Building on Life Cycle Assessments to Holistically Measure Packaging Sustainability

Packaging material selection has become more complex in this era of increased environmental awareness. The importance of sustainability is undeniably growing. In the Trivium 2020 Buying Green report, a global survey of more than 15,000 consumers, 67% of the respondents consider themselves environmentally conscious.

Brands considering sustainability as part of their packaging decisions have tended to rely on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools in their decision-making processes.

LCAs are an important tool in evaluating material sustainability; however, they only present a partial picture of a material’s environmental impact. When making material selection decisions that will favourably position a brand with environmentally conscious consumers, it’s important to take a more holistic view of sustainability (Pauer, E.; Wohner, B.; Heinrich, V.; Tacker M. Assessing the Environmental Sustainability of Food Packaging. MDPI. University of Applied Science, Vienna, Austria 2019).

In this white paper, we present an approach to a Holistic Packaging Sustainability Assessment that expands traditional LCA methods to account for circularity while also factoring in the impact of packaging materials on the waste stream and improving shelf life.