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Executive Director - Paul Curtis
I would like to thank you all for coming and to welcome our guests:
Thank you to those companies, councils, individuals and tertiary students who entered this year's Awards programme. The judges and technical advisors were incredibly impressed with the degree of effort and thought that has gone into this year's entries. The high standard of the product designs and the consideration of both processes and disposal issues are commendable. In all, 59 entries were submitted and due to the extremely high standard, this year was one of the toughest yet for the judges to agree on the winners. All tonight's winning entries share one trait: they will be successful. Not because they're eco-friendly or warm and fuzzy. They will be successful either because they present the most economical solution to a problem or because they will deliver better products and more profitable results. The 2007 awards coincide with the end of the third year of the New Zealand Packaging Accord; a unique partnership between industry, central government, local government and recycling operators to reduce the volume of packaging in our waste stream. During its first two years, the Packaging Accord came in for criticism that it wasn't delivering on its targets fast enough. Well the Japanese have a saying in business that 'complaints are jewels to be treasured' and we took this philosophy to heart. And although it is an often overlooked fact that packaging saves more waste than it creates and we consistently have one of the highest rates of paperboard recycling in the world, and our recycling rate compares favourably with Australia and Europe, we acted on those criticisms and now the Accord is gathering momentum at an unprecedented pace.
There is no doubt that we are well set to deliver on our targets. This is not false bravado. Yesterday I had the pleasure of announcing the 2006 packaging recycling figures. Packaging recycling in New Zealand was up by over 67,000 tonnes on the previous year, which is equivalent to a saving of nearly 33,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide or 8,000 cars permanently removed from the roads. We have already surpassed the Accord recycling targets for paper and steel and we are at least 95% of the way to achieving our recycling targets for aluminium, glass and plastic. Tonight is a tangible showcase of the best products and initiatives which lie behind these impressive numbers. I would like to thank the judges and technical advisors for giving up their valuable time to preside over the entries…
Of course, tonight would not be possible without support from our sponsors...and supporting sponsors. And neither would tonight be possible with support from you, our guests… Thank you for coming and enjoy your evening.
Welcome to you and to the 50 businesses or organisations represented here this evening. Tonight is a celebration of innovation and excellence. Innovation distinguishes between leaders and followers. Business guru Jim Collins wrote that leaders are: " infected with an incurable need to produce sustainable results -resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great - passionate, intense, focused." The entrants in this year's awards epitomise these qualities and the judges' comments reflect the passion, intensity and focus with which these new products or services have been developed and brought to market. For most of the 17 years that I have been part of the grocery industry, packaging has been chosen to protect and preserve products from production to consumption. For marketeers, packaging provides an opportunity to inform and to make your brand stand out on the supermarket shelf. But packaging is now an integral part of every company's environmental image. It tells a story about how committed we are in reducing the impact which we have on the planet. And the stories told by the Award entries tonight make excellent reading ranging from:-
The common thread is a passion for finding sustainable solutions which have competitive edge. This is entirely consistent with what consumers want -products which consider the resources used to make them and what will happen to them after they have been used. When these awards started, early adopters of sustainable design provided products in anticipation of the market following. This is changing at a pace. The Government's announcement yesterday of sustainable procurement criteria for paper products, vehicles and lightbulbs reflects this appetite for products that literally don't cost the earth. Sustainability was not much talked about in the 1990's but it's part of the mainstream conversation today. I am involved with the Make a Difference campaign to reduce the use of plastic bags at our checkouts. With prominent and consistent messages and alternatives available, people are now remembering their eco-bags when they go out shopping. Since the start of the Accord the retail signatories have eliminated 70 million bags with a corresponding reduction in plastic equivalent to 17 million two litre drinks containers. We will hit and most likely exceed our target of a 20% reduction now that consumers are part of the solution. Likewise the Steel Can Association's extensive PR campaign to remind households to recycle steel cans has tapped into children's imaginations with its Hanable the Canable character. And the Glass Packaging Forum has raised over $2 million in voluntary levies with some recipients of their funding here this evening. Everyone entering these Awards has made a major investment in research, design, marketing and promotion. There are over 230 people here from across the supply chain, local and central government and the media to celebrate those achievements. As a nation we tend toward the glass is half empty rather than half full view. We now have a packaging recycling rate of 57% which is up there with the rest of the world. They are doing slightly better across Europe with an aggregated rate of 60% but Australia has a very similar rate to our own at 56%. So I would like to thank everyone who has helped us achieve the 57% recycling result. With this momentum, we can show the rest of the world that a voluntary model works best. It's successful here because unlike voluntary agreements elsewhere; our Accord is a partnership between all sectors of industry and local and central government. This is our major point of difference. Let's bring to everything we do the passion which 4 million people have about winning the Rugby World Cup. In closing, I would like to thank Paul Curtis, Executive Director of the Packaging Council along with Deb Statham, Donna Hellens, Roshni Prasad and Sharon Jereb for making this evening possible. Special thanks also to the Minister for making time to celebrate these Awards with us. Good luck to all the entrants. Whilst it's good to win, the real winner tonight is New Zealand. So in the words of the leader who most famously missing out on the top prize and has subsequently contributed perhaps most to making environmental concerns mainstream- Al Gore: "No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out." Enjoy your evening and I am sure we will let some of that glory out!
