Dordan Manufacturing's Blog | Uncategorized (12)

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 5:05:00 PM

Heyyy! Oh man I just practiced my presentation for Sustainable Plastics Packaging to Dordan colleagues and boy do I have some work to do! It is sooo technical and wordy and I ran over the allotted 30 minute time. YIKES. I am catching the train back to Chicago so I can lock myself in my apartment and try to make it as good as possible before I leave for Atlanta tomorrow. I just don’t want the larger points to get lost in all the details…what to do what to do!

So this is it for me; next time we talk I will be a seasoned presenter, or something like that. UG! Wish me luckkkkkk I am definitely going to need it!

"Seeing it Sells it!"

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 5:05:00 PM

Hello!!!

Oh man was Chicago hit hard by the snow storm this weekend—it looked like we were hit by a frozen monsoon! I hope you all are staying warm!

So Sustainable Plastics Packaging 2010 was really good! The presentations were all very insightful, especially Suzanne Shelton’s of SHELTON GROUP, Patty Enneking’s of Klockner Pentaplast, Terry Swack’s of Sustainable Minds, and Sean Sabre's of ModusLink. I will give you the main highlights in a moment but first, drum roll please…

Dordan’s NEW Consumer Research Report, How Package Design Dictates Product Sales, “Seeing it Sells it!” is now circulating the plasma that is the internet! Distributed first to Dordan Newsletter subscribers on December 8th and then to the 70,000+ Packaging World New Issue Alert subscribers on the 9th, I now would like to share this Report with you, my packaging and sustainability friends. Click on the link below to access this research; I assure you it is worth the read!!

Consumer Research Report

AND I leave tomorrow morning for Bentonville, Arkansas, for Walmart’s Sustainable Value Network meeting. Keep your fingers crossed that I can make it out of Ohare!

When I return: SPP 2010 feedback; Walmart SVN feedback; and, much much more!!!

Tantalizing research

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 5:04:00 PM

HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO my packaging and sustainability friends!

I can’t believe it has been so long since my last post! A LOT has happened at Dordan, which is why I have been so neglectful! Where should I start…

Well first, we broke ground for Dordan’s Victory Garden!!!! For those of you who don’t know, Dordan is donating the use of a portion of its land to a local organics farmer, who intends to use our land to grow produce for the local community next spring. This farmer supplies organics to several community restaurants, who pride themselves on providing locally sourced foodstuff for the socially and environmental conscious consumer. While at first Emily, the organic farmer, intended to plow the plot, it turns out a rotary till or what not sufficed! Here is Phil, Emily’s dad (and also the gent who helped us construct our composter), tilling the soil:

And a closer shot of the tiller in action:

It was a lot of work, but after a couple hours they had plowed probably a quarter of the entire plot, which is almost an acre. They plan to finish half of the plot before the ground gets too hard to till and then finish the rest in early spring.

We are also in the process of researching rain barrels, which we intend to place next to our facility to collect the rainwater runoff from our roof to use to water the garden come summer. Phil says he is going to teach me how to use a hose as a medium for irrigation, as the plot curves gently downhill; therefore, we can use gravity to pull the water from our rain barrels via the hose to the thirsty vegetables. Cool beans!

SOOOO I finished my research report on how package design dictates product sales. I think it is super duper good, not to tout my own horn or anything. This is the result of almost a months worth of research and attempts to illuminate that the role packaging plays in consumer purchasing decisions. We are using this “white paper” in our last outgoing advertising for the year, which is the December Packaging World New Issue Alert. For some reason I don’t want to post it to my blog just yet, as it is scheduled to be distributed to the 70,000+ Packaging World subscribers on December 9th. Therefore, after its “launch” I will post it here for you, my packaging and sustainability friends. However, check out the introduction:

Consumer Research Report
How Package Design Dictates Product Sales: “Seeing it Sells it!”
By Chandler Slavin, Marketing Manager,
Dordan Manufacturing Co. Inc.

