To achieve that, Excel-Pac works closely with innonative material suppliers such as Innovia Films Ltd—one of the world’s leading producers of specialty biodegradable films used to make sustainable packaging for confectioneries, pasta, tea and coffee, etc.—to develop attractive and highly functional packaging for its clients.
As for the third and arguably the most critical component, there’s no understating the importance of leading by example, De Civita asserts.
“This is a behavioral concept that must be accepted by everyone here from the ground up,” he states. “When our employees see the effort being put forth by the company, they too will feel the need to buy into the whole system.”
So far at least, the company’s sustainability thrust has been paying off in spades.
“Since 2003, we have reduced our solvent disposal by a whopping 80 per cent, thanks to the fact we are the first Canadian company in our industry to have installed a solventless laminator,” points out De Civita, while also citing an eight-percent reduction in material usage achieved by upgrading the narrow-seal technology on its pouches.
“Along with investing a lot of money in the most technically advanced packaging machinery, we also like to import a lot of green ideas into our new facility,” says De Civita, citing the Bronze Award the company received last year in the facility category of the 2008 Sustainable Packaging Leadership Awards of the Packaging Association of Canada (PAC).
A year earlier, Excel-Pac also won a pair of Gold Awards and ‘shared’ a Silver Award in the flexible packaging category at the PAC’s 2007 National Packaging Competition, along with its Montreal-based client, Viau Foods Inc., for the high-performance film packaging used for meat-processor’s Fantino & Mondello line of deli meats.
“Our clients like what we can offer; they consider us a niche provider of high-quality packaging materials,” says De Civita. “But we find that it’s the niche approach that usually has enough end-user focus to enable us to provide packaging solutions perfectly tailored to the clients’ individual needs.
“We have leading-edge printing capability and state-of-the-art lamination, slitting and pouchmaking equipment that we use to manufacture a diverse range of products for flexible packaging applications.”
De Civita also stresses the importance of strict adherence to maintaining the highest possible hygienic and product safety standards—even including the ban on any peanut products being brought into the facility in any form—to keep its food industry clients happily reassured.
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