Every seat within the Sheraton Station Square’s largest conference area was taken by the more than 500 attendees. Those registering at the last minute missed out—there was no more room. The conference started with higher-level business issues, then progressively drilled down to ever greater levels of detail.
Sustainable business consultant Andy Savitz described the trends leading to environmental, social, and economic—triple bottom line—business considerations that lead sustainable practices. One of the event’s sponsors, Community Energy, Inc., not only offset the electricity used at the forum with renewable wind energy, the company bought a copy of Savitz’s 2006 book, The Triple Bottom Line, for every attendee.
Harris DeLoach, chairman, president, and CEO of Sonoco, presented a detailed picture of the social, environmental, and economic commitments at Sonoco. DeLoach detailed the energy, solid waste, water usage, and greenhouse gas reductions at the company. A number of presenters at the conference pointed out that water would be the next big environmental issue.
Following DeLoach, speakers representing DuPont, Alcoa, and Kraft Foods described how their respective companies were approaching sustainability. A key theme running through all of these presentations was that sustainable practices are woven into the fabric of each organization.
A block of presentations from the World Wildlife Fund, Starbucks Coffee Co., and Nike explored the value of engaging non-government organizations in sustainable initiatives and projects. This section of the conference generated the most questions from attendees.
In his talk about the theory and practice of life-cycle inventory and analysis, Dr. Matthew Realff of the Georgia Institute of Technology explained that, “rarely can sustainability questions be answered without information that stretches significant distances backwards and forwards in the supply chain and across multiple supply chains.”
Dr. Pertti Häkkinen, a principal at Gradient Corp., described the implications of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) in Europe—a comprehensive system to document toxicity and safe use of chemicals. He said that U.S. regulatory agencies are likely “to adopt ideas from REACH.”
Anne Johnson, executive director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, described SPC’s effort to collect and make public new life-cycle inventory data, including an update of the MERGE tool. Howard Mallen, executive vice president of Winterborne, presented a tutorial on the Wal-Mart Scorecard.
Julian Carroll, managing director of the European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN), talked about an effort in Europe to boil the sustainability of a package down to a single number as in the case of the Wal-Mart Scorecard and what the packaging industry discovered in the process. (See the first item in the news section for details.) Myles Cohen, vice president and general manager of Sonoco Recycling, made a strong case for controlling and recycling manufacturing waste. He stated that comprehensive efforts to do so reduce hauling and landfill fees, convert waste streams to revenue streams, and offer corporations a number of strategic benefits.
The conference concluded with presentations on the business and operational constraints of a commercial recycling operation and technology briefings on a number of topics, including new bio-based monomers and recyclable barrier coatings on paperboard.
Ample breaks were scheduled for networking and talking with peers. A comprehensive evening exhibition from industry suppliers was also held. Register early for the 2008 event. It is likely to be even better attended.
