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How To Choose a Sustainable Packaging Supplier: 14 Questions to Ask
When comparing packaging suppliers, be sure to choose one that is financially, logistically, and environmentally aligned with your company’s business needs and goals. Use the following questions to help your team determine whether a prospective partner can support your priorities.
Aligning Sustainability Goals
With sustainability increasingly shaped by regulations, organizations need to prioritize eco-friendly practices, starting with innovative sustainable packaging. Do the packaging suppliers you are considering share your commitment to meeting evolving sustainability requirements?
Misaligned sustainability goals can expose your company to compliance risks, environmental harm, and reputational consequences.
1. What are your key focus areas when it comes to packaging?
If a packaging supplier cannot convincingly answer questions about sustainable packaging materials, right-sizing, shipping efficiency, and environmental regulations, that supplier may be unlikely to deliver on your sustainability goals.
Ask specific questions about packaging optimization to confirm that the supplier’s sustainability objectives align with yours.
2. Can you provide examples of past sustainable packaging wins?
The best predictor of future success is past success. Can the packaging supplier provide sustainability case studies or testimonials from past clients? Can the organization show how it helped clients implement innovative sustainable packaging or achieve other sustainability wins in an economically viable way?
If not, you may need to continue your search.
3. Does your organization have defined sustainability goals?
A packaging supplier committed to sustainability should work toward defined annual goals. In addition to gathering anecdotal information about client wins, ask each supplier to provide sustainability reports.
These reports typically outline a company’s environmental goals and provide insight into whether it is making progress toward them.
Sustainable Practices in Action
Sustainability objectives matter, but follow-through matters even more. The following questions can help ensure prospective packaging suppliers are not merely paying lip service to sustainability.
1. How does your organization source raw materials?
A key aspect of sustainable packaging is the type of materials used and how they are sourced. Find out about the origin of suppliers’ materials and the steps they take to ensure those materials are responsibly sourced.
For example, FSC-certified packaging indicates that paper-based materials come from responsibly managed forests.
2. What are your strategies for reducing material usage?
Efficient material usage is essential for reducing packaging waste. The right packaging supplier should be able to explain how it reduces material use through packaging design.
Efficient material use is better for the environment and can also improve packaging performance. Packaging that contains excessive material or is incorrectly sized can contribute to product damage.
3. How does your organization conserve energy?
Sustainable packaging suppliers may use third-party life cycle assessments to measure the environmental impact of their packaging, including the energy required to produce it.
When vetting potential packaging suppliers, learn what steps they take to reduce energy consumption across their operations and supply chains.
4. Can you prove your compliance with environmental regulations?
Depending on where packaging is produced and sold, packaging suppliers may need to comply with different environmental regulations. Requirements can address packaging volume, material selection, recycling responsibilities, labeling, traceability, and sustainability data.
A trusted packaging partner will be transparent about its compliance process and provide requested documentation to show alignment with applicable standards. If your packaging supplier is hesitant to answer questions about compliance, you may want to reevaluate the relationship.
5. Do you have any sustainable packaging certifications?
Sustainable packaging certifications can help you assess the sustainability performance of a packaging supplier. Some certifications focus on how paper is sourced, while others address areas such as carbon emissions or material content.
The organizations that administer certifications typically require suppliers to undergo an application and review process. These certifications can therefore offer useful evidence that a supplier is following through on its environmental commitments.
Additional Questions to Ask
In addition to assessing the sustainability of packaging suppliers, ask broader questions to understand each organization’s capabilities, specialties, and ability to support your business.
1. Can you describe the extent of your manufacturing capabilities?
Can the organization handle the volume of packaging your company needs? Does it have the equipment required to produce branded graphics? Can it use sustainable packaging materials to support your environmental goals?
It is important to understand what the packaging supplier can and cannot do for your organization. At scale, a supplier’s limitations can create significant operational challenges.
2. Do you have a team of packaging designers and engineers?
Packaging designers and engineers focus on the form and function of your organization’s packaging. Their responsibilities may include identifying opportunities to minimize material use, eliminate unused space, or improve graphics.
They also help ensure packaging is durable enough to transport products without damage. Reverse logistics and returns can be costly, and packaging designers and engineers are uniquely qualified to help minimize these losses.
3. Does your organization possess regional expertise and contacts?
If you need to produce packaging in multiple countries, your packaging supplier should have relevant regional expertise. Labor costs, environmental regulations, customs requirements, and manufacturing conditions vary by market.
Knowledgeable staff on the ground can help maintain production, control costs, and reduce the risk of regulatory penalties.
4. What are your typical lead times?
Supply chain disruptions can affect the typical lead times offered by packaging suppliers. Inquire whether recent disruptions have changed expected timelines and how the organization communicates delays.
You should also determine whether the packaging supplier maintains contingency plans to keep lead times under control during challenging periods. Packaging suppliers with comprehensive networks of regional manufacturers and partners may be able to shift sourcing in response to factory shutdowns or delays.
5. What steps do you take to ensure quality and performance?
The supplier’s packaging may be within your budget and aligned with your environmental goals, but all is fruitless if your packaging reaches the customer damaged. For this reason, it is important to work with a sustainable packaging supplier that performs sophisticated packaging testing in the development phase to ensure quality and performance. Make sure to ask what kind of testing they typically carry out and what type of equipment they have in-house to do so.
6. What sets your organization apart from other packaging suppliers?
When looking for the right packaging supplier, you need to understand what sets the organization apart from its competitors. Inquire about its packaging specializations, past successes, and unique capabilities to determine whether it is equipped to support your sustainability goals.
Key Takeaways
Selecting the right packaging supplier is about forming a strategic partnership aligned with your business goals and values, particularly in the area of sustainability.
Equipped with the right questions, you can gain deeper insight into a supplier’s capabilities, commitment to eco-friendly practices, and ability to meet your quality and logistical requirements. Evaluating packaging suppliers based on material sourcing, environmental compliance, proven results, regional expertise, and testing capabilities can help ensure your packaging supports your sustainability initiatives.
As businesses face increasing pressure to adopt sustainable practices, choosing a supplier that prioritizes environmental stewardship is increasingly important. A trusted partner can help you respond to regulatory demands, reduce environmental impact, improve operational efficiency, and safeguard your brand reputation.
By taking the time to vet packaging suppliers thoroughly, you can select a partner that protects your products while supporting a greener, more sustainable future.
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