Nearly three-quarters (73%) of packaging and retail leaders are still collecting data on sustainable packaging manually, according to a survey of senior industry professionals carried out by packaging consultancy Aura.
That means that rather than using a dedicated sustainability data platform, or even an existing product lifecycle platform or SAP, most brands and retailers are still reliant on manual data collection and tracking it on a spreadsheet.
However, at the same time, half of those leaders (50%) think they’re on track to 100% data compliance. It suggests that many wrongly believe that manual data collection is going to be sufficient – at a time when anything less than 100% accuracy raises the spectre of significant fines under new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation.
The poll was conducted over a series of webinars, with senior attendees from some of the world’s largest retail, CPG and consumer brands.
It also found that only a quarter of packaging industry leaders (27%) are fully comfortable with their existing packaging regulatory knowledge and think they know what needs to be done now and in the future. A similar number (26%) are still only in the initial data-collection stage of their sustainable packaging journey.
And perhaps most worryingly of all, more than a third (35%) admit they don’t really have a sustainable packaging strategy.
Greg Lawson, managing director at Aura, said: “It’s astonishing that so many brands and retailers still seem to think manual data collection is enough to meet the increasingly stringent demands of new and upcoming regulation like EPR. It looks like a lot of companies may have their head in the sand, and as a result will be hit with higher fees because their data accuracy simply isn’t up to the challenge.
“The lack of knowledge is worrying, especially as consumer demand is shifting inexorably towards more sustainable products and packaging. Brands that don’t have a strategy – and aren’t ensuring their data is 100% compliant by using the right tools to collate and interrogate it, are simply going to be left behind.”