On February 27, during the Conference Board’s 2-day Leadership Conference on Global Corporate Citizenship at The Barclay Hotel in New York, Don Droppo, Jr., Curtis Packaging’s VP of marketing, addressed the topic of “Leveraging the Supply Chain for Competitive Advantage.”

Droppo’s co-presenters on the panel were John A. Delfausse, vice president, global package development, Estee Lauder Companies and John Frey, director, corporate environmental strategy, Hewlett-Packard Company. Droppo’s presentation, “The Eco-Advantage,” focused on the role sustainable packaging plays in protecting the environment and the ways Curtis Packaging, which was founded in l845, has converted its operations to 100 percent clean, renewable energy. The organization is a green power partner of the EPA, and the conversion represents 85 percent wind power and 15 percent hydro electric. “The benefit to the environment is the equivalent of not driving 6,200,000 miles per year, planting more than 480,000 trees, and offsetting more than 7,100,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year,” Droppo said.

In addition to the company’s commitment to renewable energy, Droppo told attendees Curtis Packaging is a member of the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging responsible management of the world’s forests. “We are also a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition,.” he said, and related a client success story concerning the packaging for an Estee Lauder product, Origins - Modern Friction. “We developed an eco-friendly stock for the product’s package,” he said “that is 100 percent recycled and composed of 75 percent post consumer waste.” Subsequently, the package received the prestigious Gold Award from the Paperboard Packaging Council.

Droppo’s presentation also included estimates of savings achieved when post consumer recycled fiber is used in place of virgin fiber. Among other examples, he mentioned “A project that uses 286,000 lbs of paper, with a recycled percentage of 50 percent, is equivalent to preserving 1372.8 trees, or leaving 55 barrels of crude oil or 972,400,000 BTUs unused.” Curtis is recognized for its advanced technological capabilities and, as Droppo said, “The benefits of our continuing commitment to environmental initiatives are shared by our clients, their customers and the community itself.”

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