NEW Standard to Boost Package Sustainability

Released by GS1 with Collaboration of The Consumer Goods Forum

Brussels, Belgium - August 23, 2013 -- GS1, the neutral, not-for-profit organisation that facilitates collaboration amongst trade partners with global standards across 150 countries, has released its newest standard, the Global Protocol for Packaging Sustainability (GPPS).

The GPPS, which was developed by The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), includes more than 40 environmental, economic and social indicators for packaging sustainability. It provides the consumer goods and packaging industries with a common language to discuss and assess packaging sustainability. GPPS metrics will now be part of a trade item's product information that is available from GS1's Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN). By leveraging GDSN, trading partners will be able to automate the cost-efficient exchange of real-time and trusted sustainability data about their product packaging.

Global and local businesses can gain many benefits from the GPPS standard such as cost benefits, reduced environmental impact, improved consumer perception, better decision making and extended influencing.

“GS1 is totally committed to supporting the drive for sustainable consumption and production," said Miguel Angel Lopera, Chief Executive Officer of GS1. "It has been a real pleasure to collaborate with the CGF to deliver an open global standard for an efficient and cost-effective way of exchanging vital data about packaging to optimise the resources used to protect consumer goods.  This project is a real example of partnership working to meet a critical need, and I believe that it augurs well for addressing product sustainability in a similar manner.”

The GPPS standard is also a big win for consumers because they will benefit from the reduced environmental impact and cost benefits that occur when companies design packaging holistically with the product in order to optimise overall environmental performance. In addition, the new standard can resolve consumer complaints about over packaging and a lack of consistency in information.

“One of the strengths of this project is how it has brought together so many companies and organisations from across our industry to work collectively on developing this common language. Now we need to put the language to work. We are already doing so in Unilever and we are seeing the benefit,” said Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and Co-Sponsor of the CGF’s Sustainability Pillar.

"The CGF is delighted to see the release of the open global standard for GPPS, and we look forward to further collaboration to improve the sustainability of consumer products," said Sabine Ritter, Executive Vice President, Strategy, Industry Initiatives, Strategic Alliances of the CGF.

About GS1

GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit, global organisation that develops and maintains the most widely-used supply chain standards system in the world.  GS1 standards improve the efficiency, safety, and visibility of supply chains across multiple sectors. With local Member Organisations in over 110 countries, GS1 engages with communities of trading partners, industry and government organisations, and technology providers to understand and respond to their business needs through the adoption and implementation of global standards. GS1 is driven by over a million user companies, which execute more than six billion transactions daily in 150 countries using GS1 standards. For more information, please visit: www.gs1.org.    

About The Consumer Goods Forum

The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) is a global, parity-based industry network, driven by its members. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of over 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers and other stakeholders across 70 countries and reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Forum member companies have combined sales of EUR 2.5 trillion. Their retailer and manufacturer members directly employ nearly 10 million people with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain.

The Forum, through its vision “Better lives through better business”, has been given a mandate by its members to develop common positions on key strategic and operational issues affecting the consumer goods business, with a strong focus on non-competitively sensitive process improvement. The Forum’s success is driven by the active participation of the key players in the sector, who together develop and lead the implementation of best practices along the value chain.

For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com

For Further Information:

Jim Bracken, GS1 Global Sustainability Director, jim.Bracken@gs1.org, +353 87 2534995

Lisa Sandberg, GS1 Global Marketing Director, lisa.sandberg@gs1.org, +1 609 557 4571

Lee Green, The Consumer Goods Forum, Communications Manager, l.green@theconsumergoodsforum.com, +33 1 82 00 95 70

Or contact GS1 Hong Kong at info@gs1hk.org.