Steve Katz, Editor05.20.16
Being an environmentally sustainable label printer takes some effort. By its very nature, the label industry is not green – waste is often unavoidable, and it comes in many forms. There’s job setup waste and matrix waste, both of which occur during the manufacturing process. At the brand owner level, during the label application process, the release liner waste accumulates. Ultimately, at the consumer level, there can be even more waste as a labeled packaged gets discarded – not all pressure sensitive labels are recycling stream-friendly.
The good news is that there are several brand owners, suppliers, converters, associations and individuals taking on leadership roles in making the label industry greener. These organizations and people thus set an example and help pave the way for label companies of all sizes to do their part.
Labelstock Leadership
Label material suppliers, such as Avery Dennison and UPM Raflatac, manufacture and supply converters with the pressure sensitive papers and films, as well as shrink sleeve materials that play a crucial role in the recyclability and “greenness” of a labeled product. Both companies take their leadership role in championing sustainability quite seriously, and work closely with brand owners in promoting education, awareness and innovation.
“Sustainability in the label industry is fast becoming an everyday matter,” says Robert Taylor, vice president, Stakeholder Relations, for UPM Raflatac. “This evolution is being led by frontrunner companies like us and the global brands, and their packaging designs, which are being more and more influenced by global megatrends like climate change, resource scarcity and population growth, as well as the increasing consumer awareness in environmental sustainability.”
Earlier this year, in Paris, during the United Nations conference on climate change, sustainability efforts made international headlines. Rosalyn Bandy, senior sustainability manager, Avery Dennison, says, “As these topics become more mainstream to the average consumer, the impact products have on the planet becomes more important. Brands that can be trusted to do the right thing, that have a purpose beyond profit, and can make the consumer feel good about spending their hard-earned dollar on that product are the ones that get ahead.”
Packaging and waste legislation is one outcome of sustainability becoming an increasingly more pressing issue for both brands and consumers alike, and according to Taylor, it’s strongly influencing technological development in production units, the down-gauging of label materials, and the introduction of more sustainable and safe components, including recycled and bio-based content. “It’s also led to the increasing number of sustainably-managed forest certified paper products available. Developments in lifecycle analysis for the labeling industry testify to this evolution,” Taylor says.
UPM Raflatac has taken what Taylor describes as a holistic approach in assessing the environmental footprint of its labelstock products. The company introduced its Label Life tool, which is based on lifecycle assessment (LCA), in 2013. “This tool allows us to assess and improve the environmental performance of our labelstock from cradle to grave, and also communicates the respective performance to our customers and end users,” Taylor explains. “Today you can find efforts ongoing in many areas of the label lifecycle, but the focus should be on raw material sourcing, printing and end of life. These are where the biggest impacts lie, and therefore are areas with the biggest potential for reducing impact and development of more sustainable solutions. However, efforts towards more sustainable adhesives, inks, bio-based films, and efficient logistics – to name a few – are also important.”
Last year, Avery Dennison launched its 2025 Sustainability Goals. Bandy says, “By any standard, these are very aggressive and significant goals that we have publicly committed to: In the next 10 years, we plan to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 3% each year, in absolute numbers. We are going to eliminate 70% of matrix and liner as waste from the value chain. We will source 100% certified paper, 70% of which will be FSC-certified.”
According to Bandy, 70% of Avery Dennison’s chemicals, films, products and solutions will conform to, or will enable end products to conform to, the company’s guiding principles, which are based on The Natural Step concept of sustainability: “Reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and heavy metals, reduce our dependence on synthetic chemicals that persist in nature, reduce our destruction of nature, ensure we are not stopping people, globally, from meeting their needs.
“We have some big, exciting work ahead of us,” Bandy says. “And brands have taken notice because we have put a line in the sand – we are moving from being a company that does ‘less bad’ to one that is taking a leadership position on being a steward for the planet and our resources,” says Bandy.
If going green has been too much of a costly endeavor for converters in the past, Avery Dennison has an answer. “We don’t think a more sustainable product should be a more expensive product; consequently, we have the largest number of FSC-certified products in the industry, and we provide them at no additional cost to conventional paper,” she says.
With brands having sustainability goals, Avery Dennison provides help with its Greenprint tool that can assess six impact categories when comparing one of its substrates to another. “For example, if greenhouse gas emissions are the number one concern for a brand, we can tell you which of our products was produced with the lowest level of GHG emissions,” Bandy explains.
Taylor emphasizes how sustainability has been the backbone of UPM Raflatac throughout its 40-year history. “And that will continue with our holistic lifecycle approach,” he explains. “We have eco-design initiatives in product design, raw material sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and end-of-life solutions. Some of the results of our work in factories since 2009 include a 15% reduction in energy, an 82% reduction in waste to landfill and the production of 850-plus FSC or PEFC forest certified products.
