In February 2009, Summit Publishing Company launched  GreenerPackage™ , a Knowledge Exchange for Sustainable Packaging. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Christine Smallwood, director of business development for GreenerPackage, to learn more about this new initiative by the publishers of Packaging World magazine.

What is a Knowledge Exchange?

A Knowledge Exchange is a place where ideas can be shared.

How does GreenerPackage hope to serve as a Knowledge Exchange?

By tapping into the expertise of others. First, we formed an Expert Network, which has served as our Advisory Board since we germinated the idea of GreenerPackage. These individuals, recognized as leaders in sustainable packaging, have been a compass that has kept us true to our original ideals, which are to further sustainable packaging.

Who are the members of your Expert Network?

Representatives from Costco, SC Johnson, Estee Lauder, Unilever, Frito-Lay, Stoneyfield Farm, GlaxoSmithKline, General Mills, ConAgra, Colgate-Palmolive, Kraft, Marks and Spencer, Sears and Walmart; plus members of the consulting and academic communities – a sort of who’s who of sustainable packaging. But more importantly, people who are living and breathing the complex challenges associated with sustainable packaging and who are examining the myriad of ideas, processes, and solutions that are being brought to market everyday to make sustainability part of the traditional business model in the global marketplace.

How was the idea for GreenerPackage born?

My colleague, David Newcorn, Vice President/eMedia for Summit Publishing Company is a former writer and editor of Packaging World magazine. During his professional journey – moving from editorial to eMedia – David picked up and read the book, Cradle to Cradle, and was inspired to write a cover story for Packaging World featuring McDonough and Braungart. This spurred the formation of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Soon after, David became a thought-leader in eMedia.

It was David’s original idea to create GreenerPackage a few years later, after several successful website launches.

What was your role in the process?

Just call me David’s humble colleague, who also happens to have a personal passion for sustainability and the furthering of sustainable packaging.

In what other ways is GreenerPackage achieving its goal of being a Knowledge Exchange?

We have been able to tap into the more than 150,000-member database of packaging professionals, owned by our parent company Summit Publishing, in order to launch the site. This has provided immediate engagement of a statistical majority of the professional community. When a visitor comes to the site, they are provided access to daily news postings, developed and written by our Managing Editor, Anne Marie Mohan. In addition, the reader can join and participate in the discussions, either by starting one or commenting on others. We are also accepting entries for our GreenerPackage Awards and finally, we will be launching the GreenerPackage Product Database within the next six to eight weeks. This will be a very valuable tool for the industry that will provide transparency to the whole notion of sustainable packaging.

What is your relationship with ECRM® and Walmart as it relates to your Product Database?

Well, you’ll have to go to our site and read an interview Anne Marie Mohan just completed with Sam’s Club director of packaging, Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar.  In short, the GreenerPackage Database will be a powerful, third-party tool that will go a long way to help CPGs and Retailers make more sustainable packaging choices. We do this by providing a breadth of searchable information, requiring third-party audit of all environmental claims and creating a user-interface that is robust and elegant all at the same time.

How do you hope to stand out in what appears to be an increasingly crowded field?

By getting out of the way. Our journalistic ideals require us to report the news, void of opinion. We recognize that traditional business really demands the incorporation of sustainable packaging within a framework that not only requires better materials choices, but also discovers efficiencies which maintain and even heighten profitability. We have created a Knowledge Exchange where industry thought-leaders can share best practices that further sustainable packaging while staying true to the charters put forth by their shareholders.

___________________________________________________________________

Christine J. Smallwood is director of business development for GreenerPackage™ and a 24-year veteran of publishing within the packaging press.

For more information, please visit www.greenerpackage.com or email smallwood [at]greenerpackage [dot] com.