Walmart Sustainability Packaging Expo: zero tolerance for greenwash

Preparing to exhibit for the fifth consecutive year at Walmart's annual Sustainability Packaging Expo, packaging suppliers have become increasingly savvy in conveying their green messages.

That's according to Robert Parvis, Sam's Club manager of House Brands Packaging, who spoke with GreenerPackage.com, along with Ronald Sasine, senior director of Packaging, Private Brands for Walmart Stores, about the retailer’s upcoming event, scheduled for April 6-7 at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center, in Bentonville, AR.

"Their message is becoming more and more focused," Parvis says. "One of the things we are really pushing is clear communication, especially around anything related to sustainability claims."

Sasine agrees, "The packaging suppliers are learning the language of Walmart, and they are learning to engage and discuss packaging with Walmart buyers and merchants in a way that, in those early years, was much more difficult for them."
Packaging News

Clorox Co., a major consumer products maker, is battling high resin prices on a number of fronts.

"Price has become a more critical downstream business driver, If high prices are sustained, it can be disruptive to the industry. Companies will have to choose between cost reduction and innovation, and that impacts business growth."

Clorox has a lot at stake in the resin game. The Oakland, Calif.-based firm is a major buyer of polyethylene and polypropylene used in its Glad trash bags, bottles for Clorox bleach and other products. Glad and Clorox brands are U.S. market share leaders in their fields.

"Resin is our major raw material component, so it affects our downstream business," Lowrance said. "We have to look for ways to mitigate price volatility and price increases and we have to consider if substitute materials are more economically viable."

In this direction, Clorox has seen results in its ForceFlex line of Glad trash bags. The bags, introduced in 2004, use patented film technology to enhance performance while using less polyethylene.

Demand is up and supplies are tight so customers can have a hard time finding some hybrid models on dealer lots. Others are just waiting for you.

The Hybrid market

Hybrid vehicles are hot. You've probably heard it can be hard to find them in showrooms. Some dealers are even getting mark-ups over the sticker price.

With high demand - means manufacturers are selling hybrids as fast as they can make them?

Sustainability and sustainable packaging are the buzzwords that represent today's number one issue in the flexible packaging industry. The issue is simple: What can converters do to improve

product quality and the quality of their impact on the environment?

Chances are good that you heard a little something about going green this year. Marketing your company's eco-friendly policies was all the rage in 2008 and has carried over into 2009. Being green is not only good for our earth but it is good for business as well.

With all the attention surrounding this green movement some companies are concerned that their marketing efforts emphasizing their green practices are not going to produce any return on their investment. And environmentalists are concerned that this is just another media induced craze that will have little effect on the way we treat our earth.

Do these groups have reason to be concerned? Not according to the data, an estimated $500 billion is predicted to be spent by green consumers in 2008.