Glossary

Plastic Footprint Part I: Insights from a Case Study

Plastic Footprint Part I: Insights from a Case Study

Plastic Footprint Part I: Insights from a Case Study


by: Leticia Socal | March 22, 2023

 

Plastic Footprint Part 1ClimeCo’s Plastic Project Partner, The Way Project, Cote d’Ivoire

At this point, we all know there is a global crisis of plastic waste. Consumers rank plastic pollution among the top three environmental issues [1] and have started associating plastic and packaging with environmental degradation. Consumers’ expectations of companies to shift to more sustainable practices have grown. Companies started committing to plastic reduction, recyclability, recycled content, and eliminating problematic plastic. There is so much to do, but where do we begin?

Once a company understands how plastics flow in and out of its value chain, it’s easier to work on plastic mitigation strategies. Plastic footprints are a fast-evolving starter to waste mitigation. They help a company achieve its commitments and plastic-focused ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) targets. A plastic footprint measures the total amount of plastic used, calculating the baseline against which progress can be measured. Despite its straightforwardness, application, and approach may vary depending on goals, purpose, and scope. Is the footprint measuring an entire company’s operations, or only focusing on one product, or could a company want to understand the plastic footprint of a one-off event? Defining the proper scope and determining which areas of plastic usage are included or excluded at the very beginning of the process is extremely important.

Modeled after its precursor, the carbon footprint, the plastic footprint reflects a similar model—measuring, mitigating, and investing [2]. This topic has gained more attention in recent years, followed by a spike in plastic pacts, agreements, bans, and zero-tolerance statements [3]. Global trends reveal that a growing number of countries are responding to customer demand, requiring more “environmental considerations into their products [4].” Perhaps the spike is fueled by fear, opportunity, or hope. Whatever the reason, the inspiration to act, and be successful, requires a baseline from which to set a foundation. Studying a success story here is meant to guide, educate, and inspire your plastic footprint on the first step on your journey to plastic ESG.


Case Study: Plastic Footprint for a Cosmetic Business

ClimeCo examined the process and corresponding results from conducting a plastic footprint for a cosmetic business whose mission is to provide clean products with ingredient transparency and zero or low waste in its operations. Plastic footprint assessments provide the baseline for action, valuable insight for informed decisions, long-term cost savings, and partnership opportunities across the value chain.

Let’s dive deep into the process of making one of its products: a body lotion. The steps of this exercise were: 

  1. Assessing the internal plastic footprint
  2. Designing and defining (where needed) mitigation measures
  3. Enhancing product offering and marketing
  4. Creating opportunities to connect more with customers and/or existing suppliers

Like a carbon footprint assessment, the first step is defining the scope. In this case, ClimeCo looked at the inflow, operational, and outflow of plastic in the company’s value chain.

  • Inflow plastic is the packaging that enters the company’s operations attached to a product and leaves it as waste. (In this case: ingredient packaging)
  • Operational plastic, like industrial plastic, is used and disposed of during a company’s operations (In this case: plastic gloves, stirring tools, and storage containers)
  • Outflow plastic is attached to a product within a company’s operational boundaries and leaves together with the product. (In this case: the primary packaging, outer box, marketing and instructional materials, and decorative add-ons)

Cosmetic Company Footprint Scope Example - ClimeCo
After a detailed survey, we clearly defined the picture of the plastic flowing throughout the company’s operations. An assessment of the type and form of plastic packaging and material usage (single use vs. durable) was done, detailing all important data and highlighting hotspots for action. Local waste management and partnership opportunities were included in the data analysis as well. This data built a roadmap with short, mid, and long-term actions.

With zero investment, the company reduced waste sent to landfill from 62% to 30%. Reducing waste to landfill was achieved with immediate, internal changes, such as proper on-site sorting and disposal, leveraging available waste management, and a local recycling center. Improved employee training and adequate labeling of waste bins were also vital in increasing landfill diversion and reducing recycling stream contamination with non-recyclables. Changes to the product packaging were made, reducing the outflow plastic footprint from 64% diversion to zero, as part of a 100% reusable and recyclable packaging program.

