FDBusiness.com

Packaging companies MeadWestVaco Corporation (MWV), Multi Packaging Solutions (MPS) and Ellis Paperbox have signed-up to the “world’s largest user-managed open data sustainability platform”, Ecodesk, in order to measure and analyse supply chain energy use and carbon emissions.

Partly supported by government grants, Ecodesk is a private equity-funded initiative with shareholders from the UK and Australia, founded by CEO Robert Clarke in 2006 with the intention of establishing a “global standard of excellence in data rigour and communication of sustainability data and information”.

Through Ecodesk, companies such as MWV, MPS and Ellis Paperbox can target suppliers to better understand their energy use and carbon emissions, and develop a more complete picture of their own environmental impact as well as identifying possible areas of improvement and cost savings in the supply chain.

Each company uses the Ecodesk platform to openly publish its sustainability data.

“The response from packaging businesses to customer requests to report has been amazing and a credit to the industry,” says Robert Clarke.

“Their understanding of the commercial benefits of sustainability data and the role it can play in terms of procurement and reputation has been refreshing.”

Such transparency and collaboration, Clarke adds, “can only lead to a stronger, more dynamic packaging industry”.

MWV’s vice president of safety, health and environment Dirk Krouskop says: “Every company wants a lean and efficient supply chain but without transparency it cannot be achieved in today’s world.”

Ecodesk is a live, open data, web-based platform which enables organisations of all sizes to search, publish, analyse and communicate sustainability data in one place.