The sustainability progress of the weight reduction project is self-evident. Lighter tape products translate into reduced resource consumption, lower transportation emissions, and decreased waste generation. Data and studies used to quantify the positive environmental impact have shown what has been achieved here, in line with our dedication to circular economy principles and their contributions to reducing the industry's carbon footprint.
How Avery Dennison saved 300 tons on material in just one year
Introduction
At Avery Dennison we are actively shaping the future of our
industry towards a sustainable future, creating solutions that
elevate performance while reducing environmental impact.
In this E-magazine, we’ll go into the journey that led to
Avery Dennison’s Personal Care Sustainable Advantage Portfolio.
Introduction, timeline & goals
Sustainable Advantage Portfolio: A journey of innovation and efficiency
Our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio features products and solutions that
enable companies across global industries to use fewer natural resources, cut carbon emissions, reduce waste, and build towards a low-carbon, circular economy.
How Avery Dennison’s Personal Care Sustainable Advantage Portfolio came to life
At Avery Dennison we are actively shaping the future of our industry towards a sustainable future, creating solutions that elevate performance while reducing environmental impact. In this E-magazine, we’ll go into the journey that led to Avery Dennison’s Personal Care Sustainable Advantage Portfolio. It’s a journey that not only saved 300 tons of material just last year, but also aligns with our customers' reduction goals, ushering in a greener, more sustainable future.
Sustainable Advantage Portfolio: A journey of innovation and efficiency
We’ll start off by taking a brief looking at recent history and how our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio came to life. We’ll illustrate how we were able to save tons and tons of material through technology and R&D, by explaining the unique aspects of our weight reduction project.
We’ll dive into the current and future perspective of our project that showcases our ambition for the further rollout, expansion and diversification of the portfolio. And we’ll introduce you to the stars of that portfolio – with a description of the various categories, their respective products and of course their key benefits.
Anne Verhaert, Global Sustainability Director of Performance Tapes says:
"If we look at what is happening in the world, it is clear that consumers and industries need to take action now to reduce emissions and to prevent the worst effects of climate change."
A brief history
Avery Dennison’s Personal Care Sustainable Advantage Portfolio is an actionable vision empowering customers to achieve significant material usage reductions and meet their own sustainability targets.
Moreover, sustainability is more and more a mainstream consumer concern. Consumers are taking a stance – and expect brands to do the same. “Our sustainability mission is deeply ingrained in our corporate DNA. At Avery Dennison, sustainability isn't a thing we do – it's our focus on how we do everything. The basis of the portfolio that is the subject of this magazine goes back to 2015, when we set our first sustainability goals – which ultimately led to the launch of Avery Dennison’s Personal Care Sustainable Advantage Portfolio.”
"There is a global need for sustainable solutions in the Personal Care industry. Given the environmental impact of traditional tape products, there is an urgency to reduce weight without compromising performance."
Avery Dennison Sustainability goals
Avery Dennison’s initial sustainability goals were not mere benchmarks, but align with seven of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and are intricately linked to global sustainability objectives as in the Paris Agreement, solidified in 2018 and 2019 in Avery Dennison’s Sustainability Goals for 2030.
Our emissions reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as consistent with levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Targets approved by the SBTi and covering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from our operations (Scopes 1 and 2) are in line with reductions required to keep warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement – and what the latest science has told us is needed to prevent the most damaging effects of climate change.
In addition, the company’s target for the emissions from its value chain (Scope 3) meets the SBTi’s criteria for ambitious value chain goals, meaning it too is aligned with current best practice.
"In Avery Dennison’s Personal Care segment, we’ve started our project in October 2021. One year later, we started the initiative to launch a Sustainable Advantage Portfolio."
After aligning the criteria with our Avery Dennison Sustainable Advantage Standard, we started developing and executing our roadmap and have now launched our first Sustainable Advantage Portfolio in Personal Care. The goal was to develop specific products with significantly less material, yet performing to the highest quality and performance standards.
The Sustainable Advantage Portfolio is driven by three main factors;
- To contribute to Avery Dennison’s global sustainability goals for 2030
- To contribute to and support our customers in their scope 3 reduction plans
- Our innovative culture and the ability to develop and implement new technologies and strive for continuous improvements
The Avery Dennison Personal Care Sustainable Advantage Portfolio
is the actionable result.
