in the U.S. Material recovery is also a highly visible issue to the general public and a financial burden to local and state governments. Despite this high level of interest, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2009, packaging materials and printed paper represented, by weight, just under half of all the municipal solid waste generated in the U.S. Where is the disconnect?

GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition is partnering with Industry Intelligence to present a complimentary webcast on this topic, covering the latest research findings from the Closing the Loop project. This webcast session is designed to add extra insights to the original presentation given at the Sustainable Packaging Symposium 2012, with a focus on material value recovery systems. This webinar will be presented by Liz Shoch, Closing the Loop Project Lead of GreenBlue’s Sustainable Package Coalition and a featured speaker at the Sustainable Packaging Symposium 2012. This presentation will benefit all companies along the packaging supply chain who are interested in sustainability, good stewardship of materials, learning from the experiences of others, and who see value in “waste.”

ABOUT “CLOSING THE LOOP” PROJECT

Supported by a research grant from CalRecycle and funding from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, GreenBlue set out to determine the barriers to an effective material value recovery system in the U.S. and use that information to dramatically increase the quantity of materials recovered. The resulting suite of “Closing the Loop” reports covers topics, including establishing a clear and consistent packaging vocabulary, providing design guidance for recyclability, proposing an effective recycling label to communicate to consumers, and analyzing the best (and worst) packaging recovery practices, infrastructure, and policies around the world. Efficient and modern recycling infrastructure is critical, but a systems approach to waste management policy is a prerequisite to putting effective packaging recovery into action.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Liz Shoch joined GreenBlue in 2008 as a Project Manager for both the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and the Closing the Loop project, coming from a natural resource conservation and policy background. Liz’s work primarily focuses on packaging end of life, including recovery system infrastructure, recycling, and composting, as well as Extended Producer Responsibility and other influential packaging legislation. Liz was previously Invasive Species Program Specialist at the U.S. Geological Survey and Program Coordinator for the Global Invasive Species Initiative at the Nature Conservancy. She has also consulted on issues relating to both non-native invasive species and migratory species for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America. Liz has a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University, where she focused on the growing environmental issue of non-native invasive species, and a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. While completing her Master’s research, Liz learned to identify all of the terrestrial plants of Bermuda. Liz was also a White House intern during her undergraduate studies.

 

Webinar: Enhancing the Beverage Shopper’s Experience with Sustainable Packaging

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Linda Gilbert, CEO of EcoFocus Worldwide
Thursday, March 8, 2012
2 p.m. ET | 11 a.m. PT
FOR A RECORDING OF THIS EVENT, please contact us.

Beverage shoppers are changing the way they perceive packaging, and sustainability has become a foremost concern in their purchasing behaviors.  Linda Gilbert, CEO of EcoFocus Worldwide, will present key learnings in an i2live webinar on how shoppers are shifting their focus to sustainability issues when buying packaging and what goes into those choices.

According to a ground-breaking new study from EcoFocus, more than one in every two beverage shoppers are considering beverage ingredients and packaging choices with environmental benefits in mind.  In this exclusive i2live webcast, Gilbert will show how beverage products can further meet the needs of a more environmentally aware consumer.   Learn about shopper priorities, the changes they are making, and how beverage packaging must transition to remain relevant, enhance brand value, and generate sales.  Plus, Gilbert will share the “Four EcoFocus Actions” for beverage packagers, recommended to win with consumers.

The data and insights presented in this online webcast are from EcoFocus’ just-released Sustainable Packaging for Beverage Shoppers research report, based on qualitative and quantitative research conducted since 2009.   Gilbert will help you understand the mindset of an evolving class of mainstream consumers who are becoming more focused on sustainability in their shopping behaviors.  She will offer suggestions on how new demands from a shifting consumer market might affect packaging development, retailing, and brand sales.

Packaging Strategies is marketing this important study that can help brand owners, retailers and the packaging industry understand how sustainability is affecting beverage sales. For more information, go to www.packstrat.com and refer to studies or inquire at orders@packstrat.com or call 410-836-4220, ext. 8514.

To learn more about Industry Intelligence coverage of Food & Beverage, please click here.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Founder and CEO of EcoFocus Worldwide, Linda Gilbert has more than 25 years as a major consumer trends and insights consultant for multi-national retail and brand-owner beverage companies including PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Danone, Nestle and Unilever.  Continue reading →

Webinar: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) & its impact on brand owners of paper, board packaging

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Victor Bell, president of Environmental Packaging International
Thursday, January 26, 2012
2 p.m. ET | 11 a.m. PT
FOR A RECORDING OF THIS EVENT, please contact us.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an effort to shift responsibility for packaging and printed paper recycling and disposal from local governments to private industry.  Adopting EPR is an ongoing trend throughout the world and almost every OECD country except the U.S. has EPR on packaging.

Victor Bell, president of Environmental Packaging International, will share his understanding of EPR models around the world and the future of an EPR scheme in the U.S. in this i2live webcast. He will also discuss the implications for brand owners of paper and board packaging and the CPG industry.

To get real-time market intelligence on “Packaging” provided by Industry Intelligence, please click here.

Victor Bell’s presentation will address these questions:

  • What is EPR? How does it impact CPG and brand owners?
  • What are the packaging fees around the world?
  • What are the key assumptions of EPR models?
  • EPR in the U.S., Latin America, and Canada
  • What is the future of EPR?

To read more about EPR, please click here.

To network with other participants of this event, please join our Linkedin group Packaging Industry Intelligence

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Founder and president of Environmental Packaging International, Victor Bell is a Certified Packaging Professional with more than 20 years of experience with environmental issues associated with packaging and products. He has MMA (Marine Affairs) and BS (Natural Resource) degrees from the University of Rhode Island and an MS (Urban and Environmental Studies) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Continue reading →