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Packaging in a world of shrinking resources

The 2013 Global Sustainability Summit offers insights on how manufacturers and retailers can preserve resources to meet the needs of a growing population.

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One of the often-quoted definitions of sustainability is: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”* At the 2013 Global Sustainability Summit, organized by the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., held in mid-August in Seattle, presenters shared their experiences and insights on preserving resources—including food, packaging materials, energy, and water—to meet today’s needs as well as those of a population estimated to grow to between 9 billion and 11 billion by 2050. 

The conference, titled “Uncover the Possibilities,” encouraged attendees to look to innovation for solutions to this challenge. In his presentation, “Looking Around the Corner: Emerging Sustainability Issues,” Steven Swartz, Partner at McKinsey & Company, said, “My view of sustainability is that the job that everybody in this room has and the work that we are doing is to solve this problem: We are unlocking a massive wave of human consumption, while at the same time, the scientific consensus is that we need an 80-percent absolute reduction in emissions over 1990. To me, this is a nominal opportunity. If we are going to spike demand, and we are going to reduce emissions, there is a whole lot of innovation that has to happen. If we stay in the traditional models of how industry has worked in the past, we can’t get there from here. Product sustainability is about proactive innovation.”

Starbucks Chief Creative Officer; President, Global Development and Evolution Fresh Retail, Arthur Rubinfeld, in his presentation, “Sustainable Design is Good Business,” treated attendees to an “around-the-world” tour of some of Starbucks’ innovative, sustainably designed stores. Among them were stores using reclaimed and locally sourced construction materials, such as recycled shipping containers. Said Rubinfeld, “To us, sustainability is about maintaining our sense of humanity while remaining profitable.”

Another environmental achievement Rubinfeld cited is Starbucks’ use of alternative energy sources in 60% of its U.S. stores, reducing energy consumption by 27%. In addition, the company’s packaging material reduction goals include less use of paper, more in-store use of ceramic cups, and the development of recyclable single-serve cups. “One thing people don’t understand about making coffee cups recyclable is that a nonrecyclable coating has to be used inside the cup to hold the hot beverage,” said Rubinfeld. “We are coming up with ways that we believe we can address this.”

The food waste challenge
One major topic of the conference—and a major initiative of the FMI, GMA, and the National Restaurant Assn. (NRA) through their Food Waste Reduction Alliance initiative—was how to reduce and divert food waste. Opening a pre-summit session titled, “Conquering Food Waste: An Interactive Dialogue with Thought Leaders,” independent Senior Corporate Sustainability Advisor Kai Robertson set the stage for the discussion by detailing a number of food waste statistics:
• At 21%, food waste scraps exceed any other kind of municipal solid waste to landfill (MSWL), per 2009 statistics
• 67 billion lb of food are disposed of in the U.S. annually—two times the amount since 1974
• 47 million Americans are in poverty
• The societal and economic cost of hunger and food insecurity is $167.5 billion annually
• The food wasted each year could provide four meals per day for one year for those in poverty
• 25% of food bought by households is wasted.

As for the environmental cost, Robertson related that if 40% of food produced is not eaten, that represents approximately 25% of the global water use and 300 million barrels of oil, and results in 15% of U.S. methane in landfills.

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