When it comes to packaging sustainability – or sustainability in general for that matter – the best results can be achieved by asking the right questions, before skipping ahead to the best approaches. In the simplest sense, this is about what you are hoping to achieve. What do you want to find out and what are you planning on doing with this information? Who do you want to share results with? Do you want to inform decisions, or communicate what you have already done?
This is where our three C’s come in to help match your goals with the right approach; calculation, certification, and communication are three drivers behind any sustainability action. Once you identify your key driver(s), you can use the guide below to point you in the direction of the best tools to meet your goals.
Sound decisions start with sound data
If you want to measure the environmental performance of packaging options across a wide range of areas, then a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) would be an ideal option. It quantifies environmental information in categories such as climate change (carbon footprint), toxicity, energy use, waste, and water use to provide a solid foundation for packaging decisions. This tool also quantifies environmental impacts across the whole life cycle of a product to ensure that removing packaging or substituting one packaging material for another does not come at the price of environmental impacts elsewhere in a product’s life cycle. An LCA highlights the risk of such ‘burden-shifting’ with the 'life cycle thinking' approach which considers the bigger picture at hand.
A carbon footprint follows the same principles as an LCA and also provides data, but as the name suggests, this data is only on carbon. If this is your focus, and the focus of your clients, this an option.
Based off the results of an LCA study for the same product, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) contain much of the same information in a more accessible format. Most importantly, EPDs follow product specific rules and are third party verified to allow comparability. However, unlike an LCA, an EPD can incorporate additional indicators that are particularly useful for decision-making around packaging sustainability. For example, EPDs can integrate indicators for the recyclability and circularity of packaging options with the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI). While the MCI does not fully measure all aspects for a circular economy on its own, it adds to it.
Gaining credibility
If your main aim is to communicate what you have already done with a meaningful label, Cradle to Cradle® (C2C) certification could be a next step. This is one of the most extensive product certification schemes out there today, looking to tick a wide range of boxes with one label with its inclusion of both social and environmental criteria in its scoring system. It is also able to provide a nuanced approach to thinking about packaging sustainability by including less obvious areas of environmental impact. For example, C2C accounts for material waste through general use of a product, such as microplastic pollution from packaging materials that are not properly disposed of or do not have adequate systems in place to do so.
The data contained in a full LCA study or even a simple carbon footprint would be highly complementary to a C2C assessment. Although not a requirement for the C2C certification process, they make the pathway to certification easier.
Standing out for environmental performance
As a widely recognised certification amongst consumers and a preferred option for many suppliers, C2C is primarily used to communicate the environmental and social credentials of products. EPDs are third party verified and follow an internationally recognised framework, making them an ideal tool for business-to-business communication of a product's environmental performance.
Starting with ‘why’
If measuring environmental performance is your goal, then you want a tool that can calculate across a wide range of indicators. If you have the data already then you can choose to certify for added credibility or skip ahead to communication.
An LCA study is suited for calculating environmental data, while an EPD derived from an LCA is used to communicate this data in a verified format. C2C is a trusted certification that is used for communication to consumers and businesses. While it’s important to have a good overview of different tools, the first and most important step is to find your driver by starting with the question ‘why’.
For more information on packaging sustainability and the tools that enable it, check out our 30 minute 'Straight from the Horse's Mouth' packaging webinar here.