The Sustainability Assessment

Assessing overall packaging sustainability includes accounting for important and challenging environmental and packaging performance considerations.

In addition to assessing whether a package change will reduce waste and pollution, there are other important non-negotiable considerations – packaging ‘effectiveness’ which deliver important social and/or economic outcomes.  

These packaging considerations apply to all guides, and all packaging sustainability decisions.

1. Consumer Choice, Availability, Accessibility & Convenience.

Market demand for high quality food, variety and choice over the whole calendar year puts considerable pressure on the food and produce supply chain. Packaging plays an integral part in allowing for the effective transportation and maintenance of quality food, while also maximizing the choice and availability year-round.

Furthermore, consumers seek convenience, simplicity and ease of accessibility once the food or produce is in the kitchen. Packaging design needs to account for the range of consumer abilities, notably seniors and others with limited mobility.

2. Ensuring Compliance with Food Safety Regulations

Ensuring food safety is the most important outcome when selecting a food or produce packaging. As such, federal regulations apply to ensure packaging does not adversely impact consumers from a health and safety point of view. Key initiatives also seek to mitigate the inclusion of any chemicals of concern into packaging supply chains, such as the Clean Packaging initiative.

3. Minimizing Food waste

Packaging has a direct and measurable impact on the impact of transportation and handling from the field to the table. Loss of food in transit, when sitting on store shelves, or when at the consumer’s home is a major factor in choosing packaging design and composition.

4. Cost & Return on Investment

Packaging design and construction has a direct impact on the cost of operations from the field to the grocery store exit. Packaging impacts the cost of movement of food and produce along the entirety of the supply chain, from food packing, transportation and distribution, thru to retail storage, consumer access and transportation to home. The choice of packaging design and construction also directly impacts capital investments for packaging manufacturing and product fulfillment – costs which can ultimately impact the affordability of food and produce for consumers.

5. Labelling, Branding & Marketing

Packaging plays an integral role in communicating the type, source and quality of food, as well as provide key information of interest to consumers seeking to make informed food decisions. Regulated labelling requirements must also be addressed, such as ingredients, caloric and nutrient data, and increasingly environmental information such as recyclability.

6. Minimizing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Other Environmental Impacts

Climate change is recognized globally as threat to human and ecosystem sustainability.  As a result, tracking and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) is an increasingly important consideration for any organization.  For most companies this involves examining their own operations, and their supply chains. Beyond GHG emissions there are other very important environmental impact categories, such as energy consumption, acidification and water and land use.   One way of systematically addressing these (including GHGs) is through Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), which also typically include human health related categories such as human toxicity.

7. Minimizing Packaging Waste

As noted by the Government of Canada, the way plastic waste is managed in Canada is an issue of growing concern.  A high percentage of plastic packaging in Canada is disposed of as managed waste (i.e., landfilled).  This waste represents billions of dollars of lost economic opportunity. An increasingly important goal is to select packaging which minimizes the creation of plastic waste while addressing the above effectiveness considerations.

8. Minimizing Packaging Pollution

Along with plastic waste, packaging must limit the likelihood of plastic pollution, in the form of plastics discarded intentionally or inadvertently into the environment.  When plastic waste leaks into the environment, it is pollution that can threaten both ecosystems and human health.