The carbon crisis: Four big questions for the packaging industry
What practical steps is the industry taking â and what solutions are on the horizon â to tackle the monumental challenge of carbon reduction? Victoria Hattersley spoke to experts from the Carbon Trust, Amcor, Mondi, Smurfit Kappa and Tetra Pak to get their views on some of the big questions around this issue.
Reducing carbon emissions to avert climate catastrophe is the true existential challenge of our times â far more than Covid or anything else we can conceivably think of. And while the pandemic might have given us some temporary breathing space over the past year as emissions, according to the Global Carbon Budget Report, took a 7% drop, itâs almost certain we will be back on the same destructive path as soon as life returns to what we might blithely consider ânormalâ.
More Products Are Adding Carbon Labels. But What Do They Really Mean?
An increasing number of consumer products from bacon to body wash now bear labels pertaining to their environmental impact. Here’s how to separate the truly meaningful claims from the marketing speak. Sarah Lazarovic Updated
(Photo: istock)
Carbon neutral, carbon zero, carbon offsetting…what does it all mean, and why should you care? Well, all these terms have a role to play in helping us understand and take action on the climate crisis. At the same time, their intense proliferation and deep inconsistency has made it hard to get a handle on what producers are actually trying to tell us about their goods and services. Of course, at the end of the day, it’s also about marketing: companies want consumers to think they are doing right by the planet, even if in reality their actions aren’t quite so straightforward. So let’s dig into the language so we can better understand these copious