I was ready to write about conservative Republicans and their distaste and disregard for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), and, oh, that would have been such fun as there’s plenty there! But I went to Brussels for Labelexpo and was caught up in “sustainability.”

Sustainability was everywhere. It was in every hall and almost in every stand. The word “sustainability” flashed in green and blue with sun, water, and trees. Interestingly, I had made a presentation at an AWA Release Liner Conference on the subject. My title: “Is the Print and Packaging Industry Really Sustainable?” Or, is there a lot of “greenwashing?” Who is telling the truth? And, this is really daunting, if there is greenwashing, who is going to bring them to task? I used a lot of acronyms in my presentation. Later, several participants said my acronyms confused them. Admittedly, I was moving pretty quickly with Calvin’s Scorecard, but I ran into the same confusion as I walked the show and read what sustainability meant to each exhibitor that used the word sustainability. I’ll deal with conservative Republicans in my next column, but let me try to bring clarity to some of the terms that are associated with sustainability.

The granddaddy of all the acronyms is PCF, product carbon footprint. This defines the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are generated, or consumed, and that’s produced during the lifecycle of a product. You can include all the stages of a product, from its raw material, to its creation, to its use, and, finally, to its resting place. That’s my interpretation, but I like it, because resting place, to me, is gentle and benign.

Here’s where things become a bit more complicated: emissions for a product are split into three different groups that we refer to as: Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. Fasten your seat belts!

SCOPE 1 – The CO2 emissions associated with manufacturing a product’s energy for the manufacturing process and transport of materials during the production process.

SCOPE 2 – The indirect CO2 emissions associated with the energy used for manufacturing and transport of a product, usually the CO2 emissions generated in producing the energy used for the manufacturing process.

SCOPE 3 – The indirect CO2 emissions associated with the production of the raw materials used to make a product, as well as deliver it to the production point.

We’ve come to believe that these direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions are the basic cause of climate change. However, keep in mind that these emissions are only part of the problem. Understanding and eliminating CO2, the carbon dioxide we generate, is actually easier than controlling methane gas, a much more virulent gas. For example, how do you keep a cow from belching?

The second most used acronym in our sustainability lexicon is LCA, Life Cycle Analysis, also known as Life Cycle Assessment. LCA is a methodology that measures and quantifies the “end-to-end environmental impacts of a product, process, or service.” 

LCA’s key focus is: identify and quantify the environmental loads involved (e.g., the energy and raw materials consumed, the emissions and wastes generated); evaluate the potential environmental impacts of these loads; assess the options available for reducing these environmental impacts. The key to LCA is that everything associated with a product should be part of the analysis. This includes water, building operation, people, etc.

FINAT, a number of years ago, did an LCA analysis on both a paper-on-paper label and film-on-film label. We were trying to compare the carbon footprint of our print technology to other print technologies. The two studies included transportation, manufacturing, and end of life. 

The studies proved that the carbon footprint of a PSA label is less than, for example, a glue-applied label.  Those studies are in the public domain and available on the FINAT website.

There are several other terms we use when determining sustainability:
Cradle to Grate is used by raw material producers to define their PCF/LCA from production to delivery to the customer (gate).  This includes energy used internally, as well as energy generated by transportation to the
customer’s facility.

Cradle to Grave includes the energy generated as the product is manufactured, used, and disposed of at the end of its life. All aspects of the “product life” need to be considered as the entire life is considered.

Cradle to Cradle defines where and how materials are to be recycled or reused. What I really like about cradle to cradle in our industry is the element of benign solutions for by-product, e.g., liners can be recycled and matrix can be used in energy.

One of the acronyms that I use frequently, RCA, is perhaps more North American in origin than the others. RCA is the acronym for recycle compatible adhesive. This developed many years ago when a consortium, created by the United States Postal Service (USPS), declared war on non-recyclable stamp technology. How could the government promote PSA stamps if they weren’t recyclable? 

The consortium included at that time all the household names in our industry and together under USPS leadership, developed definitions, protocol, and test methods that defined an adhesive to be benign, to be recyclable. Today that information is available on the TLMI website, which includes a list of available adhesives.

Acronyms aside, the “Life Cycle of a Product” is pretty darn complicated, particularly our pressure sensitive technology. 

Take a look at this illustration (page 34) from FINAT’s “Introduction to Product Carbon Footprint and Life Cycle Analysis.”

There are many different approaches to understanding the carbon footprint of a product. However, the acronyms are all common to each.  We need to make sure that our calculations, definitions, and test methods all have common ground so companies can compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges.

Further, I will admit this is a very brief list.  Someone could do a master’s thesis on acronyms used in our industry. Just think about resin designations. These alone are mind boggling.  This is merely an introduction and is focused on those I consider the most important.

Another Letter from the Earth


Calvin Frost is chairman of Channeled Resources Group, headquartered in Chicago, the parent company of Maratech International and GMC Coating. His email address is [email protected].