It feels like summer has just begun at our headquarters in Amherst, Nova Scotia, but the year’s end has been on everyone’s mind at Emmerson Packaging. Our fiscal year ends on June 30th each year, and we take this opportunity to review our success in achieving our sustainability goals for the year.

We don’t just talk the talk regarding sustainable packaging. Every facet of our operations is regularly examined to find new opportunities to make a positive environmental impact. This is great news for our customers, because they know how important sustainability throughout the supply chain is to their customers. Because of this, we’re proud to share how we achieved our sustainability goals in 2017-2018.

Staying Sustainable With PetPack™, SmartPack™, and SmartPack-BDG™

While not a new initiative, we’re proud to keep leading the pack in sustainable packaging with our innovative, award-winning environmentally friendly options. We offer our customers fully recyclable and biodegradable packaging options that don’t sacrifice quality. SmartPack™ and offers the superior barrier control and ink protection of a traditional lamination. SmartPack-BDG™ and PetPack-BDG™ take sustainability a step further with a shelf-stable biodegradable package.

A Brighter Future With LED

Over the past few years, we’ve been replacing the lights in our facilities with LED lamps—no small task, as we’ve installed well over 3,000 LED lights to date! All of the lamps in our warehouse are now LED, as well as many lights in our production facility and employee and office areas. So far, our energy savings is estimated to be well over $15,000, meaning we’ve used far less energy to light our facilities than with traditional light bulbs.

Working Together For A Cleaner Planet

We planned and hosted our second annual “Clean Up The Park” event on Earth Day this year. Along with three other local companies, we collected and properly disposed of 580 lbs of garbage from our area.

Additionally, a group of our pet-loving employees spent a Saturday afternoon in June lending a hand at our local animal shelter by painting and fixing up a few things around the compound. We’re proud that our crew loves animals so much that they volunteered their Saturday!

Giving Back To The Community

This past fiscal year, we raised and donated a total of $5,600 to various charities through employee initiatives. We are currently working on the creation of a larger company-wide program to further support charitable organizations and promote volunteering within our community.

Our Sustainable Stats

We’ve been tracking our usage of basic materials and utilities for the past 18 years to assess our environmental impact, and from year to year we continue to trend in a greener direction. Compared to the year 2015, in 2017-2018 we:

• Reduced our energy usage by 6%
• Decreased our water usage by 60%
• Decreased our output of residual solid waste by 9%

Looking Ahead To 2019

At Emmerson Packaging, we continue to look for new ways and initiatives to lessen our environmental footprint and give back to the communities we call home. If your company has similar values and you’re interested in a more sustainable and transparent supply chain for your product, get in touch with us today and let’s talk about how we can go green together.