TLMI has announced that the association’s board of directors has approved a series of goals relevant to sustainability and leadership of both the association and its converter and supplier members.

The purpose of the association’s Sustainability Goals reads: “TLMI will quantify the commitment of its members to sustainability and reducing negative environmental and social impacts.”

Moving forward, TLMI will quantify and report on ways the association’s member companies are committed to environmental and social best practices. TLMI’s goal is to aggregate and publish data that demonstrates to the greater industry supply chain that TLMI’s membership is actively pursuing best practices and is a progressive, sustainability-minded entity. Outreach will be directed toward label customers and packaging buyers, converters and suppliers, and students and recent graduates contemplating entry into the industry for the first time.

TLMI’s primary goal and objectives in implementing the program includes the following:

Goal: TLMI member companies will progressively become more sustainable as businesses and TLMI will quantify and report on the commitment of its members to sustainability.

Objectives: By 2022 at least 50 percent of TLMI members will have publicly disclosed one or more sustainability goals that commits to reducing negative environmental and/or social impacts over time, and by 2025, 100 percent.

By 2022, at least 50 percent of TLMI members will request their major suppliers to have publicly disclosed sustainability goals, and by 2025, 100 percent.

TLMI vice president of sustainability, Rosalyn Bandy, comments, “TLMI’s ultimate goal is to provide evidence in the form of data to our members, our members’ customers and to new graduates entering our workforce that strongly conveys that the label industry cares about sustainability and is actively working to improve impacts on the environment. We have many members who are extremely innovative when it comes to environmental best practices and other members who will be introducing programs in the coming year. Whether it’s zero percent waste-to-landfill, using renewable energy to power their plants or ensuring that their labels do not negatively impact the recyclability of the containers on which they are affixed; we will be quantifying member commitment in order to become a valuable resource to brands, packaging buyers and workers potentially entering our industry for the first time. Also falling under the umbrella of sustainability are practices like committing to having a diverse workforce with certain percentages of women and minorities. This is something that new graduates are looking for and hold as a high priority in choosing their future career paths. This new program is going to help our members better position themselves both to their customers, and to potential new hires.”

For more information, visit www.tlmi.com