1. Contribute to global sustainability goals
Only just starting, Avery Dennison’s weight reduction project has already made a huge influence on the project portfolio and marketing position of the Personal Care segment.
“As much as 30% of all sales come from our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio, saving more than 300 tons of material last year. In addition, we also measure emission reduction. In order to maximise the environmental impact of our project, it is important for our customers to select the best Avery Dennison Sustainable Advantage product for their application, hence reducing the amount of material and its emissions.”
2. Support reduction goals
“Conducting a customer survey, we discovered that many of our customers shared specific reduction plans aimed at minimising their environmental impact.
In fact, 84% of our Personal Care customers indicate that sustainability is an important aspect of the company's supplier selection policy. Combined with the increasing global trend of customer demand for environmentally and ethically sustainable products, it presented a unique opportunity for alignment and supporting our customers reaching their own scope 3 reduction goals.”
3. Strive for continuous innovation and improvement
Driven by innovation, Personal Care implemented ground-breaking coating and lamination techniques that have already redefined industry standards. “These innovations resulted in new products that not only use less material, but also outperform their counterparts.”
“In addition to weight reduction, we will also include innovations that advance the circular economy and that support sustainable applications. We will continue our journey to research, develop, and implement new closure solutions that further reduce material usage, advance the circular economy and support sustainable applications. This will provide customers with cutting-edge options that help them stay ahead of their sustainability targets.”
Important breakthrough
In order to maintain the highest quality and performance standards, we needed to implement new breakthrough coating and lamination techniques that required close collaboration between our R&D, engineering, process and product management teams – which we’ll talk about in the next section.
Introduction
We’ll explain several unique aspects of the project, such as the new coating technology (‘free span coating’). We’ll discuss the challenges we faced along the way, such as maintaining strength and durability of the product while reducing weight. We’ll share the innovative techniques, materials, and technologies employed to achieve the objectives.
Environmental footprint
In everything we do, we strive to be a force for good that creates long-term value for all of our stakeholders. Among other things, that means innovating and operating in ways that have a positive impact on people and the planet. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change and develop a thriving, sustainable economy, we all need to work together.
At Avery Dennison, our R&D engineers collaborate cross functionally and with external partners to continuously reduce the environmental impact of our products.
There are several ways to do this, perhaps most importantly through carbon reduction. Carbon reduction is the process whereby an organisation directly reduces their emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. Our carbon footprint is an important variable in our overall goals, as we’ve committed to ambitious carbon reduction targets.
Challenges and opportunities
Carbon reduction is a great challenge for modern business, especially those with a global presence – but there are many more related to sustainability. Increasing transparency, communication and engagement throughout our value chain to facilitate the implementation of sustainability across our industry is one. Addressing topical issues and building trust with the industry concerning topics like SUP (single use plastics) and hazardous substance contamination another. And then there is improving the end-of-life and recycling properties of our products to eradicate waste and transition towards a circular economy.
Developing new sustainable product portfolios for a growing market of conscious consumers who are increasingly aware and demanding is a huge benefactor to the circular economy. That includes innovating in new, more efficient technologies with improved resource use, increased recycling properties and increasing communications with suppliers and customers.
Video: Avery Dennison Sustainable Advantage
Reduce, Reduce, Reduce
Depending on what methodology you adhere to, there are three, four or five R’s – or actions – that should be taken on the road of recycling. There’s refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle. Indeed, all are part of our overall sustainability goals. Specific to our ADPC Sustainable Advantage approach though, it’s the second one of the R’s that stands out: reduce.
Or reducing weight, to put a fine point on it.
A huge factor in reducing carbon footprint is reducing overall weight. And there is a lot of potential in weight reduction and downsizing of products. Thanks to the collaborative nature of the weight reduction project and the strategic partnerships forged with suppliers, industry organisations, and research institutions, we have taken huge strides in achieving our sustainability goals.
Technology
Optimising material efficiency
In the very competitive market of personal care products where material cost is the major driver of the total cost, using materials in an effective way has been the challenge for several decades. During this time, the closure systems for diapers have been undergoing some major changes requiring different types of materials – which have added to this challenge.
Effective use of materials here refers to the weight reduction of materials as well as waste reduction related to the production processes and processing steps.
