A look back.
In 2016, Petoskey Plastics introduced the Sustainability Scorecard to customers — an industry first for blown film manufacturing.
The program was originally designed to bridge the gap between what customers were buying and the real impact they were making. In partnership with sustainability consultants, Petoskey Plastics developed a system to calculate comparable metrics for savings in recognizable units like gallons of gas or pounds of coal. The process of developing the Scorecard and the analysis that feeds it is complex, but Recycling Today provided a succinct high-level breakdown.
“The scorecard is based on a life cycle analysis (LCA) approach to measuring sustainable practices. Typically, an LCA measures energy use, raw materials consumption, air emissions, water effluents and solid wastes during the life cycle of a production system – from the initial extraction of natural resources to the final disposal of wastes. The Petoskey scorecard differs by calculating pounds of carbon emissions saved in purchasing plastic film products with post-consumer recycled content (PCR).”
As the program and our capabilities have grown, the calculation now includes PCR and post-industrial recycled plastic (PIR), defined together as recycled content.
At the time of launch, now-current President Jason Keiswetter said of the program, “This is the first robust, proactive effort we have seen that is specifically targeted at customers purchasing products with recycled content. Moreover, the reporting highlights their involvement in a closed-loop recycling program.”
Rolling out the Scorecard gave Petoskey Plastics a new avenue to open conversations with customers and discuss the merits of recycled content in their products. As with our traditional trash bags, shrink film, and other sustainable offerings, these products share the same strength and durability, with the added benefit of using PCR and PIR. The scorecards became a pathway to discuss how recycled content could and had been working for customers.
Looking forward.
Across retail, construction and home improvement, automotive, shrink collation film, and sheeting divisions, our customers look forward to their yearly reports as April 22 approaches. This upcoming Earth Day, the sales team will send over 150 scorecards and certificates to select customers. They will join the over 1,000 scorecards sent over the last 10 years. Each one is calculated and customized for the recipient.
Each year of the program has enabled updates and improvements, culminating in this year’s new report: the Sustainability Certificate.
The Certificate aims to celebrate the many customers who made significant purchases of recycled content. This report will include an abridged version of the sustainability metrics. Meanwhile, the Scorecard is reserved for the highest consumers of recycled content. The Scorecard will stay the same, offering customers a complete view of their purchases and pounds, along with a breakdown of savings and reductions.
As seen below, the Scorecard has undergone cosmetic changes over the years, but its core mission has remained the same: to empower and educate our customers and closed-loop partners.
Matt Keiswetter, Packaging Division Manager, sends out dozens of projected scorecards throughout the year. He sees great value in communicating the prospective environmental savings when evaluating a shift from prime (virgin) resin to recycled content.
“Our scorecards show our commitment to sustainability and allow our customers to showcase their environmental efforts with their own customers and leadership teams,” Keiswetter said. The Scorecards and, now, the Certificates are both a celebration and a reminder of how the products we use every day can have a real influence on the world.
To learn more about the Sustainability Scorecard, our closed-loop program, and other sustainability efforts from Petoskey Plastics, visit our sustainability page.
