FDBusiness.com

Avery Dennison has formalized a company-wide policy to promote responsible paper sourcing and procurement.

Developed with support from the Rainforest Alliance, Avery Dennison’s policy commits the company and its businesses to: identifying and disclosing the sources of the pulp, natural fiber and paper in its labeling and packaging materials; helping ensure that its suppliers follow sustainable forest management practices; evaluating and rewarding sound environmental performance on the part of its supply chain partners; seeking to maximize its use of recycled content and fiber sourced from forestry operations certified to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards; and working to avoid controversial fiber sources.

Avery Dennison is working with external certification experts, including Rainforest Alliance, to assess the potential risk to the company’s supply chain of illegal timber or irresponsibly harvested fiber and develop systems and procedures for documenting, verifying and reporting supplier performance.

Dean Scarborough, Avery Dennison chairman, president and chief executive officer, said: ‘As a leader in labeling and packaging materials and solutions, we recognize that we have a responsibility to help our customers and our industry become more sustainable.

‘Our policy will guide us in sourcing materials responsibly, using them more efficiently in our operations and developing greener products from them.’

Scarborough added: ‘We will review our policy and commitments on a regular basis to ensure they reflect the state of the industry and are based on the best available scientific evidence.

‘Our goal is to help minimize the environmental and social impacts of our sourcing decisions across the entire paper lifecycle.’