Packaging for a product is more than a medium of protection and storage or another convenient forum for advertising. Due to the significant investments made by marketers on the packaging of their products, one would have to assume that industry believes packaging to have substantial influence on consumer choice behavior and product experience. Despite this, there is little academic literature studying these interactions and no clear theory of exactly how packaging impacts consumers’ attitudes and actions. For example,
Does packaging influence consumers’ willingness-to-pay? Does it impact their brand choice? Do different kinds of packaging evoke different reactions in consumers? Are there external manifestations of these reactions in terms of their purchasing behavior?

Through a discussion of contemporary consumer and market research, we seek to answer some of these questions. In particular, we (1) discover how package design informs consumers’ perception of the product and brand; (2) discuss how said perceptions dictate consumer purchasing behavior; and (3) determine how to capitalize on these elements in order to increase product sales and product/brand loyalty.

Have I sparked your interest? Are you just chomping at the bit for MORE MORE MORE?

AND I leave for Atlanta on Tuesday for my presentation at Sustainable Plastic Packaging on recycling thermoforms. YIKES.

Let’s talk tomorrow.

Tootles!

Wowza!

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 5:01:00 PM

Happy Monday Funday!

Pack Expo was super awesome; I will fill you all in tomorrow as I am up to my ears in emailing and deadlines.

BUT I have some wonderful news: I have been invited to speak at Sustainability in Packaging in Florida in February on my Recycling Report!!!

At first I thought it was a joke, but it’s not; check out the invite below:

Dear Chandler,

I am currently working on the program for Pira International upcoming 5th Sustainability in Packaging conference, programmed for February 22-24, 2011 in Orlando, FL. On behalf of the advisory committee (Oliver Campbell/Dell, Victor Bell/ EPI, Mickell Schultheis/Coca-Cola, Paola Appendini/Kraft, Alan Blake/Procter & Gamble and John Kalkowski/Packaging Digest), I would like to invite you to speak at the conference next spring.

Attendees of Pira International's Sustainability in Packaging conference, now entering its fifth year, have come to expect topical, in-depth and technical presentations that capture the challenges and successes faced across the entire supply chain and that avoid the hype and bias that have crept into the 'green industry.' The 2010 program attracted more than 300 participants and received great feedback on the quality of presentations and diversity of view points represented.

Some of the topics to be covered in the 2011 program are:

Positive developments in recycling thermoforms, more details to come (hopefully)!

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 4:50:00 PM

DA BEARSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Misc. updates FUN

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 4:44:00 PM

Happy Monday Funday!

Before I get to the meat of today’s post, which will either discuss biodegradable plastics OR the SPC meeting (I haven’t decided yet...) I wanted to provide you with a recap of Dordan’s various sustainability initiatives and miscellaneous tid bits…

Stay tuned!

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 4:43:00 PM

Greetings world!

I have just returned from Phoenix where the Sustainable Packaging Coalition was hosting their fall, members-only meeting; it was super cool and focused specifically on Extended Producer Responsibility, one of my favorite topics! For some background on EPR/Product Stewardship, download my research at: http://www.dordan.com/sustainability_epr_report.shtml.

I will give you tons of feedback from the meeting and more, including the long-anticipated report on oxo/biodegradable plastics/additives on Monday. Today’s post was just to inform you, my packaging and sustainability friends, that I am back and will resume blogging on Monday. Exciting!

Tons of good stuff to come!

This blogger is going on vacation!!!

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 4:41:00 PM

Hello and happy Friday!

Guess what: I have been officially invited to present at the Sustainable Plastics Packaging conference in Atlanta in December! EXCITING!!!! I will keep you posted on what topic I decide to present on…I’m thinking recycling…ha!

As it turns out, the topic of “biodegradable plastics” and/or “biodegradable plastic additives” is a very complex yet ambiguous one; I have been searching through numerous databases via my DePaul Alumni library card and have amassed a ton of research. As such, it will be a bit until I can produce a report that I feel is concise yet contains all the information one needs to know when considering biodegradable plastics and/or biodegradable plastic additives. These materials/additives are different, however, than the compostable resins we have already investigated, sampled, and offer to our customers because the supplier of such claims a completely different chemistry and touts different certification than that attributed to compostable resins.

