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Sustainability Initiatives

Avery Dennison Corporation defines "Sustainability" as achieving and maintaining business success through responsible economic, social and environmental practices that help build and maintain healthy communities around the world. The Corporation has a major commitment to Sustainability. On our Home page is a clear statement of our policy (go to www.averydennison.com, and click on "Corporate Sustainability Charter"). This link will take you there: Avery Dennison Corporate.

The Printer Systems Division takes its responsibility to drive sustainability seriously.

Our divisional program contains three main thrusts:

Responsible reduction/ recycling/ improvement of our manufacturing waste disposal. This is attacked by:
-reducing waste that is a by-product of our manufacturing process. We do this by monthly "waste out" meetings and a suggestion program that taps into the ideas of every manufacturing employee.
-identifying and utilizing more "green" raw materials where possible.
Reducing energy usage and waste of our entire facility. We have instituted an employee training program (all employees of Avery Dennison underwent "Sustainability" training in March 2008) and an employee suggestion program. Suggestions are reviewed for feasibility and implementation by a cross functional Sustainability Committee. This Committee has high level support and is chaired by our Vice President, a direct report to the General Manager.
Continued and accelerated development of "green" products for our customers.
We have a number of "Green" supply options in our offering today, with plans to expand. Some of these options include: (1) Linerless direct thermal labels that eliminate the liner waste and the ribbons; (2) Dissolvable labels that are 100 percent dissolved in water- these are used to label containers, totes, bins etc., and "disappear" in the cleaning process; (3) Recyclable adhesive labels that can be repulpable with corrugated packing or recycled with shrink and stretch wrap; (4) Labels with unbleached liners (brown Kraft) that do not use harsh or caustic chemicals to bleach them that end up in the waste water system; (5) Recycled label stocks and tags made with various percentages of post-customer waste; (However, due to high raw materials cost, these are significantly more expensive than standard products); (6) We work with some of our largest label users to align them with available industry programs to recycle liner; (7) We are beginning the use of polyester liners, which are recyclable. As these products become more accepted in the marketplace, and volumes increase, raw materials cost and price will come down.