We hear a lot about the use and alternatives of single-use plastic these days. But another type of plastic is embracing a new ambitious business model: Vinyl.
Vinyl is ubiquitous in our daily lives, and nowhere more so than in
infrastructure. Nearly three-fourths of all vinyl in the US is used in building
and construction applications; it plays a critical role in clean water delivery
and wastewater disposal; electrical, cable and communications wiring; and
hundreds of life-saving medical devices and procedures.
But our daily lives are changing, as climate change looms and desire for
sustainable, responsibly sourced products increases. The fact is, the health and
future market success of vinyl is inextricably linked to the health of our
planet and its natural resources.
This connection is of critical importance to those in the vinyl industry, like
myself, because vinyl is uniquely suited to help solve the coming century’s
unprecedented dilemmas with overpopulation and increasingly strained resources.
This oft-repeated statistic may now seem trite, but by 2050, Earth’s population
is on track to top 10 billion. And our already strained natural resources can’t
stretch to meet the needs of this population boom. That means we need materials
that can sustainably deliver life-saving healthcare solutions, sustainably get
clean water to those in need, and sustainably improve the energy efficiency in
our homes and buildings and fuel efficiency in our transportation.
Vinyl is one of those materials.
Cleaning up beauty's ugly impacts
Join us at SB'24 San Diego as Victor Casale — co-founder of Pact Collective and co-founder and CEO of MOB Beauty — shares insights from ongoing collaborations with materials innovators to create fully compostable, refillable, plastic-free, and easier-to-recycle packaging alternatives for beauty and wellness products.
As the vinyl industry meets this challenge, we are innovating to seize the
opportunity. We are advancing sustainability practices across the value chain;
expanding our successes in recycling and advancing protection of the
environment; ensuring the safety of our 350,000 workers and the nearly 3,000
communities where we are located. It also means ensuring those advancements
generate a return on investment, in part by making sure customers know who has
stepped up to lead in the sustainability arena.
That’s where +Vantage Vinyl™ comes in. The
+Vantage Vinyl initiative is the brain-child of the Vinyl Sustainability
Council (VSC), a collaboration of vinyl companies and stakeholders
launched in 2016 to develop a plan for sustainable development.
+Vantage Vinyl — which is kicking off today at SB’19
Detroit — is built on two-prongs:
verifiable action on sustainability goals, and a route to realizing a return on
this investment.
Any vinyl value chain company with US operations can join. Participants will set
and meet annual goals in three priority impact areas: landfill diversion,
health and safety, and emissions. The VSC tracked these three priority
areas to three specific UN Sustainable Development Goals, where the industry
can make even more significant, measurable contributions: clean water and
sanitation (SDG 6), industry innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9) and
responsible production and consumption (SDG
12).
Vantage Vinyl is partnering with GreenCircle Certified, LLC — an independent
third party — to verify and report on key performance indicators achieved by
each participating company.
Inaugural +Vantage Vinyl members include Oxy, Shintech, Westlake
Chemical, Formosa Plastics, Sika, Chemours, Mexichem and
PolyOne.
Participants will use the +Vantage Vinyl trademark — to display anywhere from
product labels to websites to ad campaigns. The +Vantage Vinyl marker will be a
consistent sign across the vinyl value chain of responsible practices, a signal
to consumers that a brand is a trusted leader in sustainability.
Our changing environment, consumers, and marketplace presents a challenge for
all industries. We see this evolution as vinyl’s biggest opportunity. We’re
ready to rise to meet it.
Published Jun 4, 2019 11am EDT / 8am PDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST
Sustainable Brands Staff
Sponsored Content
/ This article is sponsored by
Vinyl Sustainability Council.
This article, produced in cooperation with the Sustainable Brands editorial team, has been paid for by one of our sponsors.
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