I’d like to thank the Packaging Council of New Zealand for hosting these awards, Jim Hopkins for his role as Master of Ceremonies, and the sponsors for their part in making this such an impressive event. These awards began in 1999. They were well ahead of their time in recognising and promoting environmental responsibility in packaging. Now, in 2007, environmental sustainability is accepted as part of the core business of the packaging industry. Sustainability and packaging I want to begin by setting these Awards in the wider context of the Government’s sustainability agenda. Reducing waste, and better managing what waste we do produce, is a key part of creating a sustainable New Zealand. The packaging industry has a major role to play in this. The Prime Minister has issued the challenge that New Zealand aspire to be the world’s first sustainable nation. For the packaging industry this means reducing the amount of packaging we are producing and finding new ways of adopting more sustainable packaging practices. The Government believes becoming more sustainable will give us an opportunity to improve our quality of life and the prosperity of our businesses. By moving towards a sustainable New Zealand we can help reduce the effect of climate change. It is our greatest environmental challenge this century. It impacts us environmentally, economically and socially. But in every challenge there is an opportunity. Measuring and reducing our carbon footprint has to be good for business. Resource efficiency, reducing the amount of packaging being produced and taking responsibility for the life cycle of packaging are ways the packaging industry can reduce its carbon footprint. As Al Gore highlighted in An Inconvenient Truth, the Chinese expression for crisis consists of two characters. The first, a symbol for danger; the second, a symbol for opportunity. I will tell you more about that now. The Government has announced a number of sustainability initiatives this year including improved eco-verification, sustainable government procurement and recycling facilities in public places. You can expect to have increasing demands from government agencies to reduce or eliminate unnecessary packaging. This opens up opportunities for New Zealand businesses, including the packaging industry, to show leadership, to be recognised for sustainable practices and to leverage off our country’s reputation. I encourage you to support these initiatives. We trade off our clean green image. It adds value to our products, we have to protect it, not only through marketing, but by making sure our reputation is based on reality, not myth. Business and sustainability In the future, businesses across all sectors will need to be sustainable to make money, and there will be money to be made from being sustainable. Environmental sustainability has the potential to help transform the New Zealand economy. Increasingly, consumers are looking for products and services that match their values. Positive impacts on health and the environment are becoming significant selling points for New Zealand products overseas. But there is a domestic market as well. Recent research shows that 26 per cent of New Zealanders want to purchase products which are good for the environment. These consumers want to buy sustainable products that don’t have an impact on the environment. And these products need to have environmentally responsible packaging. It’s important for business to act now to secure their future success because those that don’t face the risk their market will be constrained if they can’t show their environmental credentials. Everyone has a role to play in this challenge, and the Government is playing its part in partnering with businesses to work towards sustainability and climate change. Packaging Accord and Product Stewardship The closing date for nominations for the 2007 Awards came roughly half-way through the five-year term of the New Zealand Packaging Accord 2004. So it’s a good time to celebrate what’s been achieved so far, and look forward to what’s still to be done. Progress towards meeting the Accord targets has been excellent in many areas. The paper sector has already exceeded its target of 70 per cent recovery. In areas where there has been less progress, the parties involved are putting in major efforts to ensure that targets are met by the end of the Accord period. I expect the third annual progress report to be released in October will illustrate these efforts. The Accord is both an excellent example of a voluntary product stewardship scheme and a model of the way in which government and industry can work in partnership to provide a platform for sustainable growth. The Government expects more industries to start product stewardship schemes which share the responsibility for the disposal of a product through its life-cycle. We will provide accreditation schemes to enable businesses to be recognised for developing stewardship programmes for their products, supported by regulation where necessary. The Packaging Accord, and the number and diversity of entries for these Awards, show how well this approach can work. It’s fitting that the Awards cover not just the physical package itself, but the whole product life-cycle – from the original conception of the product right through to its ultimate disposal. Innovative design I believe that New Zealanders’ capacity for innovation is one of the factors that will make the transition to sustainability not only easier, but more profitable. You have the capacity and a responsibility to provide sustainable solutions to environmental issues. These award entries showcase that capacity for innovation. I’m particularly looking forward to hearing about the exciting conceptual packaging designs by tertiary students. A very large part of a product’s environmental impact can be influenced during design, so it’s very important that young designers take on board a commitment to designing for sustainability. The Packaging Accord contains specific commitments by industry to improve design for the environment. Building on existing environmental initiatives, organisations such as the Packaging Council of New Zealand and Plastics New Zealand now actively provide their members with environmental design guidance. It’s good to see the quality of that guidance being reflected in the quality of the nominees and finalists for these Awards. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you tonight. All of you that are here and have made a difference to our environment deserve to be congratulated. Back to top
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Welcome what is now our fifth Environmental Packaging Awards, which the Packaging Council has run every two years since 1999. 
Good evening. We are honoured to be joined by the Honourable David Parker, Acting Minister for the Environment; his worship the Mayor of Auckland City Dick Hubbard and the Mayoress Diana Hubbard; the President of Local Government NZ Basil Morrison; the Chief Executive of Local Government NZ Eugene Bowen and the Chair of the Packaging Accord Tony Nowell. 
Good evening and thank you for inviting me to the 2007 Awards for Excellence for Environmentally Acceptable Packaging. 
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING |
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77 Greenmount Drive, East Tamaki, Manukau 2013 |