Food packaging: FMI offers members free online carbon calculator

New resource provides tools for reducing carbon footprint.

-- Packaging Digest, 5/10/2010 5:42:30 PM

The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) introduced today a carbon calculator for its members developed by Verisae, a global leader in Sustainability Resource Planning (“SRP”). The calculator is available free on FMI's website, accessible only to members.

“By offering FMI the Carbon Calculator, it's our goal to support the grocery retail industry. We think these emissions baselines will allow organizations to take steps necessary to improve”

"This extremely useful resource will help retailers learn their company's impact on the environment and measure progress as they implement sustainability programs. We appreciate Verisae providing this calculator at a time when the industry is focusing intensely on these issues," said FMI President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie G. Sarasin.

Using the FMI Carbon Calculator, retailers can measure their company's carbon footprint, establish a baseline, and learn the potential savings if they institute programs to reduce energy use and emissions. It will help retailers set goals and measure progress using the calculator.

"By offering FMI the Carbon Calculator, it's our goal to support the grocery retail industry. We think these emissions baselines will allow organizations to take steps necessary to improve," said Paul Hepperla, vice president of product strategy for Verisae. "We think this will awaken many companies to their carbon journey and put them on a path to improve many areas of their business."

FMI's Sustainability Task Force, composed of 26 member company experts, worked with Verisae to make this tool available to the industry at no cost. Verisae will demonstrate the calculator as an exhibitor (Booth 6403 in the Technology Pavilion) May 11-13 at FMI 2010 in Las Vegas, NV.

"As a small company, Buehlers would not have had the capacity to calculate emissions in such an effective manner if not for the carbon reporting software provided by Verisae," commented Scott Buehler, President of Buehlers Fresh Foods and FMI Sustainability Task Force Member. "We have used these results to benchmark where our company stands among peers. More important, we now know where we can improve and take action. This tool is a huge help to our efforts thus far. We're excited to build upon what we accomplished already."

FMI offers numerous resources to help the industry address a wide variety of sustainability issues. For a complete listing, visit www.fmi.org/sustainability

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