The meeting was hosted by office-furniture manufacturer Herman Miller Inc. and took place in Miller’s renowned Greenhouse Factory and offices in Holland, MI. Shown here moderating one of the brainstorming sessions is Randy Boeller, package engineering program manager at Hewlett-Packard Co.
Described at the outset of the meeting was the process by which the IoPP Sustainable Packaging Task Group would, within 24 months, evolve from task-group status and become the IoPP Sustainable Packaging Technical Committee. Near the end of the meeting, Laura Donnelly of Plymouth Foam Inc. was named chair of the Sustainable Packaging Task Group. Donnelly is president of the Wisconsin chapter of IoPP and has been an active participant in IoPP technical committees.
“Other groups, notably the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, have done a lot of good work already in defining sustainable packaging and putting packaged goods companies in a position to meet the requirements not only of Wal-Mart but of others, too,” Donnelly tells Packaging World. “What IoPP hopes to do with this Sustainable Packaging Task Group is get beyond what you might call ‘visionary’ concepts and develop concrete, practical, actionable tools that IoPP members can use. Without those tools, how will they come up with the deliverables they’re being asked for?”
