Sustainability has been a huge focus for us at Associated, especially in the last few years. We are partners of 1% For The Planet for our compostable pouches, which means that 1% of sales from these pouches get donated to a certified environmental non-profit of our choice. We have an FSC-COC certification, also known as a Chain of Custody certification, which ensures that our FSC-certified label stock gets identified, is kept separate from non-certified label stock, and gets tracked through the entire printing process. We are also members of One Step Closer to an Organic and Sustainable Committee (OSC²), a community of sustainable leaders who work together to have a positive effect on the natural products industry and our environment. 

Through OSC², we came across the Climate Collaborative and were inspired by their campaign for companies to take meaningful steps to reverse climate change through nine different commitments:

• Agriculture
• Energy Efficiency
• Food Waste
• Forests
• Packaging
• Policy
• Renewable Energy
• Short-Lived Climate Pollutants
• Transportation

Over 600 companies have contributed to more than 2,000 commitments made through the Climate Collaborative. Associated has made three commitments: to increase energy efficiency, to reduce the climate impact of packaging, and to reduce the climate impact of transportation. One of the ways we worked toward the latter was to switch to Novex Delivery Solutions as our local courier, a. company that uses hybrid and electric vehicles only to make our local deliveries. 

Of all the commitments, our biggest and most obvious focus is to reduce the climate impact of packaging. We're doing this by improving barrier protection to extend shelf-life for food and beverage packaging to reduce waste, and by progressing our sustainable packaging products. As we've stated many times before, we're very aware of the effect that plastic packaging has on the environment, and we've made it a focus to create more eco-friendly alternatives for our customers over the last few years. 

We will continue to prove our dedication to our sustainable initiatives through our Director of Sustainability, our Environmental Sustainability Team, and our company culture, propelling us to make a difference.

Questions about our sustainable products or initiatives? Please reach out here or request a quote online for more information!