For those of you who do not follow my blog regularly, the motivation for this research project came from one of Dordan’s customers who expressed interest in these “innovative additives,” which when added to a traditional fossil-based resin, renders it biodegradable IN ANY DISPOSAL ENVIRONMENT; be it in a landfill, by the side of the road, in a compost pile, basically anywhere! And, even better, these additives have no impact on the materials’ performance and do not influence the shelf life of the package! AND (I know the benefits seem ridiculous), it does not impact the recyclability of the material!

Seem too good to be true?

I will let you know what I uncover after Labor Day weekend as this blogger is going on vacation!!!

When I return, Dordan begins composting, gets serious about zero-waste, attends D200’s Environmental Task Force fall meeting, and educates itself about the science behind biodegradable plastics and more!!!

See you in September! I wish you all a stupendous fall time!

Discussion of Waste Audit

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 3:52:00 PM

Hello my packaging and sustainability friends! I do apologize for my lack of blogging last week! I wish I could tell you that my excuse was that I was on vacation, but I wasn’t; instead, I was working with Dordan’s web designer on the restructuring of our sustainability information as with the introduction of our new initiatives, we had to create new space. This, consequentially, resulted in me re-writing a lot of our sustainability web content, which always takes a lot of brain power!

In addition, several posts back I described how Dordan was brainstorming on a logo that would represent our new sustainability efforts. We wanted something that was a diversion from the traditional Dordan aesthetic (bold colors, hard lines, emphasis on technology and engineering), because our sustainability efforts are so warm and fuzzy, which thermoforming isn’t, traditionally. Ha. Anyway, a lot of other companies have their “green team” or “green squad” or whatever, which indicates to their customers and the public what the company they represent is doing in terms of “sustainability.” Because we didn’t want to join the bandwagon but wanted to convey that Dordan was actually doing something—a lot actually—in the way of sustainability initiatives, we thought that a logo that branded our actions would be super cool!

After brainstorming internally with nothing to show for it, we turned to a local Woodstockian artist—Gabriel Karagianis—who is AMAZING. Check out his work here: http://www.gabrielshorn.org/

Obviously ahistorical and abstract paintings don’t scream sustainability or corporate branding, so I was a little unsure of what he would produce. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long before he created an awesome concept, which I will soon unveil to you, my loyal packaging and sustainability friends. And to be a tease, it’s really, really, really cool and may in fact provoke us to alter that traditional Dordan aesthetic all together…more to come!

So yeah, busy bee in terms of marketing.

Shall we discuss the results of Dordan’s first waste audit, now that I have been given over a week to recover?

Ok, our first waste audit was illuminating for several reasons, which is why I encourage every company to conduct there own. What I discovered was that the majority of materials we were sending to landfill were of the same “type.”

Check out the excel spread sheet here, which I created to help calculate the results of the audit; please note: I removed the quantities of material landfilled for proprietary considerations. Sorry Charlie!

And by the by, the whole copy and paste of spreadsheet into blog did not go very well-- all the materials have been cut off and now I cant delete it! Weird bears. Sorry for the eye soar.

Location: Dordan's central dumpster
Date: 7/15/2010
Tub weight: 5 Lbs.
Unit of measure: Lbs.
	Corrugate	Heavy brown paper	Wood scrap	Dirty plastic scrap	Green/white plastic strapping	Plastic film/shrink wrap	Metal strapping?	Misc. paper	Misc. plastic	Food and food packaging?	Paper towels?
Tub 1
Tub 2
Tub 3
Tub 4
Tub 5
Tub 6
Tub 7
Tub 8
Tub 9
Tub 10
Tub 11
Tub 12
Tub 13
Tub 14
Tub 15
Tub 16
Tub 17
Tub 18
Tub 19
Tub 20
Tub 21
Tub 22
Tub 23
Tub 24
Tub 25
Tub 26
Tub 27
Tub 28
Tub 29
Tub 30
Tub 31
Tub 32
Tub 33
Tub 34
Tub 35
Tub 36
Tub 37
Tub 38

