When choosing, producing or using packaging, transparency plays a vital part in being able to make a valid and relevant choice. Brand owners and consumers look to find the most suitable option, the most optimal packaging solution, in terms of consumer convenience, operational efficiency and sustainability.
Within many industries, Environmental Product Declarations is the preferred and standardized choice in being able to asses, verify and enable comparison between one product to another similar product.
When it comes to liquid food packaging, producers are still not aligned on how to best make use of transparency and find a common way of sharing their environmental impact in a comparable way.
are Environmental Product Declarations the answer?
With an emphasis on the entire life cycle impact of the processes from raw material to product end-of-life, Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) review the entire system with detailed analysis and descriptions.
In the packaging industry, the scope of product life cycle starts from the upstream of raw material production, with the production and molding of primary packaging materials as the core, and downstream through filling and distribution until the end of the primary packaging life cycle.
EPDs include
Raw materials
Design and development
Packaging production – saving resources and energy
Transport
Safe filling and sterilization
Filling and distribution – saving space and energy
Retail
Use phase – no food waste
End of Life – Recycling
Why doesn't lca's work?
The life cycle approach provides guidance for companies to reduce their own environmental impact, but it is not suitable for comparing different packaging in the industry, while the environmental product declaration (EPD) makes the assessment results of the life cycle method Evaluation criteria for fairness, impartiality, and open attributes.
An Environmental Product Declaration is a systematic document that has been audited and registered by a third party and is one of the most widely used Type III environmental declarations in the world. These declarations are prepared and audited according to the international standard ISO 14025 and based on the results of life cycle analyses in accordance with the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards, providing transparent and comparable information on the environmental impact of a product's life cycle.
ecolean brakes ground
As a low-carbon pioneer in the field of liquid food packaging, Ecolean adopts a life cycle approach to assess and reduce the environmental impact of each link, and is committed to implementing sustainable packaging concepts and reducing the carbon footprint of the entire packaging system.
Ecolean is the first packaging system supplier in the global packaging industry to analyze and evaluate the entire product life cycle using an environmental product declaration, which also covers Ecolean's light-duty packaging and filling equipment.
Ecolean’s EPDs makes it easy to understand and evaluate the environmental life cycle impact of Ecolean’s packages and machines – setting an example for others in the industry to follow. In developing the EPDs, Ecolean has conducted a very comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of its operations.
“Although our EPDs are only one part of our dedication to be honest and transparent in how we conduct our business, they are very important. They contribute to making it much easier for brand owners to evaluate the full environmental impact from our offering. Small measures can make a big impact in the lives of the consumers, but in order to really change something, one needs to equally look at all measures. With the EPDs, we are providing a powerful decision-making framework for making sustainable packaging solution investments”, says Anna Palminger, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ecolean.
In order to be as transparent as possible, Ecolean has traced the environmental impact of the components in the filling machines as well as the packages – as the first packaging system supplier to do so, by using the system of Environmental Product Declarations.
Focusing on sustainability, Ecolean’s ambition is to continuously push the industry agenda and provide transparent and comprehensive sustainability facts from a life cycle perspective in order to achieve real change across borders.
