Eco labels aimed at carbon neutral packaging

Label Impressions, which serves the personal care industry with flexgraphic labels says its efforts to reduce carbon emissions during the production process have been acknowledged with a leading certification award. The company has been working towards achieving the North American Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification and Carbon Neutral status through the organization Carbonfund.org for some years now. The initiative was also achieved through the company's partnership with sister company Natural Source Printing, a green packaging provider that helped the company by sourcing eco-friendly materials. The company is also FSC and Carbon Neutral certified. Recently the company became the first flexo printer to receive the FSC certification, which it says reflects efforts to provide customers with the most comprehensive selection of green choices in the industry. California-based Label Impressions provides a host of flexography labeling solutions, including hot foil stamping and screen printing for pressure sensitive labels and tags, all exclusively supplied to the personal care industry. Jeff Salisbury, president of Label Impressions, said that the initiative provides a clear means for which its customers can actively reduce carbon footprints, a goal that many cosmetics companies are currently striving for in an effort to meet demands from both consumers and environmental authorities. US governments are pressurizing manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions in a bid to reduce the effect on the environment, while consumers are also voting with their feet by turning to products that are deemed to be more eco-friendly. All this pressure has resulted in the race for the personal care industry to go carbon neutral getting well under way, with competition getting particularly heated for packaging suppliers, as packaging is one of the first areas where big inroads in carbon emissions can be made. At the beginning of this month Curtis Packaging announced that it had become the first North American printing and packaging company to go fully carbon neutral. The company worked over a period of five years with the UK-based CarbonNeutral Company to get its FSC certification. Likewise eco-friendly packaging firm Plantic this month sealed a development, marketing and branding agreement with chemical firm DuPont that will lead it into the US market. In addition, World Wide Packaging is soon launching several eco-friendly packaging innovations onto the global market including plastic tubes made from used milk cartons.