New GMA report shows huge impact of improved packaging processes to drive CSR

As I’ve written before positive steps to improve the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices of business include assessing every aspect of your operations to determine if more sustainable practices could be adhered to which may reduce consumption or waste. The opportunities to alter the operational procedures for companies are not only more varied than one might think but also likely to have significant impact. One such example is the use of packaging by companies that ship or retail products, packaging provides huge opportunities to improve processes and reduce waste as a new study has documented.

For more than 100 years the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has worked with its hundreds of members to improve performance and policies and has been a leader in looking to unify the efficiency of the industry itself wherever possible. Its membership includes many of the largest food, drink and household goods manufacturers in North America. A new study focused on the feedback from nearly 20 of the largest manufacturers within the sector to look at their current packaging processes plus proposed changes in the future. While the findings are very encouraging the future changes are even more so; changes that have already been implemented by those studies have already avoided more than 1.5 billion pounds of packaging used over the last decade and continued improvements are anticipated to avoid some 2.5 billion pounds during the next decade. The GMA report is compiled from two surveys of the trade groups membership and without exception each company on the list plans to continue to add more procedures that will reduce packaging, most companies are already running numerous initiatives to improve sustainability across their respective product lines.

I believe it’s this collaborative approach within industry sectors with custom knowledge of an individual industry which will lead to the largest gains for CSR in the years to come. While the GMA is not officially a watchdog for the industry it certainly provides cohesive leadership and helps drive or incorporate standards throughout its membership. It’s going to take that type of leadership within each industry to bring CSR to the level where it is an expectation for businesses practices rather than an option, there’s no reason such principles cannot be applied across the board.

The reductions from the businesses that were studied are primarily at this time mostly focused upon reducing the use of paper and plastic. In excess of 800,000,000 pounds of plastic and 500,000,000 pounds of paper have been eliminated from packaging processes since 2005. These are huge numbers that represent massive reductions in carbon emissions and waste and encouragingly the study shows that the impact is only scheduled to improve in the years to come. Whilst paper and plastic are the most notable reductions companies are reviewing their recycling processes, making transitions to higher levels of use of post-consumer recycled glass and paper and even reconfiguring packaging dimensions to allow more goods to fit on delivery trucks.

GMA Senior Director, Energy and Environmental Policy John Shanahan explains the far reaching scale of the report:

“In eliminating this packaging from the supply chain, we are reducing a significant volume of waste that would otherwise end up in landfills, but the benefits go far beyond that.  Companies are reporting that packaging improvements are also enabling them to ship more units per truckload, reduce green house gas emissions and conserve resources such as water and energy,”

I think that as public awareness grows we are going to see far more companies display within their product labeling something akin to ‘sustainable packaging process approved’ the same way we can currently see calories and dietary requirements on food labels when we shop. In turn I’d like to think that such product certification would also lead to consumers doing more comparison shopping based on the CSR tendencies of the manufacturer even while standing in the aisle about to make a selection.

You can learn more about the GMA report by visiting this link and downloading the full report in PDF format

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