SPS 2012 scheduled for April

Summit Media Group’s Greener Package and the Institute for Sustainability, a technological community of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), have announced plans for the second annual Sustainable Packaging Symposium. Slated for April 3 - 5 at the Houston Hilton and George Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX, SPS 2012 will again bring scientists and engineers with cross-industry expertise in sustainability together with packaging professionals looking for real-world solutions.

The first collaboration between these two organizations—Sustainable Packaging Symposium 2011—took place in Chicago in March, and attracted over 200 attendees. The event program spanned a wide range of topics related to the critical issues manufacturers face when implementing sustainable packaging along the supply chain. Next year’s event will again invite attendees to explore technology and materials innovations and best practices of global companies with forward-thinking sustainability programs.

“What we know to be true is that sustainable packaging cannot be implemented in and of itself,” says Christine Smallwood, director of business development, Greener Package. “Both package and product must be considered to achieve a truly sustainable outcome.”

“Packaging shares similar challenges in sustainability with other sectors with which we engage,” says Darlene Schuster, executive director, Institute for Sustainability. “The problem must be examined as a system and, in the case of packaging, it is a very complicated and far-reaching one that requires the application of a robust analytical problem-solving approach.”