What the Experts Said: 2023 Store Brands Industry Forum on Sustainability
Vast numbers of retailers and product suppliers alike are taking big steps towards sustainability, considering the long-term health of the planet, society and economy. By adopting sustainable practices in areas such as energy, consumption, and resource management, companies are working towards creating a better future for all.
At the recent Store Brands Industry Forum on Sustainability, hosted by Executive Editor Greg Sleter and sponsored by MRP Solutions, Sofidel and Drylock Technologies, a number of experts discussed topics like packaging, sustainable sourcing and product innovation.
Here are some standout quotes from speakers at the virtual event:
Opening Keynote - The Sustainable Consumer
“One of the challenges that shoppers have right now when surveyed when it comes to online shopping… 84% of surveyed respondents believe that sustainable products are important, but only 17% find it ‘easy’ to find such products, and 69% said its ‘sometimes easy’. Those are kind of shocking percentages. In a way, many of our retailers and many of our brands are not doing a good enough job to make it turnkey and make a simple solution for shoppers to know they are taking a sustainable action in making a sustainable purchase. Further, more than one in four shoppers seek out retailers that carry sustainable products.”
-Doug Yolen, VP & Group Lead, Media, Circana
Repackaging
“In the past 12 months, things have been moving rapidly… it hasn’t been just small little movements. We’ve seen the increase in sustainable materials for packaging or conversion into different plastic components increase massively. Not only are we seeing new innovations in post-consumer recycled or mechanically-recycled material, we’re seeing advancements in post-industrial materials, we’re seeing advancements in bio-attributed materials… we’re starting to see more prevalence in the market space when it comes to regulatory compliance, we’re starting to see a more concerted effort in what it means to recycle, what it means to reduce your carbon footprint, what it means to reduce your greenhouse gasses.”
-Adam Wozniak, Senior Manager, Sustainability, AMCO
“The pandemic took our focus off of everything forward-thinking (innovation), and although we’re not seeing any revolutionary packages, the material is really becoming the innovation. Companies are not only looking for more sustainable options, but they’re considering the broader goal to reduce carbon emissions and the overall impact on the environment. Those companies are now looking beyond just the sustainability of the product and are now looking at the sustainability of the processes and outputs, so that’s causing for a lot of investigation in innovative technologies, processes and packaging.”
-Dawn Nowicki, VP of Marketing, MRP Solutions
Sustainable Sourcing
“Retailers are becoming more keen on the fact that they can’t just pass the responsibility onto suppliers. 10-12 years ago we really just leaned on our supplier code of conduct to say ‘hey, here are our expectations, you take care of it.’” Now I think retailers are seeing their role in both ensuring that their supplier code of conduct is upheld, but also playing an active role in identifying places where they can drive real change. And that really starts with the very origin with the place that grows the ingredients or where the packaging is coming from all the way through the entire supply chain onto the end consumer. Ultimately, they are responsible for the whole supply chain, so it’s important to think about every aspect of that supply chain from origin to customer, but also every person or entity that the ingredient or product passes through.”
-Abby Ayers, Senior Director of Retail Partnerships, Fair Trade USA
“From a supplier’s perspective, we look at four main aspects to focus on when it comes to sourcing raw materials. First the raw material’s impact on the ecosystem we source it from. The second aspect is the extraction or synthesis process of the raw materials to be manufactured in the final product. The third aspect is the supply chain, or you can think of it as the sourcing locations. The fourth aspect is the social impact, when it comes to fair pay for example for the extractors. All these four aspects are what we look at when we contact vendors to source raw materials for our products.”
-Mohamed Abaas, Environmental Sustainability Specialist, Sofidel America
Innovation
“Sustainability is critical to innovation. You have to innovate around sustainability and you have to innovate around your product. To say it differently, always keep the consumer in the forefront, and right now the consumer is demanding sustainable products, whether that’s made with less material, less plastic, it's in recycled content, there’s less logistics… and they’re demanding innovation for products to last longer or perform better. Today, unlike maybe 25 years ago, sustainability is key to innovation and meeting the consumer’s unmet needs of the future.”
-Matthew Koloseike, VP of Sales & Marketing, Drylock Technologies
The full forum can be viewed on-demand here.