Brother International Australia wins Sustainable Packaging Guidelines Implementation Award

In early October this year, Brother International Australia (BIA) was nominated as a finalist for the coveted Sustainable Packaging Guidelines (SPG's) Implementation Award.

In BIA's submission to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), we outlined our efforts to eliminate polystyrene (EPS) and polyethylene (EPE) packaging from Brother printing products, with a commitment to remove the remaining products with EPE/EPS packaging by March 2024.

As part of our submission, BIA also pledged that we are equally dedicated to maintaining high-quality standards and committed to utilising sustainable alternative materials and packaging methods that protect the quality and integrity of our products.

BIA is proud to announce that we have won the SPG's Implementation Award at APCO's Our Packaging Future (OPF) Awards, unveiled at a ceremony on Thursday, 2 November 2023.

Among many companies recognised for their efforts in this space, BIA won the OPF Sustainable Packaging Guidelines Award for its 'transformative journey to pioneer sustainable packaging practices, creating packaging with a clear recovery solution in mind and incorporating recycled content into its packaging'.

Andy O'Donnell, Director at Brother International Australia, said:

"This is a testament to a truly wonderful achievement for the whole Brother group, including (but not limited to) our designers, engineers, procurement and production teams, and to all staff directly or indirectly engaged locally and internationally.

"It's been a remarkable journey, and we can take great pride in our achievements to date."

Andy O'Donnell, Director at BIA, accepting the award from Richard Smith, one of APCO's Board of Directors

BIA would like to acknowledge that this achievement wouldn't have been possible without the collaborative effort involving teams in Australia and in our parent company, Japan.

Chris Foley, CEO of APCO, described 2023 as being a game-changing year for eco-friendly packaging practices, marked by innovation and leadership.

"It has been a great pleasure to hear the success stories of collaboration, innovation and leadership from this year's finalists and winners," Foley said.

"The Awards demonstrate the industry's progress to meeting the 2025 National Packaging Targets and more broadly how we are shaping the future of packaging here in Australia. It is empowering to see organisations across the industry laying the foundations for a stronger packaging system beyond 2025, and making tangible progress toward implementing a circular economy for packaging. I can't wait to see the ground-breaking achievements and positive change that emerge over the next year."

The 2025 National Packaging Targets were put into place by APCO in 2018, and include four key areas to be achieved by 2025:

• 100% of packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable
• 70% of plastic packaging recycled or composted
• 30% average recycled content across all packaging
• Phase out problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging through redesign, innovation or alternative delivery methods

BIA would also like to recognise and congratulate each of the other finalists that were in the running for the SPG's Implementation Award:

• Brasshards Group
• Coles Group
• Hewitt

APCO is a not-for-profit organisation paving the way for a circular economy for packaging in Australia.