IGD and global sustainable consultancy Anthesis are sharing the stage at Empack, Birmingham on 21 February, to urge industry to take a holistic, all materials approach to sustainable packaging.
Fiona Powell, IGD Head of Sustainability and Sophie Lees-Millais, Anthesis Principal Consultant, will speak at the event, which crucially brings together innovators and experts in the field of packaging with manufacturers and producers seeking the best solutions for business and planet.
Three years ago, IGD – the essential partner to a thriving food and consumer goods industry -was asked to look at the issue of packaging and its impact on the environment. Its significant programme of work has included stakeholders from across the whole packaging value chain, who co-developed a landmark ambition to halve the environmental impacts of UK packaging systems by 2030. The work continues today, as collaborators IGD and Anthesis aim to share clear insight to businesses on how the problem of packaging can be tackled at scale.
Fiona Powell, Head of Sustainability at IGD said: ‘In working with industry to develop the ambition to halve the environmental impacts of packaging in the UK by 2030, we challenge the value chain to consider all packaging materials and broad environmental impacts.’
Sophie Lees-Millais Principal Consultant at Anthesis said: ‘We must encourage companies across the value chain to consider the holistic environmental impact of all packaging materials. Reducing the impact of packaging across climate, water, land use and virgin resource use is the only way to fundamentally achieve a sustainable production and consumption system.’
IGD has continued to work with businesses from across the value chain and in March will publish a co-developed business case for engaging with sustainable packaging, as well as calls to action for businesses and policy makers to deliver more sustainable packaging systems.
Fiona and Sophie will discuss the ambition's approach and implications at the conference and will be sharing the stage alongside colleagues from Defra, Heineken, Dyson, Ocado and others, to kick-start discussion and mobilise positive change.
For more information see Empack's programme. To read IGD’s latest report on reuse and refill, please see here.