Next, the company took the following external steps to mitigate its footprint further while enhancing its relationships with suppliers and customers: 

  • Initiating upstream partnerships with suppliers to return and reuse shipping containers and packaging, reducing inflow packaging.
  • Offering refill and takeback programs to customers in exchange for discounts and rewards. This is only possible because the product packaging is now durable, washable, and can be sanitized with every use.
  • Evaluating operation-related and product-related certifications such as waste diversion, plastic-free seals, and recyclability.
  • Educating customers by adding information on the takeback program, disposal options, certifications, and the plastic footprint to product marketing.
  • Improving landfill diversion through local haulers and recyclers outreach (new goal is from 30% to less than 10%).
  • Offsetting the unavoidable plastic by investing in collection & recycling activities through verified plastic credits.


Aside from enhancing product messaging, customer engagement, and reportable ESG metrics for stakeholders, the cosmetic company saw a 10% increase in overall sales and positive customer feedback. Moving forward, plans for this company include expanding the plastic footprint exercise to other products, which is an easy task to implement due to the availability of initial footprint data.

With a quantified baseline and a coherent action plan laid out, the most challenging part of creating a successful plastic ESG plan is complete. The benefits of this plan go beyond reducing pollution. You can now create value that was unattainable before.

The next step requires answering questions such as: 

  • How much money are you saving by making plastic-conscious choices?
  • What are the new marketing opportunities available?
  • What is the ROI of changing your operations to be more sustainable?

Part II of this blog will answer these questions. Actions like these will appeal to your senior management, investors, and customers alike. There is a small window available where you can act, stand out from the competition, and be a part of creating the solution. Stay tuned for our next blog, where we outline the data you need to make a case for preventing inaction.



[1]  Shelton Group, Waking the Sleeping Giant: What Middle America knows about plastic waste and how they’re taking action

[2]  ClimateTrade, The evolution of carbon footprint measurement
[3]  Reuters, Big brands call for a global pact to cut plastic production
[4]  The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, The rise of single-use plastic packaging avoiders



About the Author

Leticia Socal is a chemist and seasoned plastic industry professional with over 15 years of experience spanning R&D, intellectual property, market research & strategy. Leticia is a certified TRUE Zero Waste advisor and a Blue Consultant. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Chemistry, a Master of Science in Materials Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science.

“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.”  Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

 

ClimeCo’s Plastic Project Partner, TONTOTON, Provides Cambodia Pollution-Free Coastline Through Plastic Credits

ClimeCo’s Plastic Project Partner, TONTOTON, Provides Cambodia Pollution-Free Coastline Through Plastic Credits

 

ClimeCo’s Plastic Project Partner, TONTOTON, Provides Cambodia Pollution-Free Coastline Through Plastic Credits

ClimeCo and its plastic credit partner, TONTOTON, were featured in an article by the Cambodia Investment Review regarding TONTOTON’s expansion into Cambodia and their newly launched initiative called “Plastic-Free Coastlines in Cambodia.”

Read the full article by visiting https://cambodiainvestmentreview.com/2022/02/19/tontoton-provides-cambodia-pollution-free-coastlines-through-plastic-credits/.

TONTOTON Plastic Free Coastlines Cambodia Initiative

About ClimeCo

ClimeCo is a respected global advisor, transaction facilitator, trader, and developer of environmental commodity market products and related services. We specialize in voluntary carbon, regulated carbon, renewable energy credits, plastics credits, and regional criteria pollutant trading programs.  Complimenting these programs is a team of professionals skilled in providing sustainability program management services, and developing and financing of GHG abatement and mitigation systems.

For more information or to discuss how ClimeCo can drive value for your organization, contact us at 484.415.0501, info@climeco.com, or through our website climeco.com. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using our handle, @ClimeCo.

ClimeCo Partners with Conceptos Plásticos to Develop A Global Plastic Credit Project

ClimeCo Partners with Conceptos Plásticos to Develop A Global Plastic Credit Project

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
CONTACT
Nancy Marshall, Vice President, Marketing
484.415.7603 or nmarshall@climeco.com 

ClimeCo Partners with Conceptos Plásticos to Develop A Global Plastic Credit Project

School made from recycled plastic construction bricks

ClimeCo has launched its Plastic Credit Program to partner with companies worldwide to develop projects to scale the recovery and recycling of ocean bound plastics. These projects generate plastic credits to provide supporting companies with a structured, verified solution to help address their plastic footprint and sustainability program communications. 

