courages manufacturers to choose existing materials with low LCA
numbers, rather than investing in innovation and helping push it to
the next level of efficiency. Overall, this type of strictly “by the numbers” ranking often supports existing packaging materials in existing
manufacturing processes through existing distribution channels.
“C“Companies need to look beyond the existing
production mentality and support truly
evolutionary change.”
In order to move forward, companies need to look beyond the
existing production mentality and support truly evolutionary change
in packaging systems versus just optimizing the old. The founders of
the organic movement did not approach the food system this way.
They didn’t say, “How can I reduce the amount of harmful pesticides
on my crops, mono-crop more sustainably or apply GMOs to less
acreage?” They identified the ideal, the “gold” standard and ruthlessly pursued it outside the existing institutions, slowly gaining converts among both suppliers and consumers.
We need to reinvent systems that are relevant to the problems of
our time. In his presentation to the Industrial Society back in 1999,
Bruce Sterling, the forward-thinking founder of the Viridian Design
Movement, spoke passionately about the need for this change in
thinking: “New, not cut-and-pasted from the debris of past trends.
Forward-looking and high-tech. About abundance of clean power
and clean products, not conservative of dirty power and dirty products. Expansive, not niggling. Mainstream, not underground. Creative of a new order, not subversive of an old order. Making a new
cultural narrative, not calling an old narrative into question.”
can be based on common denominators. The COMPASS tool is designed
to become increasingly effective as
more data becomes available.
COMPASS will certainly prove to
be a great resource to manufacturers,
especially smaller companies that do
not possess the institutional knowledge to efficiently make these kinds
of materials assessments. However, as
it stands, the tool will serve as an enabler to the status quo, perpetuating
the existing system. When asked, Mistry confirmed that the database cannot account for newer materials that
have not gone through an official
LCA. This effectively sustains older
materials (albeit better choices than
one might find without the tool) and
reduces the likelihood of success for
newer, potentially more sustainable,
materials.
Although the resources SPC is creating represent a huge step in the
right direction, the organic industry,
as leaders in the sustainability movement, needs to be aware of the self-imposed limits on innovation that are
created by implementing tools that
enable the existing system. The following section illustrates several examples of how this can happen.
New Tools, Same Obstacles
This spring, the Sustainable
Packaging Coalition (SPC) will
introduce its latest packaging
comparison software COMPASS (formerly called
MERGE). According to Minal
Mistry of the SPC, COMPASS
will allow developers to evaluate their material choices using
a set of eight environmental
criteria, and then will offer alternative and possibly better
packaging solutions. The COMPASS database will consist of an
aggregated collection of packaging materials that have each
already gone through standardized LCAs, so the assessments
Innovators and Manufacturers Working Together
to Drive Change
Guayaki, a pioneer of yerba mate and a leader in the sustainability move-
ment, worked with Innovia films to create a ground-breaking new form of NatureFlex, which it’s now using
for several of its loose-leaf teas. The bags are made of
two layers of cellulose films and are printed using
water-based inks. The outside layer of the package
is transparent cellulose, and the inside film layer is
made of cellu-
lose with one
side coated by a vacuum-deposited ultra-thin layer
of aluminum. The outside cellulose layer is reverse
printed so that the eco-friendly water-based inks
are trapped between the layers. Tests have shown
that the average total time for complete biodegra-
dation of cellulose film is from 28 to 60 days for Guayaki’s biodegradable
uncoated products, and from 80 to 120 days for bag after 5 months of just
coated cellulose products such as these.
sitting on the soil.
