3 minute read
Comment
from MPN NA Issue 18
by MPN Magazine
CREDITS
advertising | caroline jackson caroline.jackson@rapidnews.com
head of media sales plastics & life sciences | lisa montgomery
head of studio & production | sam hamlyn
graphic design | matt clarke
publisher | duncan wood
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ISSNNo: 2632 - 3818 (Print) 2632 - 3826 (Digital)
Editor’s Comment
CORRINE LAWRENCE
How green does your garden company grow?
Whether you’re a consumer or a business, sustainability is front and center of many agendas. Even if you believe the world is flat and global warming is merely the brainchild of pot-smoking treehuggers, choosing to ignore it is, at the very least, a high-risk business strategy. If you think sustainability doesn’t apply to your business and the view looks more appealing with your head in the sand, I heavily suspect it’s only a (short) matter of time before you realize your customers have deserted you, choosing instead to work with green or ‘greening’ companies.
Sustainability has come to encompass many separate yet interrelated issues. We can’t get too far into a day before we hear such words as greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide emissions, recycling, reusing, biodegradable, biobased, circular economy, biomass, carbon neutral, net zero and so on. For the purposes of removing all doubt, I am particularly passionate about supporting green initiatives.
Although sustainability isn’t a new concept, businesses have, by and large, been slow to respond and adopt new ways of thinking and working. Where previously companies could appease themselves with token gestures, possibly as a marketing tactic, only now are many treating this issue with the importance it deserves, as demonstrated by the big bucks they’re putting behind internal programs and the wholesale changes they’re making to their business. Try searching “sustainability” on the MPN website for inspiration.
As members of the “dirty” plastics industry, it is uncomfortable when fingers point to us as culprits. But we know plastics have value, particularly in the medical industry, and it’s our responsibility to clean up their image: plastics don’t need to equate with “bad”. No longer can sustainability plans live out their days in the ‘nice to have’ folder laying in the bottom of filing cabinets — they need dragging out, the dust blowing off and, to be honest, they probably need updating. Although many large companies, such as Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials, have the capital or financial backing to invest in such programs, smaller businesses can and are able to contribute. Global warming is not a local or parochial concern; it’s global. We’ve already experienced and are still dealing with one crisis. Unlike COVID, an antidote to global warming can’t be assembled in a lab and rolled out over a few months.
As ambassadors of medical plastics, we must keep innovating and collaborating to make our products and facilities kinder to the world. Throughout the COVID crisis the industry has demonstrated that collaboration delivers impressive results; it also delivers them quicker than any unilateral approach.
Please continue to keep me informed about how your company is making strides, or steps, to becoming more sustainable by dropping me a line at corrine.lawrence@rapidnews.com. Similarly, if you’re experiencing issues with your sustainability programs, do get in touch — the MPN community is likely to have a solution.
