Today, the movement to save the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests from ending up as take-out containers, shoe boxes, or other paper packaging just got kicked up a notch. Crown Van Gelder is thrilled to join a cadre of companies in the Pack4Good [and Canopy Planet] in committing to eliminate controversial forest fibre from our packaging, while exploring Next Generation Solutions for packaging made from alternative sources.
Crown Van Gelder’s papers are 99% bio based; pulp sourced from sustainably managed forests, sugar beet pulp, starch, natural pigments and surface water. Only a few auxiliary materials, colouring agents and glues are not bio based; natural gas is used as an energy source in the manufacturing process. After two years of research in 2020 Crown Van Gelder developed Crown Native with the Dutch agricultural cooperative Cosun Beet Company as a strategic partner. The agricultural process residue from Cosun’s production process, beet pulp, forms a valuable resource for the paper and Crown Van Gelder succeeded in creating paper with 20% beet pulp, thus achieving environmental gains in several areas.
Over three billion trees are cut down every year for paper packaging. That is 95 trees every second, over 5,000 every minute, over eight million every day — many from the world’s most vital forests. Packaging is often thrown out within seconds of use, and this loss of forests is resulting in major impacts to climate, biodiversity, and human health.
“We are thrilled that Crown Van Gelder has joined the Pack4Good initiative. They join a group of companies that are the out of the box thinkers we need — leaders ready to transform paper packaging supply chains, and scale up solutions to save our forests and climate,” stated Nicole Rycroft, Executive Director of Canopy. “There are so many solutions just waiting to be implemented, it’s time to take them from the margins to the mainstream. Our work with Crown Van Gelder will help us do just that.”
All of the Pack4Good partners included in today’s announcement are committed to ensuring that, by the end of 2022, all their packaging is:
● Free of Ancient and Endangered Forests.
● Designed to reduce material use.
● Maximizing alternative Next Generation fibres (such as agricultural residues).
● Using FSC-certified wood when virgin forest fibre continues to be used.
Canopy launched the Pack4Good initiative in October 2019, and its partners include fashion brands, personal care brands, printers, and telecommunication companies, as well as Next Generation Solutions providers, with more sectors and companies expressing interest every day.
https://www.cvg.nl/en/news/cvg-joins-pack4good-initiative