EPDs help packaging manufacturer to “raise the bar”

14th Nov 2019

The packaging industry is increasingly focused on sustainability and circular economy, driven by both political pressure and consumer perception. With legislation changing rapidly, and lobby groups pressing for action manufacturers are under increasing pressure to prove and improve their environmental credentials.

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a vital resource to manage the complexities of keeping up with these pressures for change.

An independently verified and registered document, the EPD enables manufacturers to communicate transparent and comparable data about the life cycle environmental impact of packaging. This information enables packaging manufacturers to sell their environmental credentials confidently and also allows their customers to factor the effects of packaging into their own cradle to grave analysis.

An EPD also provides a meaningful benchmark, allowing manufacturers to track the impacts of changing materials and processes, and demonstrate their progress internally and to customers.

In 2018, Ecolean became the first packaging manufacturer to trace the environmental impact of their packaging systems right down to the components of their filling machines. CEO Peter L Nilsson saw the publication of Ecolean’s four EPDs within the International EPD System as ground-breaking for the industry as a whole. “I think that far too many in our industry focus solely on a small part of their offering – be it raw materials, recycling or machine performance – never the full environmental life cycle impact. But that’s what we are doing now by publishing these EPDs. We are raising the bar in order for food producers and consumers to get the full picture, without green washing.”

Ecolean’s four EPDs are available for download at the International EPD® system webpage here.