The Project

The Women and Young empowerment (WaY) project is an initiative from Conceptos Plásticos; a Colombian company focused on the circular economy with environmental, social, and economic impact. The WaY project is recovering post-consumer, non-recyclable, ocean bound plastic waste in Cote d’Ivoire. The project’s operations remove plastic waste that would otherwise remain in the environment and give it a productive next life. The recovered plastic waste is repurposed in Conceptos Plásticos’ facility to produce construction bricks. The project will implement a plastic economic value model that can be expanded to other African countries and beyond through this recovery and repurposing process. 

The WaY project is partnered with UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund) to build schools from the recycled bricks. These schools are constructed in areas lacking sufficient educational facilities and capacity. Every classroom built uses almost 7 tonnes of recovered plastic waste.  UNICEF has the goal to build up to 600 new classrooms in Cote d’Ivoire in 2022.

The project gives women participating in The WaY Methodology employment opportunities and a new source of income. Women collectors bring in collected plastic waste to be recycled in exchange for compensation and benefits such as health insurance. The project empowers women collectors with increased income, recycling industry labor rights, environmental practices, and child education.  Click here to learn more about the project’s social and environmental impacts.

The WaY Project employees at recycling facility

Support Plastic Waste Projects

ClimeCo works closely with project developers to help find support through the purchase of plastic credits.  The credit mechanism provides funding for these projects to expand their geography, collector workforce, and recycling facility capacity. ClimeCo partners with projects like The WaY and developers like Conceptos Plásticos to help clients with their plastic sustainability goals, including how best to support environmental plastic removal, develop recycling projects, and implement credits as part of an overall corporate plastic waste reduction effort.  

For more information about plastic credits or how your organization can support ocean-bound plastic removal, please email Chris Parker, ClimeCo’s Director of Plastic Credits at cparker@climeco.com.

About ClimeCo

ClimeCo is a respected global advisor, transaction facilitator, trader, and developer of environmental commodity market products and related services. We specialize in voluntary carbon, regulated carbon, renewable energy credits, plastics credits, and regional criteria pollutant trading programs.  Complimenting these programs is a team of professionals skilled in providing sustainability program management services, and developing and financing of GHG abatement and mitigation systems.

ClimeCo Named on Inc. Magazine’s 2021 Best in Business List for Environmental Services

ClimeCo Named on Inc. Magazine’s 2021 Best in Business List for Environmental Services

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
CONTACT
Nancy Marshall, Vice President, Marketing

+1 484.415.7603 or nmarshall@climeco.com

ClimeCo Named on Inc. Magazine’s 2021 Best in Business List for Environmental Services

The 2nd annual list recognizes 147 private companies that put purpose before profit 

BOYERTOWN, Pennsylvania (December 7, 2021) Today, Inc. Magazine named ClimeCo to the Inc. 2021 Best in Business list in the Environmental Services category. Inc.’s Best in Business Awards recognizes companies who have had an extraordinary impact on their clients and customers, communities, industries, the environment, and society, and honors those that have gone above and beyond to make a positive difference in the world. 

The core of ClimeCo’s business is to positively impact the world through advising and solving environmental challenges with innovative, market-based solutions in the evolving low-carbon economy – adding value while enabling their partners and clients to go beyond business as usual.  

ClimeCo is being recognized for its significant impact in the following areas: ClimeCo’s development of a new protocol for the adipic acid industry, which expanded the  utilization of a new abatement system to destroy greenhouse gas emissions; supporting the development of the Climate Action Reserve’s Climate Forward program; providing funding to Restore the Earth Foundation (REF) to help finance seedlings for the planting of 4,000 acres at their Point-aux-Chenes reforestation project; and for being a global leader in the development of the world’s first plastic credit that recovers post-consumer, non-recyclable, ocean bound plastic waste. 

From reforestation to plastic waste recovery, ClimeCo invests in a wide range of global projects that have a positive impact on the world.

