Munich, November 23, 2021: IFCO, the world’s leading provider of reusable packaging for fresh food, was awarded the CONAI ECO-DESIGN Award for its (RPC) for its contribution to the development of an increasingly sustainable supply chain and for its business model based on the circular economy Brown Lift Lock RPCs awarded for bread and baked goods. The Brown Lift Lock range of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) for bread and baked goods has wn the prestigious award. The prize is awarded to companies that have made an extensive contribution to the development of the circular economy.
Award-winning IFCO RPCs
The winner of the ECO-DESIGN Award is the Brown Lift Lock RPC range for bread and baked goods. Like the entire family of reusable packaging from IFCO, Brown Lift Locks offer numerous environmental benefits: CO 2 emissions and water and energy consumption are significantly lower than when using disposable packaging. Food and solid waste are also significantly reduced. IFCO RPCs are reused, cleaned, and disinfected up to 120 times and, at the end of their life cycle, granulated and used to make new RPCs.
In contrast to disposable packaging, pooling systems reuse resources for as long as possible and thus exploit their full potential. At the end of their useful life, products and materials are recovered and regenerated. This fact has also earned IFCO the special Legambiente award for reusing material that has already been recycled.
“We are proud of the CONAI award,” said Francesca Amadei, Vice President at IFCO Southern Europe. “This confirms IFCO’s groundbreaking developments at the end of a selection process based on very strict criteria. It is undisputed that the increasing use and design of environmentally friendly packaging will be an important part of future ecological change.
“With a spirit of innovation and a focus on sustainability, IFCO, which looks back on a long tradition in the logistics industry, has developed this model of reusable packaging containers, especially for bread. With the product, the planning department also benefits from a product that is based on the circular economy – even in the baking industry.”
Along with the CONAI Prize, IFCO also was recognized recently with another important award in the field of sustainability. In March 2021, the company received the Cradle to Cradle Certified® (Version 3.1) Silver certification for its RPC Lift Lock range as well as the Gold certification in the area of material reuse.
The CONAI ECO-DESIGN Award
The national Italian packaging consortium CONAI brings together more than 750,000 Italian companies. CONAI created the award to honor improvements in packaging that reduce their environmental impact. The extended technical committee that evaluated the projects is made up of experts from universities (Milan Polytechnic, Turin Polytechnic, IUAV-Venice, University of Bologna), Legambiente, Altroconsumo and ItaliaImballaggio.
The prize contenders were analyzed using the EcoTool Conai tool. On the basis of a simplified LCA analysis, a before-and-after comparison of the energy and water savings, as well as the CO 2 reductions, can be used to calculate the effects of the ecodesign measures implemented by the companies on the packaging. In 2021, an unusually large number of applications were submitted for the CONAI Award: a total of 326 applications were received from 156 companies, including IFCO. 185 sustainable packaging projects were approved. IFCO is one of the five brands to which CONAI has awarded its award.
The numbers for this year’s edition of the award underline the results that IFCO has achieved. The company’s business model is based on the circular economy. IFCO has always been committed to developing an efficient supply chain – the main focus is on optimal use of resources and the reduction of environmental impact.
Source: IFCO Germany (Google Translate)