Essentials of Sustainable Packaging Training - A Good Point Projects' Production

Each year, we pick a project that focuses on bringing groups of people together to work on a social or environmental issue. In May, Good Point Projects produced an Essentials of Sustainable Packaging Training for 1908 Brands as part of their 1% for the Planet Business Membership.

Each year,  1908 Brands sets aside 1% of sales in a reserve fund to donate to environmentally focused non-profits. In addition to providing unrestricted funds to support the protection and conservation of public lands, 1908 Brands often partners with environmentally focused non-profits that can advise the team on ways to improve the waste, water and energy required to run the business operations.

One partnership that has been incredibly valuable is with the 1% for the Planet certified non-profit organization, Green Blue. Green Blue is dedicated to the sustainable use of materials in society. Green Blue brings together a diversity of stakeholders to encourage innovation and best practices to promote the creation of a more sustainable materials economy.

Since 1908 Brands packages food and cleaning products, they work with Green Blue to make sure 1908 is holding the operations to their highest standards.

1908 Brands is part of Green Blue’s CleanGredients program, which provides a resource for suppliers to verify and market that their “ingredient” products meet Safer Choice criteria.

1908 Brands also participate in the How2Recycle Label® program which is a standardized on-package labeling system that clearly communicates recycling instructions to the public.

Finally 1908 Brands is a part of The Sustainable Packaging Coalition program, which provides the leading voice on packaging sustainability with a membership that encompasses the entire packaging life cycle.

After recognizing the impacts of single use packaging on our natural places, oceans, and landfills (60% of packaging ends up in the landfill*) 1908 Brands made the decision to take part in creating solutions.

In March of 2018, we helped 1908 Brands make a commitment through the Climate Collaborative to improve our packaging and convert one product package to compostable or recyclable packaging by 2025.

To work towards this commitment, we suggested that 1908 Brands make a $15,000 donation to The Sustainable Packaging Coalition to host the Essentials of Sustainable Packaging Training and then opened the event up to the whole “Naturally Boulder” community.

Along with packaging leads from 60 local companies, we learned about the fundamental principals of sustainable packaging. The training covered Bioplastics, Compostable Packaging, Fiber Sourcing and the lifecycle of packaging materials.

In addition to working with the Naturally Boulder community and Justin’s, there were representatives from local materials manufactures in the room to answer questions about where we all go from here. ePack, Elk Designs, and Futamura helped breakdown how each layer of flexible plastic packaging might be improved for end-of-life recovery.

We discussed how we, as businesses, could maintain our economic opportunity while increasing the environmental sustainability of our business operations.

Working towards sustainable packaging solutions is one element of the 1908 Brands sustainability strategy with the goal to improve business operations. Through our 1% for the Planet giving program we’re also working with non-profit partners to conserve land and wilderness, provide children with access to outdoor opportunities and reduce our water and energy use in our office, kitchen, and warehouse.


To learn more visit: https://onepercentfortheplanet.org or connect with us to discuss environmental giving programs. 


*EPA, Advancing Sustainable Materials Management Report, 2016