Sustainability reporting requires development of data-management system

Green Dot fees and extended producer responsibility (EPR). Walmart's Sustainable Packaging Scorecard. The Global Packaging Project. ISO packaging standards. European Union Essential Requirements. Ecolabels and certifications.

Everyone seems to be asking for your packaging data. Whether you're a brand owner, retailer or packaging supplier, you must be able to provide the data for EPR reporting requirements and for internal and industry benchmarking.

Many companies are overwhelmed by the types of data that are needed to report and by the challenge of collecting these data. Additionally, there's the question of how to store and manage all the required data. This article will outline how to address your sustainable packaging reporting needs.

For varying reasons, different organizations have issued their own defined aspects of the sustainable packaging framework. The number of data elements required by each of the programs can vary from a handful to more than 200 for Walmart. Although there may be some data fields common to several systems, they are by no means identical.

How do you get ready to fulfill your reporting requirements? The first step is a self-exam. This includes:

1. Take an inventory of reporting requirements,

2. Document supply chain, existing packaging data management and packaging design process/constraints,

3. Collect data.

4. Determine a baseline.

5. Set goals.

There is no way anticipate all future data requirements, but you can define a core set of data elements that are required now or likely to be required. In reality, the data depends upon regulatory reporting requirements, your products and markets, customer demands and your company's internal reporting requirements.

Importantly, you must involve all elements of your supply chain to collect the necessary data effectively and accurately. This involvement starts with developing an action plan and educating the suppliers on the purpose of data collection, types of data needed and definitions of each data element you are requesting, as well as goals and benefits of each datapoint. Next would be to provide tools to ease the burden of data entry and maintenance. You may also want to provide tools to track and measure packaging performance, as well as to guide packaging improvements.

Once you have identified the data that you need and how to collect it, you must establish a data management strategy. You will want to employ a comprehensive data management solution to store your data effectively and accurately. Additionally, you will want to consider an effective reporting solution that is versatile enough to meet all of the data requirements outlined above, as well as flexible enough to adapt to changing requirements. The ideal data management and reporting solution will be robust enough to support regulatory and internal audits, allow direct data entry/submission by suppliers, provide automation to reduce report filing and generation burden, and offer comparative design tools to guide continuous improvements.

Estée Lauder has used redipoint as its data management and reporting solution for the last two years. All packaging data from Estée Lauder's existing SAP and other specifications systems are uploaded directly into redipoint for easy EPR reporting in more than 40 jurisdictions. Redipoint has also given Estée Lauder the ability to search for usage of specific materials and generate metric reports by country and by brand to be used for internal benchmarking. Redipoint's comprehensive audit function has also enabled Estée Lauder to respond more quickly and accurately to EPR organizations.

T
hough Estée Lauder is not required to report to Walmart, templates allowing reporting to the Packaging Scorecard, as well as other retailer scorecards, are also available as part of the redipoint solution. Since Estée Lauder has been using redipoint, they have been able to maintain comprehensive technical files which satisfy the EU Essential Requirements CEN standards, which are now being translated into the new global ISO packaging standards.

Redipoint is constantly being updated to reflect the evolving global packaging requirements and industry developments, such as the new GPP metric guidelines which are being incorporated into redipoint's metric report.

Author Tanja Carroll is project manager for Environmental Packaging International. For more information, visit www.enviro-pac.com

Packaging reports requiring data

Here are examples of packaging-related programs requiring data for sustainability reporting:

• Global Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees, such as Stewardship Ontario, Germany's DSD (Green Dot).

• Retailer reporting program such as Walmart Packaging Scorecard. esco.

• Internal Benchmarking/ Metrics Reporting.

• Consumer Goods Forum Global Packaging Project (GPP) metrics report (forthcoming) will include a range of metricssuch as greenhouse gas (GHG), energy, recyclability, material usage by type/brand/jurisdiction, improvements over time.

• CEN Packaging Standards to demonstrate compliance with EU Essential Requirements.

• ISO standards for Packaging and the Environment (forthcoming). Will be based on CEN standards.

• Ecolabels and certification programs such as Green Seal, Greenlist, UL's Environmental Claims, forest products certification programs and other sustainable sourcing programs.