[ Penton Business Media 　 · 　 2011-09-06 ]

The Consumer Goods Forum has announced the release of the Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability (GPPS) to enable the consumer goods industry to better assess the relative sustainability of packaging.

The aim of the GPPS is to help companies reduce the environmental impact of their packaging by providing a common language to address a range of business questions about packaging sustainability either within a company or between business partners.

The GPPS is part of the Consumer Goods Forum's "sustainability work stream," which is sponsored by two of its board members: Philip Clarke, chief executive officer of Tesco, and Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever.

"Tesco is a responsible retailer and understands that packaging is important to its customers," said Clarke, in a statement. "We're working hard with our suppliers to minimize the impact of our packaging on the environment. Having a common language will allow us to have the right conversations with our diverse supply chain. We can then work with suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of packaging while making sure it still does the essential job it needs to do to protect the products we sell."

The GPPS was designed collectively by a diverse group of retailers and manufacturers, aided by packaging material suppliers and packaging manufacturers and led by a steering team that included representatives from Wal-Mart Stores, Target and Tesco, and Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and Unilever. It is based on earlier packaging sustainability guidelines developed by the European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN) with ECR Europe and similar work on metrics for packaging developed by GreenBlue's Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC).

Use of the GPPS is free of charge from the project website.