Sustainability Strategies: the Basis for Success?

© U.S. Dept. of Commerce

© U.S. Dept. of Commerce

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The US Department of Commerce recently published a study on how much sense sustainability strategies make for US packaging machinery manufacturers as well as their customers and upstream suppliers. The aim of the study was to find an answer to the question: Can packaging machinery manufacturers act sustainably while remaining successful at the same time - or become successful by doing this?

The extent to which sustainability plays a role in future success and long-term competitiveness was investigated in a recently published study carried out by the US Department of Commerce. On the one hand, it analyses the specific consequences facing packaging machinery manufacturers while on the other it presents intelligent planning strategies and concrete tips for a sustainable attitude. This report forms part of the "Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative Sector Focus Study Series" which informs both public and private stakeholders about the specific challenges associated with the sustainability theme, shares the latest examples of best practice and reveals so-far unexploited potential said to lie dormant in the US machine-building sector, in particular.

Packaging technology plays a key role in the world economy. It provides the basis for operation without which many sectors of business and economy could not even be imagined. Packaging machinery manufacturers supply the technological key to a long and still growing, global value chain. The global market revolving around packaging technology is estimated to total about US$ 25 billion.

What does "being sustainable" mean?

The study aims to find out whether and how packaging machinery manufacturers can remain successful and competitive if they actively incorporate sustainability in their business activities. And: what does it really mean for a company to be sustainable and competitive at the same time?

The market increasingly demands these solutions pushing the packaging sector worldwide harder and harder to adopt sustainable methods: retailers and consumer goods manufacturers have realised that the reduction of packaging-related waste brings enormous savings. They are, in turn, under pressure from consumers who attach ever greater importance to environment-friendly products. Add to this that in Europe more and more laws, regulations and standardisations governing packaging and disposal are being adopted which have a significant impact on global environmental policy.

The study introduces a number of American packaging machinery manufacturers whose business models are deliberately geared to sustainability placing them in the context of the packaging industry and the wide packaging community. It describes how their sustainability strategies impact their competitiveness in concrete terms.

Becoming sustainable - remaining competitive

The conclusions drawn by the study can be summarised as follows: US packaging machinery manufacturers are in a position to offer their customers more sustainable packaging solutions - while retaining their competitive edge at the same time. Awareness about this issue is growing throughout the rest of the global supply chain associated with the packaging and consumer goods industries. Those enterprises offering products and services that fulfil consumer demands for less packaging materials and auxiliaries waste and making higher energy and water savings will succeed. Not least because they are also helping their customers cut costs. In the very near future so-called sustainability reports are very likely to be extended to cover the complete manufacturing process - including packaging.

Initially, processors will face greater expectations in terms of less expensive and increasingly environment-friendly materials. Then consumer goods producers will be confronted with ever higher requirements for offering corresponding packaging solutions that are cheaper for retailers and that avoid waste. And all of them operate in a world where the call for sustainable action is growing louder and louder - and this has not changed in the crisis year of 2009 either.

This is why - the study concludes - it is by no means too early for packaging machinery manufacturers in the consumer goods industry to prepare for the day when their customers will inevitably demand machinery, services and other products that make cost-efficient, sustainable packaging solutions possible.