What's the Score?
As they say, you can't tell the players without a scorecard!
By Tom Polischuk (PackagePrinting.com)
Wal-Mart has clout—there’s no doubt about that. When Wal-Mart speaks, people listen—especially its suppliers. The company created a real buzz for RFID a few years ago, when it announced that it was mandating the use of this technology from its suppliers. Although this effort has faded from the limelight and has been largely redefined in scope, RFID technology received more attention during a two-year period than it would have gotten in a decade. RFID technology still has a ways to go in terms of reliability and cost, but Wal-Mart’s initiative probably did a lot to advance its development.
Before the dust had a chance to settle on its RFID efforts, Wal-Mart took on another noteworthy initiative—sustainability. In September 2006, the company announced that it would institute using a Packaging Scorecard with its suppliers to help the company meet its commitment to reduce the use of packaging materials across its global supply chain by 5 percent by 2013.
The Scorecard, unveiled at Pack Expo 2006, is based on metrics for how packaging impacts sustainability factors throughout many aspects of the entire supply chain. They were developed over many months by the Packaging Sustainable Value Network, a group of 200 suppliers, experts, and other Wal-Mart stakeholders. These metrics and their Scorecard weighting factors are: greenhouse gases/CO2 per ton of production (15 percent); material value (15); product/package ratio (15); cube utilization (a measure of storage efficiency in warehousing and shipping trailors/containers, 15 percent); transportation (10); recycled content (10); recovery value (10); renewable -energy (5); and innovation (5).
The Scorecard has been in various stages of use and implementation since its introduction. Even before it officially went online in February 2008, Wal-Mart reported that more than 97,000 products had been entered into the Scorecard by more than 6,300 vendors.
Diamond Packaging and CardPak are just two package printers that have been actively involved with the Scorecard and have been experiencing its impact firsthand.
Diamond Packaging has been proactive on the sustainability front for a number of years now, having committed to the use of renewable wind energy, and started a program called the greenbox initiative to develop and implement sustainable packaging solutions for its customers.
Dennis Bacchetta is director of marketing for -Diamond Packaging. Although he believes that sustainability has gained a great deal of traction from “a confluence of legislative, corporate, and consumer interest,” he also says that the Wal-Mart Scorecard has done its part in raising the stakes.
“Wal-Mart’s Packaging Scorecard tool has helped put the concept of sustainable packaging in the forefront of many companies’ and consumers’ minds, and thus been a key driver in trying to understand what sustainability truly is,” he says. “As a result, many consumer product companies [CPCs] have requested information on sustainability, including our efforts to design more eco-friendly packaging, and our experience with the Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard tool. We anticipate that as sustainability continues to grow in the public and corporate awareness, it will become ingrained in our corporate and social structure.”
David Himmelein, regional sales and marketing manager for CardPak, also recognizes the impact that the Scorecard has made and the opportunities that it presents to his company and others. “The Packaging Scorecard is one of the first tools of its kind to judge the entire package that hits the Wal-Mart shelves,” he notes. “This has been beneficial to CardPak because our EcoLogical Line of Packaging eliminates the harmful PVC plastic clamshells from the waste stream. The scorecard now gives us an opportunity to measure the differences in the original packaging and our solution.”
The ability to provide a tangible measurement system lies at the heart of the Scorecard’s value to its users. When something can be measured, it can be improved. “The value we get from the Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard is that it provides measurable evidence that our designs have increased a package’s sustainability,” says Bacchetta.
CardPak uses the Scorecard as an additional sales tool in its arsenal, and performs mock-Scorecard analyses to show the impact that its packaging system has when compared to traditional clamshell alternatives. “This information is then presented to our customers for them to use in making their decisions on the engineering of each product package. They are well aware of Wal-Mart’s objectives for the Scorecard, so will want to have the best possible score for each package,” notes Himmelein.
It is not surprising that Himmelein reports all of CardPak’s customers that sell to Wal-Mart are involved with the Scorecard in some form. To provide a value-added service to its customers, CardPak hosted an exclusive training event early in 2007 with ECRM and Mars Packaging that allowed its customers to get answers to their questions concerning the Scorecard.
Bacchetta notes that even companies that do not directly supply Wal-Mart have been impacted by the Scorecard due to increased sustainability awareness. “They see it as an opportunity to support a sustainable use of resources and cultivate a positive emotional connection to their brand,” he says.
Diamond Packaging has used the Scorecard for many customer projects. One in particular—done for a well-known personal care company, says Bacchetta—rated various products and developed a plan for redesigning their packaging based on weight, environmental impact, and material. “We then scored the new packaging to ensure that, when compared to the existing packaging, it resulted in a score improvement,” he explains.
CardPak successfully implemented a redesign for the packaging of GE’s compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that are carried in Sam’s Club stores, says Himmelein. “The original package was in a PVC clamshell, and scored a 3.5. By switching to the ClubPak™ style, we were able to more than double the scorecard value to a 7.5.”
Of the Scorecard’s nine metrics, both Himmelein and Bacchetta agree that a package printer can have the greatest impact on the product/package ratio.
In CardPak’s case, the traditional PVC clamshell is a prime target. “Oftentimes, the overall weight and size of the clamshell is too much,” says Himmelein. “We have reduced the footprint of the package and removed up to 85 percent of the plastic materials, resulting in a better score for this particular metric.”
According to Bacchetta, reducing the weight of a package can impact several areas in the Scorecard’s metrics, including conserving raw materials and energy, reducing greenhouse gases, and minimizing discards. “This can be achieved through careful material selection, reduced board usage, and the elimination of components (e.g., thermoform and shrink wrap).”
Another area of focus for package printers is cube utilization, says Baccetta. “However, this requires a higher level of collaboration with other partners throughout the supply chain (marketing/sales, distribution, retailer, etc.) in an effort to reduce material and energy usage, and maximize shipping efficiencies.”
Going forward
Since it was first announced in 2006, Wal-Mart’s Packaging Scorecard has made a significant impact throughout the consumer products arena. Last November, Wal-Mart again used Pack Expo as a forum to announce evolutionary changes to the system.
In a keynote presentation, Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, packaging director, Sam’s Club and co-manager of Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Value Network, reported that the Scorecard’s metrics would be adjusted to increase the focus on greenhouse gas and packaging weight reductions. She also said that in 2009, Scorecard implementation would begin to move beyond the U.S. and include other countries such as Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and China.
For many North American package printers, the Scorecard’s impact has already been felt. Himmelein attributes some of CardPak’s success with its EcoLogical Line to the Wal-Mart Scorecard. “Wal-Mart is the driving force in sustainable package leadership,” he says. “Our customers know this and we, in turn, want to be able to meet our customers’ needs. This is a growth opportunity for us as a company. Two years ago the EcoLogical Line of packaging did not exist at CardPak, and today it is almost 50 percent of our total product mix.”
“The Scorecard has had a positive impact on how we approach our business and our customers,” adds Bacchetta.
With the focus that the Scorecard is receiving from the packaging arena, it appears that Wal-Mart is well on its way to achieving its 2013 goal of a 5 percent reduction in packaging throughout its supply chain.
-- CardPak Inc.
FTC's Green Guides need update sooner than later
