 | Mark V. Ewing |
Location
Kalamazoo, MI, USA
Role
ConsultantJob Title
PresidentCompany
Braveheart Strategic Services, LLCRecent Discussions
How are CPGs financially justifying their investments into Sustainable Packaging?
I'm interested in your experiences. Are the CPGs really utilizing carbon reduction/energy savings/life cycle costs in their financial calculations to justify investments in sustainable packaging or are they using the "old" ROI calculations aimed at short term gains? Please share your views with me.
Posted September 28, 2009Recycled Content in Corrugated
What is the trend toward the use of recycled fiber content in corrugated shipping cases in North America (percentage of total)? What is the acceptable level of recycled material for "machineable" (suitable for automation) corrugated containers (RSC, HSC, FOL)? Thanks for your thoughts and comments in advance.
Posted July 9, 2009
Comments
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Great story of how improving
Great story of how improving the sustainability of packaging through reduction requires a thorough review, evaluation, and understanding of the performance required through the whole supply chain. Thanks for publishing it.
Great Illustration of the Real Challenge, eh?
I started out by asking what I thought were pretty direct questions. What has been discovered is they weren't anywhere near direct enough!! I'm doing research for a client. I can imagine the challenges that a CPG faces trying to make good business decisions about how to get their products to their end-user/consumer in the best saleable condition and at the lowest cost. Add to this the "weight" of complying with a sustainability scorecard (an Eco rating was just announced yesterday) and well intentioned stakeholders and it's easy to understand why inaction is often the result. In real terms, the OEMs in the corrugated handling community have based many of their designs relying on the "memory" inherent in corrugated materials. When this changes (more recycled content/less "memory"), a significant operational impact will occur on many packaging lines in North America. Lower OEE, higher TCO, unplanned downtime and wasted corrugated material will be an anticipated reality. Anybody need a Change Agent? Great discussion, great forum. Thanks, Mark V. Ewing
Mr. Oris: I love to hear
Mr. Oris: I love to hear "instruct" us on recycling, sustainability and the like and then create thousands of printed pages of documents that none of them read. First step? Practice what you preach!! It would be amazing if all governments went paperless. Try it for yourself. I don't generate printed materials. I ask all communications and documents be submitted to me in digital form (no hard copy). It is simply amazing how simple filing, sorting, storing paperwork becomes when there isn't any. If I could eliminate junk mail, catalogues, notices (that could be submitted digitally), I would have little to recycle or throw away. I see our society trying to find the "big" solutions to sustainability when the best opportunities are the thousands of little steps that cost nothing to implement but yield huge reductions in energy consumption and massive elimination of land fill needs. Individuals can solve our problems....if we pay attention, think, and take small steps. Thanks for the post and the opportunity to respond.