Measuring sustainability

Everyone is talking about climate change, and the term ‘sustainability’ has become one of the most important criteria in economic planning. Increasing numbers of consumers also want to know how products can help to protect the climate.

One measure is the ‘carbon footprint’, a term which was coined in the UK when the first retail chains started to print the product's ‘carbon footprint’ on their product packaging. It is supposed to give information on the extent to which a product is harmful to the climate.

The carbon footprint is measured by the CO₂ emissions that are produced during the product's entire life cycle from the production of the raw materials, manufacturing of the product, trade, delivery and use, right through to the disposal or recycling of the product and must therefore be reliably determined. All parameters, for example methane or nitrous oxide emissions, must be converted into the equivalent amounts of the most important greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

The Netherlands has already introduced packaging tax, which is based on the average CO₂ emissions that are produced during the material's manufacture. Tax revenues of AU$730 million per year are expected with the money to be used for waste management purposes. Many other countries are following suit.

Harmonisation of the necessary assessments

As one range of goods can comprise hundreds to thousands of products, and each product has to have its effect on the climate researched and stated according to comparable criteria, the cost of such a process is extremely high. What works well for different packaging materials becomes a real challenge for finished food products and is only effective for the researched product group.

There is still no standardised definition of how to measure how environmentally friendly a product is. In France and the UK, the trade has provided impetus by displaying the carbon footprint of the manufacture and packaging of the product for the consumers’ assessment.

Reduction of material quantities, better recycling

The manufacturers of drink cartons provided the first life cycle assessments as early as 20 years ago. The CO₂ contribution of a drink carton is significantly lower than comparable packaging made from other materials.

The reasons for this are, among other things, that the manufacture of a drink carton primarily uses renewable raw materials, that it combines lightweight packaging with optimal use of space and the good recyclability of composite cartons. The central theme of sustainability is therefore the use of resources.

Metal packaging is also increasingly using recycled material. For beverage cans produced in Europe this amount exceeds 50%. In addition, the amount of material used is being continually reduced. In 1951, a 330 mL tinplate can weighed 83 g. Today, the weight has been reduced to 22.5 g, thanks to thinner walls.

The relatively ‘new’ packaging material PET has even managed to further reduce the weight per packaging unit. This means that the latest PET bottles weigh 30% less than their predecessors. The amounts of material and energy used for manufacturing and transport are accordingly reduced. In total, every decigram of weight that is saved per packaging unit is reflected in the reduction in CO₂ emissions.

The industry is facing up to its responsibility

One thing is clear — the sustainability trend has not only reached the trading companies and brand-name suppliers, but also the packaging industry, even though packaging is only responsible for 1% of the world’s CO₂ emissions.

Companies can also convert their sustainability activities into clear benefits in their marketing. Companies are already advertising that they only use ‘clean’ electricity from regenerative energy sources in their business; or that energy consumption has been noticeably reduced through appropriate measures. The spectrum of companies who are differentiating themselves from the competition by positioning themselves as being sustainably managed ranges from the family-run, mid-sized drink manufacturer, right through to the international packaging company.

CO₂ emissions that can't be avoided, for instance those created during the production of animal-based food, can be neutralised through compensating measures, such as investments being made in the generation of power from renewable sources of energy in order to reach a balanced life cycle assessment.