Origins
Since 1996, the diaper market has shifted from an adhesive based closure system to a mechanical version, incorporating a hook element to the tape.
Where at the start the consumer expectations were based on the experiences with the adhesive based closure systems, we now see the evolution towards functionality-based performance levels. This resulted in reductions of basis weights as well as used width of materials.
Over the years, the use of closure systems shows a clear trend of diminished weight per linear meter.
Because of these reductions, the product concepts and production methods needed to be adjusted as well. Whereas the ‘old’ products started from full web coatings followed by covering the adhesive where no adhesion properties were needed, the current systems moved to eliminating these excess materials.
Adapting to new challenges along the way
Due to the changes in production processes, new challenges surfaced – including the need to improve upon the capabilities as well. The spirit of curiosity, new challenges in the marketplace such as these and Avery Dennison’s position as a global leader in the materials science industry drive us to develop and expand our core capabilities while introducing new material innovations and solutions for the world’s manufacturers, converters and consumers. It in turn has led to better use of materials.
By moving from state-of-the-art coating stations to free span coating, most of the challenges were fulfilled.
Dynamics of improvement
Moving from state of the art to free span coating resulted in several new challenges still. With the improvements of the variation, we now needed to guarantee even distribution of the adhesive both in cross direction but also in machine direction throughout a full roll of end products. The resulting process changes also included a different path of adhesive supply to the coating station requiring additional stability studies and formulation adjustments to provide consistently the required performance level.
DOE trials optimize process
Moreover, as the end products all are laminated assemblies, the impact on the lamination process also needed to be studied. In fact, all process improvements were only introduced after a number of DOE (Design of Experiment) trials showing the functionality, effectiveness and reproducibility of the process and product design. The production process operating window has been established by this approach.
At the end comparative tests have shown the significance of the improvements on different product performance levels as shown in the graphs below:
The adhesive free zone
A wider range of materials can be coated with much higher precision. The result is a higher degree of possibilities and design freedom. The standard deviation of key dimensions was significantly reduced allowing to shift the average, hence reducing the amount of material used once more. After an extensive trial process implemented to establish the correct process, we arrived at a new coating technique that allowed for significant performance improvement. For instance, peel adhesion and shear of the fastening component were greatly improved. If you add up all the increments of weight reduction, it’s quite a big sum.
Success on many levels
The success in reducing weight opens up new possibilities in the Personal Care industry. It has not only allowed us to reach ambitious sustainability targets, together with our partners, but has also led to enhanced user experience, improved product performance, and increased manufacturing efficiency as a direct result from these ambitions.
Trends & perspectives
Ambitions for our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio
We don’t believe we can change the world on our own – we believe we can change the world together. That we can improve, evolve, inspire – make it safer. Through working together with our ecosystem partners, we're re-imagining business through experience. That’s why while creating and expanding our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio, the collaboration with and feedback from our customers plays an important part.
Diving deeper
At Avery Dennison, we are lucky enough to work with customers who share our philosophy. That’s something we experience every day, but the numbers reflect it too. Take a look at the following insightful statistic, for instance: as much as 84% of our customers consider sustainability to be an important aspect of the company's policy to select a supplier. Almost 60% say their perception of a brand is influenced by its sustainability practices.
When companies look for scope 3 reduction, they are heavily dependent upon their suppliers.
By now, 60% of our customers have published a smart goal for the reduction of their scope 3 emissions, while as much as 80-85% have smart targets for scope 1 & 2 emissions. Our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio offers them a great opportunity to reduce scope 3 emissions.
Meeting customer demands in Personal Care
At the same time, ‘sustainability’ is one of the two top buying criteria for our Personal Care customers, the other being ‘good value for money’. Diving deeper, sustainability and cost effectiveness are identified by our customers as two top trends in closure solutions for the future.
In our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio based on weight reduction, those two trends go hand in hand – while a recent survey shows that ‘weight reduction’ was identified by our customers as the most important criteria to meet sustainability targets. Other big scorers are ‘enabling recycling and reuse’, ‘renewable content’ and ‘responsible sourcing’.
"Our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio reflects our commitment to a greener future. "
Today & Tomorrow
Today, Avery Dennison’s weight reduction project has already made a huge influence on both the project portfolio and marketing position of the Personal Care segment. By aligning with our customers and innovating, we pave the way for sustainability in Personal Care – but we’re also working to extend our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio across our Industrial (Automotive, Building & Construction, General Industrial) and Medical segments.
