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Nestlé reveals the math and science of sustainability

Some smart tools and a 20-year commitment to green ideals span benefits from lightweighting, recycling and bioplastics, to a smaller global carbon footprint.

"There's no good or bad packaging," Anne Roulin, global head of packaging and design at Nestlé SA, when it comes to sustainable packaging. The trick is to find "the right packaging material for the specific application," she told attendees at Pack Expo 2012 in Chicago. 
 
To prioritize sustainable packaging development priorities, Roulin specifically cited the use, early in the packaging development cycle, of PIQET (Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool). This is a lifecycle assessment software tool from SPA that is a key tool in the global brand's "ECO-Design" initiative, and allows the company to do a multivariable packaging assessment in "about one hour" she says provides results that "would take too long and be too costly" to do in full-blown life-cycle analysis mode.
 
At Nestlé, more than 500 packaging specialists have used the software to model 1,000 scenarios. The company's sustainability goals, in place since 1991, have allowed the company to:
  • Reduce weight and volume of materials,
  • Lead the development and use of materials from sustainably managed renewable resources,
  • Support initiatives to recycle or recover energy from used packaging, and
  • Use recycled materials
In the past two decades, the company has been saved between 40 and 70 million kilograms of packaging materials. (1 kilogram equals about 2.2 U.S. pounds.)
 
Examples include Nestlé Waters division's "Eco-Shape" bottles, which have been reduced from about 24 grams "a few years ago" to 9.2 grams. Consumer complaints were high in the beginning, but the sustainable benefits are clear and brand communication has helped consumers appreciate the new-generation "soft bottles," Roulin told attendees at a Pack Expo 2012 presentation in Chicago. 
 
Other applications include stand-up pouches of Nescafé coffee that, compared to the previous packages, reduced CO2 emissions 35%; reduced resource consumption 28%; reduced water consumption 28% and reduced truckloads by 50% while shipping the same amount of product.
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