Avery Dennison Corporation (www.averydennison.com) announced today that it has formalized a company-wide policy to promote responsible paper sourcing and procurement. The policy will be available in the Reports and Downloads section of the company’s sustainability website.

“As a leader in labeling and packaging materials and solutions, we recognize that we have a responsibility to help our customers and our industry become more sustainable,” says Dean Scarborough, Avery Dennison chairman, president and CEO. “Our policy will guide us in sourcing materials responsibly, using them more efficiently in our operations, and developing greener products from them.” 

Developed with the support of non-governmental organization Rainforest Alliance, Avery Dennison’s policy commits the company and its businesses to:

• Identify and disclose the sources of the pulp, natural fiber and paper in its labeling and packaging materials and solutions
• Help ensure that its suppliers follow sustainable forest management practices
• Evaluate and reward sound environmental performance on the part of its supply-chain partners
• Seek to maximize its use of recycled content and fiber sourced from Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC)-certified forestry operations
• Work to avoid controversial fiber sources 

Avery Dennison is working with external certification experts, including Rainforest Alliance, to assess the potential risk to the company’s supply chain of illegal timber or irresponsibly harvested fiber and develop systems and procedures for documenting, verifying and reporting supplier performance.

“We will review our policy and commitments on a regular basis to ensure they reflect the state of the industry and are based on the best available scientific evidence,” Scarborough says. “Our goal is to help minimize the environmental and social impacts of our sourcing decisions across the entire paper lifecycle.”

Avery Dennison materials and solutions that provide sustainable advantages include a new portfolio of FSC-certified paper label materials; a portfolio of labeling products containing 10 to 100% post-consumer waste; and a wide range of apparel labels and packaging made from recycled and recyclable papers. In addition, 49 of Avery Dennison’s facilities have attained FSC chain-of-custody (CoC) certification. Only FSC CoC-certified operations are allowed to label products with the FSC trademarks.