BioPak’s Environmental Impact Reports Explained

You might have noticed a new feature on BioPak’s product pages.

Our new ‘Environmental Impact Label’ allows customers and consumers to see details about the environmental cost of a carton of each product – including the carbon footprint and total eco-cost. 

When you click on the ‘read full report’ button on the Environmental Impact Label, you’ll be taken to what’s called an ‘Environmental Impact Report’ – a summary of the environmental footprint of that particular packaging product. Interesting, right?

The Environmental Impact Report is broken down into three sections: 

• Total eco-cost
• Four impact categories
• Eco-costs per product stage

Let’s dive into each section so you know what it all means. 

Take note: for BioPak, the eco forecast will consider a carton of products rather than a single item, as this is how our products are sold.

Eco-costs are a simple way to measure the environmental impact of a product. It places a monetary value on the environmental costs of a product (per carton of product in our case). 

The score summarizes 12 impact categories in the Life Cycle Assessment (these are then grouped into four key impact categories which we’ll dive into next).

Why? Having a single score allows us to finally see and compare the complete impact of a product. It gives us a rounded view – something that’s almost impossible to achieve when you look at a single metric, like carbon footprint. Converting all categories to a monetary value allows us to add them up and see each packaging product’s impact in a simple figure.

The Eco Forecast focuses on four key impact categories (requested by EU legislation like the CSRD). These categories are: 

• Carbon footprint
• Impact on biodiversity
• Impact on human health
• Impact on material scarcity 

Using multiple categories helps to discover a product’s complete impact on the environment – and then take action on the biggest impact categories (something that’s difficult to achieve when you look at a single metric, like carbon footprint alone). 

Pickler software uses a credible Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based method tailored to business use cases. LCA is the scientific methodology to calculate the environmental impacts of a product throughout its entire life cycle. Including all the energy and materials needed across the industry value chain. Life cycle stages include raw material acquisition, manufacturing, transport, and end of life processes. 

Let’s take a closer look at the four impact categories.

Carbon footprint is a simple way to communicate our impact by summarising the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere as a result of each packaging product. ‍This is expressed in CO2-eq – a metric that translates all greenhouse gases into the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (learn more about Carbon Footprint here). 

Why? Carbon footprint helps us make the connection between our lives and the wider impact on the environment. It’s a popular metric for a reason – it’s often one of the biggest contributors to the overall impact of packaging (but this isn’t always the case). 

What BioPak is doing: 2022 was our last year of being certified carbon neutral. While it may sound like a step backward, this is a strategy to propel us forward and reduce our carbon footprint. It’s now clear that offsetting a business footprint isn’t going to be enough to slow down climate change. Instead, we’re reinvesting the 1% of profits we’d usually spend on carbon offsetting into our Emissions Reduction Plan.

Material scarcity refers to our dependency on current and future raw materials. We measure the rate at which we're depleting our current resources to create products, expressed in eco-costs. 

Why? Every new product we produce starts from raw materials. By taking these from the earth, we’re contributing to resource depletion, and eventually, scarcity. Material scarcity can have flow-on effects on the health of soil, water and biodiversity. This is a big hurdle to overcome on the journey toward a circular economy. 

What BioPak is doing: One example of how BioPak is overcoming resource scarcity is through our product materials, such as bagasse, PLA and FSCTM certified paper and wood (FSC™ C110879). These are all rapidly renewable and reclaimed materials. For example, bagasse is a fibrous substance also known as sugarcane pulp. This substance is left over after the sugarcane plant is harvested for its juice, so we’re turning an agricultural byproduct into a packaging product that looks just like moulded cardboard.

This impact category measures how a product disrupts biodiversity and ecosystems, expressed in eco-costs. The term ‘biodiversity’ refers to all different kinds of life on earth – plants, animals, fungi and bacteria. Biodiversity works together to create ecosystems, a community of interconnected living organisms. 

Why? Biodiversity and ecosystems are crucial to creating balance in nature. But unfortunately, human economic activities are decreasing biodiversity and polluting soil, water, and landscapes. This is an essential impact category to report on to ensure the creation of our products can be conducted as sustainably and responsibly as possible – minimising our impact on biodiversity and preserving the delicate harmony of nature for future generations. 

What BioPak is doing: As a profit for purpose business, BioPak donates 5% of our profits to positive social and environmental change. This includes charities that support biodiversity and ecosystems – like Rainforest Rescue, Greenfleet and Ecologi.

This impact category covers how the creation of a product can affect human health, expressed in eco-costs. 

Why? The creation of products can create air and noise pollution or emissions, which can be linked to health issues like asthma, hearing loss, dehydration, and heart disease. This is a crucial aspect to cover. 

What BioPak is doing: One example of how BioPak is working to reduce our impact on human health is through the phasing out of PFAS. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of over 4,700 man-made chemicals that are used in a great number of products across many industries. They’re found in almost everything, across the entire foodservice industry. Out of an abundance of caution, we are on track to be the first in our industry to have a completely no added PFAS plant fibre range in market by June 2024.

When calculating Eco-Costs from the four impact categories, Pickler’s software also looks at every stage of a product’s lifecycle. That includes raw materials, production, transport, and finally disposal.

The report will represent the four impact categories across each of these stages:

• Material – the extraction of raw materials 
• Production – converting these raw materials into a final product
• Transport – any transport involved in the production of the product, such as from production to the warehouse
• End of life – the final waste treatment of the product

What does that mean for us? It breaks down the eco-costs into each of these lifecycle categories, so we can uncover where our biggest impact comes from, and in turn, where we should channel our reduction efforts.

Note: Some LCA methodology has a fifth stage, the use phase, however, BioPak does not factor this into our Eco Forecasts. The reason is that it's impossible to measure emissions from the actual use phase of our products due to their short and unpredictable use lifespan.

We’re thrilled to launch our new Environmental Impact Label and Environmental Impact Reports through Pickler’s impact calculation software. Ultimately, this will increase transparency, accountability and our commitment to combating greenwashing. 

We hope this information contributes to customer education, informs decisions, and contributes to our impact reduction efforts. We urge more companies and industries to jump on board and embrace transparency.