Sustainability nonprofit GreenBlue has announced the addition of a new service to its Advisory Services offerings—a standardized packaging design assessment. Companies interested in designing more sustainable packaging can now take advantage of this service to receive an environmental life-cycle profile of new packaging formats or an overall assessment of their current packaging portfolios in order to identify opportunities for improvement. GreenBlue will leverage its COMPASS® (Comparative Packaging Assessment) software tool to perform these assessments.
“While companies can purchase COMPASS licenses for use by their internal design teams, this new Advisory Services option offers a convenient alternative to companies that do not have large packaging portfolios or do not have internal life-cycle assessment capabilities but want to take a holistic approach in their design decision making,” says Katherine O’Dea, GreenBlue’s senior director of Advisory Services and Innovation.
The new package design analysis service is being offered for primary or secondary packaging options. Using validated, generic, industry life-cycle data, the assessment will account for environmental impacts associated with the materials and processes used to bring packaging to market, while allowing decision makers to incorporate environmental parameters alongside economic factors. The confidential assessment will be based on a set of consumption, emissions, and packaging attribute metrics. The report generated, which will include a brief comparative sustainability assessment with dashboard graphics of up to four proposed designs, will provide a tool to educate customers about a company’s sustainability efforts.
“The COMPASS assessment method and data have been thoroughly vetted by independent verification and member companies of GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition, and are supported by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. COMPASS helps incorporate life-cycle thinking into the packaging decision process,” says Minal Mistry, GreenBlue’s senior manager for Sustainable Solutions and the tool’s primary architect.
Companies interested in learning more about this new packaging design assessment service can contact O’Dea at [email protected] or 434/817-1424 ext. 329. This service will be available starting Feb. 25, 2013.