TOTAL:

While the weights have been excluded, consider the following assumptions:

Post-industrial corrugate composed the largest category by weight of landfilled materials;
Post-industrial “dirty” scrap composed the second largest category by weight of landfilled materials. While Dordan is proud to grind most of its scrap for recycling, there is some scrap that falls on the ground or gets mixed up with other resins that could be a contaminate if added to the regrind material. Like most post-industrial/consumer materials, our scrap regrind has to meet certain specs, depending on who is buying it for reprocessing; therefore, we have to maintain that the our scrap is clean and uncontaminated prior to selling it to a plastics remanufacturer. Get it?
Wood scrap composed the third largest category by weight of landfilled materials;
Heavy brown paper composed the forth largest category by weight of landfilled materials;
Paper towels composed the fifth largest category by weight of landfilled materials;
Flexible plastic packaging i.e. shrink wrap composed the six largest category by weight of landfilled materials;
Followed by: Metal strapping, plastic strapping, food waste, misc. paper and plastic waste.

I approached our CEO with the results of the audit, with a plan in mind. I was hoping (so, so very much), that prior to conducting the next audit, we could implement some sorting techniques via our employees, which would make my job A LOT easier. After all, the gross part only happened during the audit of the wet waste, which didn’t go very well, as I freaked out and weighed everything together, thereby compromising the integrity of the data. Because I was told that prior to purchasing a composter one had to determine how much “compostables” one generates, I thought it was very important to perform a legitimate audit of this material. And because all the food waste was commingled with the office paper and bathroom waste, I couldn’t generate reliable data. I will follow up with this thread in a bit…

Anyway, I sat down across the desk from our CEO, results in hand. I took a deep breath, and began:

“As you know, I performed our first waste audit last week.”

“And how did it go,” he inquired?

“Good…gross, but good…” I stuttered but quickly resumed.

“Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good reading of our food waste generation because nature’s process had begun and it was impossible to separate the food from the paper towel waste, among other things.”

“Ok…?”

“So I was hoping that we could maybe begin teaching our employees to segregate out their food waste from their food packaging waste in the cafeteria. Perhaps we could have like 4 bins: 1 for food waste, 1 for food packaging waste, one for recyclables i.e. aluminum cans, and one for misc. garbage that doesn’t fall into the above categories. This way we can really see how much we generate in order to select the most appropriate composter…

“Ok…that’s a possibility…but what about the waste generated from our factory,” he continued?

“Well, by far we throw away more corrugate than any other material; however, the tonnage isn’t that great. It may therefore be difficult to find a buyer, but again, I feel as though we need to perform more audits in order to establish a baseline upon which to assess our average material generation per week, month, etc.”

“Ok…?”

“So if we intend on conducting more audits, I think the goal would be to get really good data. In other words, in order to find a buyer, I assume we have to guarantee a certain amount of material per some time frame. Prior to engaging in said talks, we need to really know how much of this material we generate. Therefore, I suggest beginning to train our employees of the factory to segregate out the different industrial waste into different receptacles. Perhaps we could have one for corrugate ONLY; one for plastic scrap ONLY; etc. That way, performing our next audit would be much easier: we would only have to weigh the receptacle and subtract out the weight of said receptacle, which means no more dumpster diving!”

He looked as though he was pontificating…

“Would this be something you and the plant manager would consider” I continued?

“I don’t see why not,” he replied.

After that he instructed me to do some more research, and tell him what I wanted; he would then determine if such an approach was feasible and if so, I could begin implementing it. WOHOOOOOOO!

Oh man, I have to go!

I am so sorry to do this to you but I have to suspend blogging until I have finished the ad content for Dordan’s August New Issue Alert! I am writing a white paper on recycling thermoforms, which is super technical, and as such, requires me to work very hard for the next several days as the content is due August 1^st! I will be a crazy person until then; wish me luck.

