Food packaging and processing company, Tetra Pak, has announced that this year, more than 20 billion of its packages around the world have donned the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label.
Up from around 8.5 million in 2010, the label certifies that the paperboard used for the packaging materials comes from responsibly managed forests and other controlled sources.
"With more consumers and retailers demanding environmentally sound and ethically produced products, brands that carry the FSC label can attest that their products are packaged using material that has passed the toughest standards of responsible forest management," said Charles Brand, vice president marketing and product management at Tetra Pak.
In Australia, three Tetra Pak customers are launching proucts in FSC-labelled cartons: Freedom Foods and its Australia's Own Organic almond, rice and soy milk; Emma & Tom’s new 1L long life package for its Quenchers with Benefits range of juice product; and Harvey Fresh’s 2L milk and juice products.
Noel Ayre, managing director of Tetra Pak Oceania said, "Our long term goal is to offer all our customers the option to use FSC-certified material for their cartons. Consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, and are seeking sustainably sourced products."
In Australia and New Zealand, Tetra Pak has sold 13.3 million FSC-labelled packs to date. Other countries which have taken up FSC-labelling include Argentina, which has 1.8 billion FSC-labelled Tetra Pak packages (representing 70 percent of total Tetra Pak packaging) and the Benelux which has 1.2 billion FSC-labelled Tetra Pak packages (about 60 percent of total Tetra Pak packaging material).
In a recent survey of 6,600 consumers in 10 countries conducted by Euromonitor for Tetra Pak, around half said that the absence of information about the environmental profile of a product was an issue in their purchasing behaviour. And the same proportion said they find on-pack logos helpful in understanding the environmental impact of beverage packages.
The first Tetra Pak package with the FSC certification label was launched in the UK by Sainsbury’s in 2007. Today it is being applied by retailers and brand owners in 39 countries, including China, the USA, Canada, across South America and throughout Europe.