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Minutes of the Packaging LCA Scoping Group - 27 May 2008
Present were Ron Cotterman (SealedAir/Flexible Packaging), Jim Charbonneau (GMA) Cal Frost (Tag & Label Manufacturers), Tom Gloria (e-quilibrium), Bill Heenan (Steel), Andrei Kotchatov (Glass), Brian O’Banion (Fiber Box), Dennis Sabourin (NAPCOR) Rita Schenck (IERE), and Bob Strieter (Aluminum).
We discussed the presentation at the Wal-Mart Packaging SVN. The general consensus was that the presentation was well-received. Many individual companies (including the chair of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition) approached Rita requesting participation in the committee, but participation has been limited to the industry organization level.
We discussed that the goal of this committee’s process is about the scoping of a full packaging LCA in support of the second phase of the Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard. In general, it appears that the first phase of the scorecard is delayed in its roll-out. This means that we have more time to make sure that we have all our decisions made and everyone is happy with them.
The group discussed posting of our work so far. A summary exists of the relevant scoping decisions under ISO 14025, 14040, and 14044. We decided that all documents could be posted, subject to review by the committee. Rita will draft an annotated version of the decisions, explaining why they were taken, and post that along with minutes and other documents on the IERE website. They will be password protected at first, then made available to the public after any corrections.
Wal-Mart has not accepted our efforts as their approach to the second phase of the scorecard, but they are interested in having our documents posted on their websites as well, and they will be able to do so after they are posted on the IERE website.
As noted during our presentation and afterwards (by Amy Zettlemoyer), this effort is a scoping effort, and Wal-Mart is not requesting that anyone perform the actual LCA’s at this time.
Ron noted that the flexible packaging institute is working separately with Wal-Mart on its issues, in order to reduce its LCA costs. We need to find some way to address their concerns within our decisions and documents. Bill Heenan noted that we should have the Sustainable Packaging Initiative issues addressed, too. Rita will work with Scott Seydel on that.
We discussed the next face-to-face meeting. At that meeting we have two sets of decisions to make: which databases we will use for data not already in the US LCI database, and which impact models to use.
The group agreed that we should meet in Washington DC in the second week of July. The 8th 9th or 10th There was general agreement that one of the industry groups will be able to host us for the day.