Avery Dennison and L’Oreal Americas team up on environmental impact of labels

L’Oreal has launched a strategy to meet tomorrow’s sustainability challenges, Sharing Beauty with All, and has committed to a number of sustainability targets, including the continued improvement of its packaging’s environmental profile.

The collaboration between Avery Dennison and L’Oreal Americas has already produced an Avery Dennison Greenprint assessment showing how thinner label materials can reduce environmental impact. Greenprint is a screening lifecycle tool launched in 2010.

According to L’Oreal, the Avery Dennison Greenprint tool allows it to look at the impact of its label materials, including the raw material extraction, manufacturing and, ultimately, the label’s end-of-life. This approach is able to identify where the biggest environmental impacts lie and to devise strategies on how best to mitigate these impacts.

This method guided L’Oreal in its decision to transition the labels for some of its leading products to Avery Dennison’s Global MDO substrate, which is designed to lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and waste generated in disposal.

By switching from Avery Dennison’s Global co-extruded film product to Global MDO, L’Oreal has reduced environmental impacts from 7-19 percent across the categories of fossil material, water use, energy use, GHG emissions and solid waste.

David Wolbach, Packaging Hair assistant vice president at L’Oreal Americas, said: ‘We strongly believe in a sustainable supply chain, and this is ingrained in our business practices.

‘However, to achieve the ultimate goal of reduced-impact materials, we cannot work alone. It is essential that all facets of the value chain – material suppliers, printers, consumers and recyclers – collaborate together to establish a clear and transparent low-impact product stream globally.’

‘It is equally important that we have the necessary information available to understand the environmental impacts of the materials we are using,’ added Wolbach. ‘This helps us immensely in our material selection process.’

Rosalyn Bandy, Avery Dennison sustainability manager for North America, said: ‘Improvements in sustainability require collaboration across the value chain, including converters recommending the right material to brands.

‘L’Oreal’s leadership in improving the environmental profile of packaging is driving the value chain to work closer together.’