Our President Kate Putnam attended last week’s Packaging Sustainability Forum in Atlanta and here are her observations.

• More major companies have Chief Sustainability Officers and they seem to have more clout. One was hiring while his employer was holding company -wide layoffs.
• Companies are not just thinking any more. Actions are being taken. We heard from Henkel/Dial, Alcan Packaging, McCormick, Procter & Gamble and Campbell Soup about specific actions they are taking to enhance the sustainability of the products and processes.
• Sustainability has moved beyond buying carbon credits and light-weighting the packaging to rethinking the product in light of the consumer’s desires.
• There was a lot more discussion about Sustainability as a driver of innovation.
• Consumers are still thinking about what they want in a product. While organic food’s rate of growth has dropped 50%, it is still growing at 10% in 2009.
• Some companies are embracing Total Cost of Ownership but not many have moved to Total Cost Assessment as a vehicle for framing their machinery buying decisions.
• There is a lot we can learn by observing European retailers and consumers about where the North American markets may go.
• Transparency to consumers and ease in finding information are key to consumer engagement.
• Actions need to be consistent with words and with other actions.

Finally, the most interesting of all came from Julian Carroll of EUROPEN who said that globalization has lifted more people out of poverty more rapidly than at any other point in history, and without packaging there cannot be globalization.