Sustainability Magazine November 2019 | Page 49

mental citizens , educators , businesses , non-profit organisations and thought leaders to celebrate global sustainability . Smurfit Kappa shares much of the same vision as Earthx2020 ; promoting environmental awareness and impact through conscious business , collaboration and community-driven sustainable solutions .
As the discussion on sustainable practices is pushed to the forefront , there has been a cultural shift in both corporate attitudes and public perception with heightened awareness of the consequences we could face should we choose to ignore the warning signs . However , the transition from ‘ business as usual ’ to a more sustainable model has its challenges , not just in the methodology of manufacturing but also the attitudes of retailers and producers .
One of those areas is waste , and Smurfit Kappa encourages businesses to reconsider their perspective on it . Often , waste products can be fed into other aspects of a business to great effect . Smurfit Kappa ’ s circular approach to manufacturing means that waste is an important material . Berkenbosch explains , “ What makes our industry and our products a little bit special is that , when a consumer thinks about old paper , they call it waste ; we call it valuable raw material . We always look at everything and think , is there any value in that ? The main complication for business , is that they need to think circular , and many businesses cannot do that on their own because they need to consider the entire supply chain . To really make a difference they need to talk to their suppliers , producers , retailers , and governments . This is a nice concept on paper but very challenging in reality . There needs to
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