Earlier this year, a Packaging and Environment survey by Haymarket highlighted a carbon conundrum for packaging suppliers: just 17% claimed to have a full understanding of carbon footprinting, although 43% expected to have to measure the carbon footprint of a pack within 12 months.

But understanding the carbon footprint of their products is only the first step for packaging companies. Increasingly, they also need to show how they are taking action to reduce and manage their carbon emissions, as buyers look into their supply chains to deliver reductions in carbon emissions and meet their sustainability and environmental objectives.

A CarbonNeutral® packaging certification presents to buyers a clear, credible statement about the environmental impact of the packaging they purchase. It also enables businesses to differentiate their products and take a leadership position over their competitors.

Companies such as Innovia Films, a major producer of Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) and cellulose films with production sites in the UK, USA, Belgium and Australia, are doing just that. Under the brand-name NatureFlex™, a coated biodegradable and compostable packaging film, Innovia Films became the first film company globally to carry a product range that is CarbonNeutral® certified.

Innovia Films achieved CarbonNeutral® certification through measuring and reducing all the carbon emissions produced by the packaging to net zero.

Andy Sweetman, Innovia Films’ Business Development & Sustainability Manager explains, “Having a recognised certification such as CarbonNeutral® packaging gives customers the confidence that the environmental impact of carbon emissions produced in the manufacturing process have been measured and reduced to net zero through high quality offsetting projects. This also helps customers who use film as their primary packaging material to differentiate their products.”

A comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) measured all the emissions produced by the raw material:

Extraction and processing of raw materials and packaging

1. Cradle-to-grave embodied emissions of raw materials and inputs to production 2. Inbound deliveries from suppliers
Manufacturing and storage of product and packaging
3. Direct emissions from on-site fossil fuel use and fugitive emissions
4. On-site consumption of purchased electricity
5. Emissions from waste disposal (excluding transportation)

The initial LCA was carried out in 2007 and provided vital information to model and direct Innovia Films’ environmental process strategy. As a result, in May 2009 commercial production commenced on a new cellulose film manufacturing line at Innovia Films’ Wigton site in the UK. This new machine replaced two production lines which had been in operation since the late 1940s. It has become Innovia Films’ highest output line and has provided substantial environmental benefits and efficiencies such as recycling process gases, reducing steam consumption plus an exhaust heat recovery system which has further reduced energy usage.

Overall Innovia Films has lowered the carbon footprint of NatureFlex ™ by 16% since 2007, with a further 5% reduction predicted during 2010.

However, Innovia Films wanted a certification which would set them apart from the competition and demonstrate a comprehensive environmental programme. Therefore it worked with The CarbonNeutral Company to reduce the unavoidable emissions produced by the packaging to net zero through carbon offsetting. This means that the carbon emissions are counter balanced through a carbon saving project somewhere else in the world. Carbon offsetting presents an immediate, cost-effective and operationally efficient way for an organisation to combine its carbon reduction targets with its business objectives. A combination of carbon offsets and internal reductions is frequently the only way for companies to achieve a clear and credible statement of their action through a CarbonNeutral® certification.

At the same time, carbon offsetting enables the development of clean and renewable technologies that are essential for the future growth of a low carbon world. In addition, offset projects often deliver added benefits at the project site such as employment and training.

Innovia Films selected a methane capture project in the Netherlands to offset its carbon emissions. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and has a global warming effect 21 times that of CO2. This project reduces methane emissions to the atmosphere and displaces fossil fuels used to heat local buildings. Innovia Films specifically chose the project as it funds the implementation of an anaerobic digestion (AD) programme which NatureFlex™ films are suitable for disposal in. According to Defra, 37% of UK waste is potentially suitable for diversion from landfill towards AD. For every tonne of organic waste diverted to AD, 1.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions are avoided. The process generates the equivalent of 1000 KWh of electricity and approximately 850 kilograms of fertilising digestate to replace artificial fertilisers.

Carbon emissions need not present a conundrum to packaging suppliers. An offset-inclusive carbon management strategy enables companies to grow and strengthen their business while also managing their emissions growth. Innovia Films has demonstrated the power of this sort of strategic carbon reduction planning to drive business value in a highly competitive marketplace.