The latest FINAT Radar report on brand owners also indicates increasing interest towards LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), waste recycling and environmental certification from the brand owners’ point of view.One such form of environmental certification is the TLMI LIFE program, which stands for Label Initiative for the Environment.
Bandy, who serves as co-chair of the TLMI Environmental committee, says, “TLMI has its wonderful audited program, Label Initiative for the Environment – LIFE. This is a fantastic first step for any supplier or converter to start benchmarking their operation’s footprint and move forward with plans to reduce their impact and measure those reductions.”
LIFE covers many aspects of sustainability, including energy use, GHG emissions, and waste generation and is audited by a third party. “So not only can you measure and improve, you are also transparent in your data by having a third party review it,” Bandy says. “In other ways, I am seeing more and more customers and end users ask for lifecycle data on the substrate and what happens if they use something thinner. Switch from paper to film or vice versa? Use recycled content? Providing this type of information is becoming a requirement in order to make the sale with the brand or retailer. Data brings the power of collaboration around what label substrate is best for the customer and the environment.”
Recycling Resources
When it comes to release liner recycling, San Diego-based Label King is leading by example, and according to owner Robert Parker, it’s a very simple process. He explains, “We provide our customers with Gaylord containers for them to fill with discarded liner. When it’s full, we pick it up and take it to a facility that can recycle it. It’s very simple to do and it’s a tremendous selling point as well.”
Label King is a TLMI member, and Parker points out that the association can help converters find facilities that can recycle their customers’ liner. TLMI plays an active role in encouraging eco-friendly best practices by providing comprehensive resources to help calculate greenhouse gas emissions, minimize ink waste and recycle release liner and matrix waste. In fact, on its website, TLMI provides detailed maps and contact information of North American facility locations that can accommodate the recycling of both matrix and liner waste.
Parker is also the co-chair of TLMI’s Liner Recycling Committee. “We can help with finding a compatible facility,” he says. “Your only costs are transportation and the Gaylord containers. As converters, it’s our responsibility to offer a solution. If we can do that, we can close the loop.”
Lauding Lauterbach Group
Sussex, WI, USA-based Lauterbach Group received the 2015 TLMI Environmental Leadership Award, recognizing the company’s commitment to progressive environmental practices across a range of areas, including solid waste reduction, recycling, waste or energy recovery, the implementation of new “clean” technology and/or processes, and the implementation of an education program.
“The company is lean and mean,” said TLMI Environmental committee co-chair Calvin Frost in presenting the award, “Their application followed the requirements perfectly. During the last several years they have focused on personal development, education, job training and career-development. They’ve also focused on health and wellness throughout the organization, and offered internships internally for advancement and growth and externally for education. They’ve monitored purchases with recycled content, reusable energy and green technologies as requirements, and reduced water and energy consumption with documented and measurable tracking, as well as waste and plate spoilage.”
Lauterbach Group is TLMI LIFE-certified, as well FSC, SFI, LEED, Green Tier and Green Master certified. In the October 2014 issue of Label & Narrow Web, Lauterbach Group was selected as a “Company to Watch.”
Printing Industries of America (PIA) has announced that Calvin Frost has been selected as the 2015 William D. Schaeffer Environmental Award recipient. Frost is highly regarded as one of the most distinguished proponents for the use of environmentally conscious practices in the global label and tag industry. He is also the author of the popular “Letters From the Earth” column in Label & Narrow Web, where he focuses on environmental challenges and solutions facing the label printing industry and the world at large.
Frost’s path to receiving this award began in 1979 when he created the paper-recycling firm, Channeled Resources. Over the past three decades, Channeled Resources has transformed into a global firm offering repurposing solutions for both manufacturers and consumers of coated, treated, and laminated papers and films – formerly deemed “unrecyclable.” Throughout his career, Frost has been a vocal advocate for the implementation and retention of good environmental practices within the label industry.
Through his work, he was unanimously recognized as Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute’s Supplier of the Year in 2010 and received the Global Label Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. Frost has also chaired numerous committees and task forces within the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute, overseeing the development of numerous education and sustainability programs.
During the judging, one panel member remarked, “It’s tough for most people to go beyond the scope of the industry, but others do a tremendous job. Calvin has gone way beyond that – way beyond. He has made a national and international impact.”
“I have had the pleasure of working with Calvin for many years, and he is a true visionary and tireless in his effort at providing solutions to the printing industry. He seeks out and finds innovative approaches to solving common environmental problems faced by printing operations,” says Gary Jones, assistant vice president, Environmental, Health, and Safety Affairs, Printing Industries of America.
