The Race Towards Sustainable Packaging is On: Here’s How To Win It

Of all the ways businesses can reduce emissions, how they package their products might be the most visible to consumers. A recent study of UK shoppers revealed that “sustainability is a driving factor in purchasing decisions”, with packaging on the frontline. Customers are willing to pay more for goods that are packaged sustainably.

The same is true for the selection of upstream and downstream value chain partners. Businesses are more inclined to partner with suppliers who can support their scope 3 decarbonisation strategy, and sustainable packaging is an opportunity to do just that.

Packaging companies that can’t prove their sustainability will lose commercial relevance and risk being regulated out of key markets as we witness a rise in regulations targeting packaging sustainability. These include:

• The UK Plastic Packaging Tax 2022 taxing companies importing plastic packaging into the UK at a rate of £217.85 per tonne.
• The Revision of the EU regulations on Packaging and Packaging Waste focusing on transparency in packaging. Businesses will be required to know the origin and emissions of the packaging they use.

To make the most sustainable packaging decisions, businesses need credible and accurate data on product-level emissions. However, current emissions data on supplier packaging is often unclear or incomplete, with a lack of supplier transparency.

Don’t Unravel Before You Unpack

Most businesses only consider the packaging they use directly, but what about the packaging their suppliers use? Up to 90% of packaging’s total carbon footprint is caused by downstream stakeholders who are outside of other businesses’ direct control.

Under the GHG Protocol’s Scope 3 Standard, businesses are also accountable for their suppliers’ emissions, which means the emissions created by the packaging their suppliers use require equal weight in carbon accounting.

Businesses need to understand where their scope 3 emissions come from to unpack and account for them accurately. This means having a supplier engagement strategy that encourages strong and open relationships. To achieve emission reductions, disclosing packaging emissions data throughout the supply chain is essential.

“By sharing sustainability goals and expectations throughout the supply chain, businesses can collectively work toward identifying areas for improvement and implementing eco-friendly practices.” Bradley Saveth, COO, Supply Caddy

Making collaboration and transparency a core tenet will enable businesses to embed sustainability into their DNA. This will have wider benefits for the entire value chain as data sharing between stakeholders becomes commonplace and the emissions reduction opportunities of sustainable packaging in the supply chain are uncovered.

To avoid getting lost in irrelevant data, businesses wanting to measure emissions from suppliers’ packaging need a clear starting point. Emitwise’s emission factors database has been carefully curated to ensure the highest levels of accuracy and comparability.

Pregis: Bringing Packaging Innovations to the Surface Through Collaboration

Collaboration breeds innovation, and nowhere is this truer than in the world of sustainable packaging. Emitwise partner Pregis understands how packaging solutions need to evolve with both consumers’ needs and businesses’ emissions reduction requirements. Emitwise takes care of the other side of the coin, enabling businesses to gather accurate carbon data that builds transparency and trust between stakeholders.

“We work with Emitwise to continuously track our scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions. Their software eliminates the burdensome aspects of carbon accounting, from data collection to analysis and reporting. In particular, Emitwise has enabled us to widen our lens into scope 3, accelerating us into a position as a packaging industry leader in carbon reduction.” – Clint Smith, Senior Director of Global Sustainability at Pregis

Your Sustainability Achievements Gift Wrapped

Emitwise makes it easy for businesses and their suppliers to collect and share packaging data through their supplier engagement platform, ProcureWise. Enabling businesses to manage their own packaging emissions data and centralising it in a database improves transparency and simplifies collaboration.

The platform is designed to disclose data that aligns with industry-standard reporting requirements and upcoming legislation, such as the EU Green Claims Directive, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Single-use Plastics Directive (SUPD), and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).

Businesses can analyse, compare, download and present sustainability success stories in a neat, accessible platform while tracking improvements over time.

To support your business’ sustainability story with data, get in touch.