Sealed Air Hosts Food, Beverage Sustainability Experts

Sealed Air Corp. recently held its first SmartLife sustainability event, at which the company asserted its food safety and security leadership. The exclusive two-day event, Sustainable Futures, took place Sept. 25-26 at Sealed Air’s Packforum in Paris and featured sustainability experts from the food and beverage industry, retail and nonprofit organizations discussing three of the biggest sustainability issues: food safety, food waste and food access.

Speakers at the event included representatives from Tesco, Mars, INCPEN and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), who spoke on topics that ranged from sustainability trends, food safety and food waste prevention, to sustainable packaging and hygiene solutions.

“This was an opportunity for industry and sustainability experts to look across nearly every step in the food production and consumption chain for where our collective technologies and solutions can add sustainable value through waste prevention, improved operational efficiency, reduced risk and by safeguarding human health,” noted Mary Coventry, VP of corporate communications and sustainability at Elmwood Park, N.J.-based Sealed Air.

The event also featured a keynote speech by Dominic Waughray, head of environmental initiatives at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Highlighting the fact that there will be 3 billion new middle-class consumers by 2030, he noted that sustainability has moved well beyond the sphere of policy into the area of daily business. A motif of the event was the prominent role now played by the industry in advancing sustainability worldwide.

Alexis Morgan, global water roundtable coordinator at Washington-based global conservation organization WWF, spoke about the groups’ joint efforts with Sealed Air as an example of a partnership that’s yielding climate change and water conservation benefits. Morgan further emphasized the importance of continuing collaboration among civil society, the public and the private sector to create stronger, more efficient supply chains that address broad societal needs and solve the shared problems of food security, energy, water and biodiversity.

Sealed Air’s three Packforum customer innovation and learning centers, located in Atlanta, Paris and Shanghai, facilitate collaboration with customers for a better understanding of the complex needs of local food processors, packers and retailers. Each facility aims to generate new ideas, stay current on trends, and find new sustainable ways to package, handle and present food.

Sealed Air brands include Bubble Wrap cushioning, Cryovac food packaging, and Diversey cleaning and hygiene solutions.