The German Plastics Packaging and Films Association, IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V., has published the English version of its first sustainability report, originally released in German in September 2012.
The report, which focuses on sustainability issues facing the Association’s member companies, and by extension the plastics packaging industry in Germany as a whole, is now available internationally to c parties.
The essential aim of the report is to illustrate all economic, ecological and social issues that have been identified as major sustainability challenges for the plastics packaging industry in Germany, via a voluntary reporting system on key performance indicators implemented for the association’s member companies for the calendar years 2010/2011.
In this process, ten main sustainability challenges were identified. While resource efficiency and marine litter dominate the ‘ecological’ sector, the top ‘economic’ challenges are said to be innovation and market presence.
Consumer protection is the most important issue in the ‘social’ sector of sustainability.
The German Plastics Packaging and Films Association report adheres to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines for corporate sustainability reporting, and will be updated every two years in order to keep track of the development, progress and changes in sustainability challenges for the German plastics packaging industry.
The report can be downloaded from the association’s website under ‘Publications’.
With over 300 members, the IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen is the biggest trade association within the plastics packaging industry in Europe.
IK represents the majority of the German plastics packaging market, accounting for more than 4 million tons of plastic packaging and films.