Frost will be formally presented with an engraved plaque at Printing Industries of America’s Spring Administrative Meetings in Chandler, AZ, USA, on June 11.
The good news is that there are several brand owners, suppliers, converters, associations and individuals taking on leadership roles in making the label industry greener. These organizations and people thus set an example and help pave the way for label companies of all sizes to do their part.
Labelstock Leadership
Label material suppliers, such as Avery Dennison and UPM Raflatac, manufacture and supply converters with the pressure sensitive papers and films, as well as shrink sleeve materials that play a crucial role in the recyclability and “greenness” of a labeled product. Both companies take their leadership role in championing sustainability quite seriously, and work closely with brand owners in promoting education, awareness and innovation.
“Sustainability in the label industry is fast becoming an everyday matter,” says Robert Taylor, vice president, Stakeholder Relations, for UPM Raflatac. “This evolution is being led by frontrunner companies like us and the global brands, and their packaging designs, which are being more and more influenced by global megatrends like climate change, resource scarcity and population growth, as well as the increasing consumer awareness in environmental sustainability.”
Earlier this year, in Paris, during the United Nations conference on climate change, sustainability efforts made international headlines. Rosalyn Bandy, senior sustainability manager, Avery Dennison, says, “As these topics become more mainstream to the average consumer, the impact products have on the planet becomes more important. Brands that can be trusted to do the right thing, that have a purpose beyond profit, and can make the consumer feel good about spending their hard-earned dollar on that product are the ones that get ahead.”
Packaging and waste legislation is one outcome of sustainability becoming an increasingly more pressing issue for both brands and consumers alike, and according to Taylor, it’s strongly influencing technological development in production units, the down-gauging of label materials, and the introduction of more sustainable and safe components, including recycled and bio-based content. “It’s also led to the increasing number of sustainably-managed forest certified paper products available. Developments in lifecycle analysis for the labeling industry testify to this evolution,” Taylor says.
UPM Raflatac has taken what Taylor describes as a holistic approach in assessing the environmental footprint of its labelstock products. The company introduced its Label Life tool, which is based on lifecycle assessment (LCA), in 2013. “This tool allows us to assess and improve the environmental performance of our labelstock from cradle to grave, and also communicates the respective performance to our customers and end users,” Taylor explains. “Today you can find efforts ongoing in many areas of the label lifecycle, but the focus should be on raw material sourcing, printing and end of life. These are where the biggest impacts lie, and therefore are areas with the biggest potential for reducing impact and development of more sustainable solutions. However, efforts towards more sustainable adhesives, inks, bio-based films, and efficient logistics – to name a few – are also important.”
Last year, Avery Dennison launched its 2025 Sustainability Goals. Bandy says, “By any standard, these are very aggressive and significant goals that we have publicly committed to: In the next 10 years, we plan to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 3% each year, in absolute numbers. We are going to eliminate 70% of matrix and liner as waste from the value chain. We will source 100% certified paper, 70% of which will be FSC-certified.”
According to Bandy, 70% of Avery Dennison’s chemicals, films, products and solutions will conform to, or will enable end products to conform to, the company’s guiding principles, which are based on The Natural Step concept of sustainability: “Reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and heavy metals, reduce our dependence on synthetic chemicals that persist in nature, reduce our destruction of nature, ensure we are not stopping people, globally, from meeting their needs.
“We have some big, exciting work ahead of us,” Bandy says. “And brands have taken notice because we have put a line in the sand – we are moving from being a company that does ‘less bad’ to one that is taking a leadership position on being a steward for the planet and our resources,” says Bandy.
If going green has been too much of a costly endeavor for converters in the past, Avery Dennison has an answer. “We don’t think a more sustainable product should be a more expensive product; consequently, we have the largest number of FSC-certified products in the industry, and we provide them at no additional cost to conventional paper,” she says.
With brands having sustainability goals, Avery Dennison provides help with its Greenprint tool that can assess six impact categories when comparing one of its substrates to another. “For example, if greenhouse gas emissions are the number one concern for a brand, we can tell you which of our products was produced with the lowest level of GHG emissions,” Bandy explains.
Taylor emphasizes how sustainability has been the backbone of UPM Raflatac throughout its 40-year history. “And that will continue with our holistic lifecycle approach,” he explains. “We have eco-design initiatives in product design, raw material sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and end-of-life solutions. Some of the results of our work in factories since 2009 include a 15% reduction in energy, an 82% reduction in waste to landfill and the production of 850-plus FSC or PEFC forest certified products.