Tune in next week to learn more about achieving zero-waste, see our new sustainability logo, and much much more.

YAY packaging and sustainability!

Metrics, metrics, and more metrics...52 in fact!

Posted by Chandler Slavin on Oct 16, 2012 3:47:00 PM

Happy Monday Funday! I hope everyone had a nice weekend and one full of relaxation!

As most industry-folk know, the Global Packaging Project released its “A Global Language for Packaging and Sustainability: A framework and a measurement system for our industry” a week ago-ish, which discusses, as the title implies, a global metric for assessing the sustainability of a given package or packaging system. Pack World’s/Greenerpackage.com’s Anne Marie Mohan provides a good summary of the project here with the report(s) available for download: http://www.greenerpackage.com/metrics_standards_and_lca/gpp_releases_global_framework_measurement_system_sustainability.

As Mohan explains, the GPP looks to create a GLOBAL metric for quantifying the “sustainability” of a package/packaging system. While the Walmart Scorecard and the SPC’s Metrics for Sustainable Packaging exist in isolation, this project looks to be the over-arching governance on sustainable packaging metrics, absorbing the work of both the SPC and Walmart. From what I believe, if a new metric wishes to be added to the Walmart Scorecard, it must first be presented to the GPP for consideration and validation.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of “sustainable packaging metrics,” a “metric” can be understood as an “attribute” that a given package or packaging system has in the context of the environment from a life cycle approach. For instance, packaging weight could be a metric taken into consideration when trying to quantify the environmental profile of a given package, as is the case with the SPC’s COMPASS packaging life cycle assessment modeling software and the Walmart Scorecard (packaging weight informs the energy required to transport the product/package throughout the supply chain and consequentially impacts GHG emissions, fossil fuel consumption, etc.)

Unlike the Scorecard and COMPASS, however, this global set of metrics takes into account social and economic indicators, in addition to the environmental ones; in my opinion, this integration makes the GPP’s approach to assessing packaging sustainability a much more holistic and therefore efficient tool than those currently in use.

Taken together, the GPP proposes 52 metrics that need to be recognized in the discussion around issues pertaining to packaging and sustainability. 52, isn’t that wonderful!!!

And here are some of my favorites:

Environmental—chain of custody: This questions if the production/cultivation of the feedstock (cellulous vs. fossil fuel) is done so “sustainably.” Think Forest Stewardship Council…AWSOME!

Environmental—water used from stressed sources: This metric questions where the water comes from that facilitates the production/cultivation of the packaging feedstock. Check out the Global Water Tool, based on several independent sources, which provides a global water scarcity mapping function for the identification of production activities occurring in stressed or scarce watersheds:

http://www.wbcsd.org/templates/TemplateWBCSD5/layout.asp?type=p&MenuId=MTUxNQ&doOpen=1&ClickMenu=LeftMenu=LeftMenu

There's this, too:

http://www.ifu.ethz.ch/staff/stpfiste/index_EN

Economic—packaged product wastage: this metric questions the value of packaged product lost due to packaging failure. I like this one because it is so simple; it reaffirms the number one function of packaging, which is, to protect the product. In a time when “smaller product to package ratio”, “material reduction” and “downgauging” has become, for the most part, our industries’ approach to “sustainability,” it is nice to be reminded of the necessity for excess…

Social—community investment: This metric questions the role a corporation plays in its community. Because Corporate Social Responsibility reports are so in vogue, it’s nice to see that such efforts will be quantified with this assessment, hopefully influencing purchasing decisions.

For the other 49 metrics, check out the report here:

http://globalpackaging.mycgforum.com/allfiles/TCGF_Packaging_Sustainability_Indicators__Metrics_Framework_1.0.pdf

Ok folks, that’s all I got for today. I am researching how to perform a waste audit so we can determine what type of composter would be the most appropriate for Dordan’s food and yard waste generation. Details to come!

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