As much as 30% of all sales now come from our Sustainable Advantage Portfolio, allowing us the aforementioned 300 tons of saved materials. Avery Dennison Personal Care now aims to have the Sustainable Advantage Portfolio make up for at least 50% of all sales by 2028. Reaching that target includes an increased focus on weight reduction as well as explorations of recycled and renewable content. Ongoing research and development initiatives aimed at further optimising tape products for sustainability are highlighting our commitment to continuous improvement and long-term vision for a more eco-friendly industry.
Diving deeper
At Avery Dennison, we have pledged to deliver innovations that reduce our environmental impact. Sustainable Advantage is a portfolio of products and solutions that enables companies across global industries to use fewer natural resources, cut carbon emissions, reduce waste, and build towards a low-carbon, circular economy.
Closure systems that are engineered, manufactured, and supported by a global materials science leader.
With decades of experience in the design, development, manufacture and supply of high-performance closure solutions for baby, incontinence, feminine care and packaging, Avery Dennison is one of the most trusted brands in the personal care field.
The Personal Care Sustainable Advantage Portfolio.
The last section of our E-magazine features a comprehensive description of that product portfolio and its unique characteristics, divided over the four Avery Dennison technologies that make up our Personal Care Sustainable Advantage Portfolio.
- Y-bond mechanical tapes
- F-bond mechanical tapes
- Z-fold disposal tapes
- Closure tape for pouched sanitary napkins
1. Y-bond mechanical tapes
Avery Dennison Y-bond mechanical tapes are a two layer, precombined, hook-based closure system for baby diapers and adult incontinence briefs. These tapes offer a combination of a premium look and feel, combined with durable and reliable functionality.
Y5015D Wave C
Avery Dennison Y5015D Wave C is a pre-combined tape system for baby diapers, incorporating hook elements and a Y-bond between fastening and release tape.
Key benefits
Premium adhesion and shear performance to a wide variety of stretchable nonwoven diaper ears
Aggressive and soft hook element used for better peel performance onto multiple loop landing zones
Y-bond providing strongest possible bond with diaper chassis
2. F-bond mechanical tapes
Avery Dennison F-bond mechanical tapes are a cost-effective solution that provide excellent performance on a wide variety of loop-based landing zones.
F5052D Wave C
Avery Dennison F5052D Wave C is a pre-laminated diaper tape system, incorporating a hook element.
Key benefits
Premium adhesion and shear performance to a wide variety of stretchable nonwoven diaper ears
Aggressive & soft hook element used for better peel performance onto multiple loop landing zones
White nonwoven-like fastening tape increasing the softness of the nonwoven system
More F-bond mechanical tape solutions:
3. Z-fold disposal tapes
Avery Dennison Z-fold disposal tapes are a precombined construction designed for use with disposable pants. These tapes are laminated on the back of the pant during conversion, and remain folded in the “Z” shape while the pant is worn. When the pant is ready for disposal, the tape is unfolded and used to securely wrap the pant into a compact, hygienic package.
Z4040
Avery Dennison Z4040 is a Z-folded tape closure system, used to generate a disposal function on diapers.
Key benefits
Extendible to about 2.2 times its original size allowing to bridge and wrap large parcels
Anti-flagging adhesive/silicone bond in the Z-fold construction eliminates pop-opens during conversion
Colored fingerlift highlighting the opening position in the tape
4. Closure tape for pouched sanitary napkins
Avery Dennison offers a range of femcare tapes designed for pre- and post use closure of individually pouched sanitary napkins.
S4612
Avery Dennison S4612 is a single coated tape with an adhesive-free fingerlift portion, designed as a closure tape, specifically for nonwoven pouches and supplied in selfwound rolls.
Key benefits
Controlled adhesive properties, excellent removable tape performance to a wide variety of substrates
Low tape release giving a good balance between the requirement for conversion and tab opening for the end-user
Adhesive-free fingerlift design providing cost-effective way for easy opening and closing
- 1. Cover Sheet
- 2. Table of Contents
- 3. Content Page
- 3. Content Page
- 3. Content Page
- 3. Content Page
- 3. Content Page
- 3. Content Page
- 4. Footer