The latest FINAT Radar report on brand owners also indicates increasing interest towards LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), waste recycling and environmental certification from the brand owners’ point of view.One such form of environmental certification is the TLMI LIFE program, which stands for Label Initiative for the Environment.
Bandy, who serves as co-chair of the TLMI Environmental committee, says, “TLMI has its wonderful audited program, Label Initiative for the Environment – LIFE. This is a fantastic first step for any supplier or converter to start benchmarking their operation’s footprint and move forward with plans to reduce their impact and measure those reductions.”
LIFE covers many aspects of sustainability, including energy use, GHG emissions, and waste generation and is audited by a third party. “So not only can you measure and improve, you are also transparent in your data by having a third party review it,” Bandy says. “In other ways, I am seeing more and more customers and end users ask for lifecycle data on the substrate and what happens if they use something thinner. Switch from paper to film or vice versa? Use recycled content? Providing this type of information is becoming a requirement in order to make the sale with the brand or retailer. Data brings the power of collaboration around what label substrate is best for the customer and the environment.”
Recycling Resources
When it comes to release liner recycling, San Diego-based Label King is leading by example, and according to owner Robert Parker, it’s a very simple process. He explains, “We provide our customers with Gaylord containers for them to fill with discarded liner. When it’s full, we pick it up and take it to a facility that can recycle it. It’s very simple to do and it’s a tremendous selling point as well.”
Label King is a TLMI member, and Parker points out that the association can help converters find facilities that can recycle their customers’ liner. TLMI plays an active role in encouraging eco-friendly best practices by providing comprehensive resources to help calculate greenhouse gas emissions, minimize ink waste and recycle release liner and matrix waste. In fact, on its website, TLMI provides detailed maps and contact information of North American facility locations that can accommodate the recycling of both matrix and liner waste.
Parker is also the co-chair of TLMI’s Liner Recycling Committee. “We can help with finding a compatible facility,” he says. “Your only costs are transportation and the Gaylord containers. As converters, it’s our responsibility to offer a solution. If we can do that, we can close the loop.”
Lauding Lauterbach Group
Sussex, WI, USA-based Lauterbach Group received the 2015 TLMI Environmental Leadership Award, recognizing the company’s commitment to progressive environmental practices across a range of areas, including solid waste reduction, recycling, waste or energy recovery, the implementation of new “clean” technology and/or processes, and the implementation of an education program.
“The company is lean and mean,” said TLMI Environmental committee co-chair Calvin Frost in presenting the award, “Their application followed the requirements perfectly. During the last several years they have focused on personal development, education, job training and career-development. They’ve also focused on health and wellness throughout the organization, and offered internships internally for advancement and growth and externally for education. They’ve monitored purchases with recycled content, reusable energy and green technologies as requirements, and reduced water and energy consumption with documented and measurable tracking, as well as waste and plate spoilage.”
Lauterbach Group is TLMI LIFE-certified, as well FSC, SFI, LEED, Green Tier and Green Master certified. In the October 2014 issue of Label & Narrow Web, Lauterbach Group was selected as a “Company to Watch.”
Printing Industries of America (PIA) has announced that Calvin Frost has been selected as the 2015 William D. Schaeffer Environmental Award recipient. Frost is highly regarded as one of the most distinguished proponents for the use of environmentally conscious practices in the global label and tag industry. He is also the author of the popular “Letters From the Earth” column in Label & Narrow Web, where he focuses on environmental challenges and solutions facing the label printing industry and the world at large.
Frost’s path to receiving this award began in 1979 when he created the paper-recycling firm, Channeled Resources. Over the past three decades, Channeled Resources has transformed into a global firm offering repurposing solutions for both manufacturers and consumers of coated, treated, and laminated papers and films – formerly deemed “unrecyclable.” Throughout his career, Frost has been a vocal advocate for the implementation and retention of good environmental practices within the label industry.
Through his work, he was unanimously recognized as Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute’s Supplier of the Year in 2010 and received the Global Label Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. Frost has also chaired numerous committees and task forces within the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute, overseeing the development of numerous education and sustainability programs.
During the judging, one panel member remarked, “It’s tough for most people to go beyond the scope of the industry, but others do a tremendous job. Calvin has gone way beyond that – way beyond. He has made a national and international impact.”
“I have had the pleasure of working with Calvin for many years, and he is a true visionary and tireless in his effort at providing solutions to the printing industry. He seeks out and finds innovative approaches to solving common environmental problems faced by printing operations,” says Gary Jones, assistant vice president, Environmental, Health, and Safety Affairs, Printing Industries of America.
Frost will be formally presented with an engraved plaque at Printing Industries of America’s Spring Administrative Meetings in Chandler, AZ, USA, on June 11.
