5 minute read
Interview on MCC’s Sustainability Vision With a Panel of Experts
Our Sustainability Vision A Persistent Pursuit of a Better Tomorrow, Today
MCC works every single day towards sustainable development that helps build a brighter future for all. Our customers’ growing demand for a sustainable approach is getting louder each day. Therefore, we commit ourselves to minimize environmental impact and develop sustainable label solutions that meet the needs of our customers and partners within the value chain. Based on our corporate values of integrity, passion, creativity, perseverance and achievement, we describe here how we work towards this every single day. We spoke with three MCC key figures and assessed their vision on sustainability, and all things sustainable in the personal care & beauty space.
Q: Sustainability is an allencompassing concept. What does sustainability mean to MCC and where does MCC put the emphasis?
SB: The best definition of sustainability is meeting the needs of all our stakeholders without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. We are not only limiting this to the environmental side, but equally important is the social, economic and governance aspect. In 2020 we unified this into our sustainability vision. The simple statement “At MCC we CARE about a better tomorrow, today” embodies what we try to do daily at MCC. We continuously strive for sustainable development that delivers shared value and helps build a better future for all. CARE is also an acronym for our four main pillars within sustainability.
The first pillar is Collaborate. This means that we engage with multiple stakeholder partners throughout the value chain who are aiming for a sustainable future. Secondly, we have Act. We want to lead by taking action to optimize our supply chain and production process. We will use a continuous improvement approach in each facility globally with clear and transparent reporting about our KPI goals and progress made. Dr. Stijn Billiet Act is followed by the third pillar, Resolve. We want Global Director Sustainability to offer label solutions that meet today’s sustainability needs. By understanding our customers’ goals, we offer the optimal label solution that is also the most sustainable. We end up with the fourth pillar, Engage. At the core of our business are the people we interact with every day. We know that our people are our greatest asset as they are the key ingredient in making us more sustainable, which is one of our most important competitive advantages.
Dr. Craig Bushman, Vice President Research & Development
Q: A sustainability policy is invaluable today, but has this always been the case? How would you describe MCC’s evolution in terms of sustainability from where we started and how you see MCC in the future?
SB: MCC was established in 1916 and this long experience in providing premium label solutions has always been combined with an ecological mindset. With the strong growth that the company has experienced in the last years, we determined that there was indeed a greater need to update our sustainability strategy to ensure that it fits within the new MCC family. The first steps in elaborating this sustainability policy were taken in 2020. However, more details will be made known in the coming months. In offering sustainable solutions to our customers, we take into account regional differences and, of course, marketspecific trends. For the personal care & beauty market, we have a lot to offer, and we are excited to be able to share this with the outside world, and by extension, all our stakeholders.
Q: What role does sustainability play in the personal care & beauty market?
CB: Consumers are motivated to choose brands that align with their priorities. In today’s world, we see that how sustainable a product’s packaging is has an impact on a consumer’s purchasing decision. This is especially important for personal care and beauty companies who target the younger generation. Due to consumers’ growing expectation of sustainable packaging, MCC has committed to develop labels that are compatible with the recycling process. DP: Sustainability is a major focus for the personal care & beauty market. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), up to 1/3 of landfill composition comes from personal care & beauty waste. Most multi-national consumer packaged goods companies (CPG) have established aggressive sustainability goals for their brands to be achieved
within the next decade. A good example would be L’Oréal’s goal to ensure all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable. They plan to take ambitious steps toward recycling or composting 50% of their plastic packaging. They also aim for an average of 30% of their plastic packaging be recycled content or responsibly-sourced bio-content.
Q: How does MCC succeed time after time in providing customers with appropriate, up-to-date and sustainable solutions?
DP: MCC is committed to ensuring sound environmental practices are part of our daily process. We believe that sustainability is our joint responsibility and opportunity. We are an active participant with key industry partners surrounding environmentally sustainable initiatives such as waste reduction, environmentally friendly materials, recyclability of materials and energy efficient production technologies. We are actively involved with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), Sustainable Packaging Coalition, and work closely with the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and the European Pet Bottle Platform (EPBP) to ensure our sustainable product offerings pass their stringent requirements.
Q: What do you think MCC has to offer the personal care & beauty market in terms of sustainability?
CB: We think in terms of labels provided on particular container types, so the labels we provide are designed to meet sustainability requirements. PET containers today are well understood within the personal care & beauty market segment, and have high adoption for recycling compatibility under our RecycLABEL® brand. The personal care & beauty market is adopting those recyclable compatible solutions for PET containers. In addition to personal care brands looking for more sustainable containers, brands are now looking for more recyclable label options too. Since the personal care and beauty market uses significant amounts of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) containers, MCC has specifically developed labels that are recycling compatible with those types of containers. MCC has Dr. Craig Bushman label solutions that are recognized by the APR for Vice President Research & pressure sensitive labels, shrink sleeve labels, in-mold Development labels, and heat transfer labels on HDPE containers. DP: In addition, we are also observing an increasing use of post-consumer recycle (PCR) in customers’ packaging. That shift is also causing our focus to change. It became an important priority to work on the incorporation of PCR into our label materials. It’s an essential next step for us in our development process, we were able to provide this thanks to our vertical integration.
Darren Priebe
Executive Vice President of Global Sales - Consumer Products Goods