“At ClimeCo, we live by the phrase of making a difference today for a better world tomorrow. Thirteen years later, it’s rewarding to see what our team has accomplished, yet we have so much more to do!” says William E. Flederbach, ClimeCo’s President & CEO. “Our vertically integrated, low-carbon solutions company provides sustainability consulting, project design and implementation, investment, and environmental asset trade. We love what we do and who we do it with and are excited to see the incredible global momentum in this space.” 

ClimeCo continues to invest in a wide range of global projects that mitigate and sequester carbon and find innovative purposes for plastic wasteFor more information about these projects or to discuss how ClimeCo can drive value for your organization, contact us at 484.415.0501, info@climeco.com, or through our website climeco.com. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using our handle, @ClimeCo. 

About Inc. Media

The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across various channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the Inc. 5000 allows these founders a chance to engage with their peers in an exclusive community with the credibility to help drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.


About ClimeCo

ClimeCo is a respected advisor, transaction facilitator, trader, and developer of environmental commodity market products and related services. We specialize in voluntary carbon, regulated carbon, renewable energy credits, plastics credits, and regional criteria pollutant trading programs.  Complimenting these programs is a team of professionals skilled in providing sustainability program management services, and developing and financing of GHG abatement and mitigation systems.

ClimeCo Enters Strategic Partnership with Heng Hiap Industries, an Integrated Plastic Recycling Company

ClimeCo Enters Strategic Partnership with Heng Hiap Industries, an Integrated Plastic Recycling Company

ClimeCo Enters Strategic Partnership with Heng Hiap Industries, an Integrated Plastic Recycling Company


BOYERTOWN, Pennsylvania (Nov. 16, 2021) – ClimeCo, a leader in the development and management of environmental commodities, is pleased to announce the formation of a strategic partnership with Heng Hiap Industries (HHI), an advanced recycled plastic manufacturer. Determined to prevent plastic from ending up in the world’s oceans and landfillsHHI pledges to recycle 30,000 tonnes of Ocean Bound Plastic (OBP) by 2025. Their current focus is to recover and remove OBP from Malaysia’s shorelines, rivers, islands, and coastal communities. Malaysia is ranked 5th globally for ocean plastic waste.  

ClimeCo is excited to partner with HHI to recover thousands of tonnes of OBP waste,” said Chris Parker, Director of ClimeCo’s Plastic Program. While providing a productive next life for the removed plastic, HHI’s operations will benefit coastal fishing and ecotourism communities by protecting the local marine biodiversity.”

Rooted in their belief that plastic is a resource, HHI converts OBP to upcycled finished goods, such as Louvre chairs and other household items. This operation creates a fully sustainable, closed-loop system where resources are reused and recycled as part of its circular design and solutions.  

“We are living in a decisive decade where the future is not yet determined and it depends on how we play our cards,” said Kian Seah, CEO of HHIWe could continue to destabilize the planet until the point of no return, or we could respond in a united front to reverse the damage. All effort in achieving plastic neutrality to offset the plastic footprint is the first step towards a smart plastic neutral society. We are honored to collaborate with likeminded partners who are believers and gamechangers to enable a cleaner, safer and happier planet which will benefit us all.”

HHI is the first company to globally receive the prestigious OBP certification by Zero Plastic Oceans and 3rd party verification and auditing performed by the leading global certification specialists, Control Union Certifications. ClimeCo is proud to exclusively market the plastic credits generated by this project to help fund future plastic waste neutralization efforts and potential expansion project opportunities. 

For more information or to discuss how ClimeCo can drive value for your organization, contact us at 484.415.0501, info@climeco.com, or through our website  www.climeco.com

About Heng Hiap Industries

Heng Hiap Industries is an advanced recycled plastic manufacturer that seeks better ways to optimize plastic to prevent it from ending up in the world’s oceans and landfills. Their primary focus is to recover and recycle ocean bound plastic waste and give it a productive next life as chairs or other household items. 


About ClimeCo

ClimeCo is a respected advisor, transaction facilitator, trader, and developer of environmental commodity market products and related services. We specialize in voluntary carbon, regulated carbon, renewable energy credits, plastics credits, and regional criteria pollutant trading programs.  Complimenting these programs is a team of professionals skilled in providing sustainability program management services, and developing and financing of GHG abatement and mitigation systems.