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January 23, 2009
The Coca-Cola Company has awarded a $400,000 grant to Michigan State University (MSU)'s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources to help establish a Center for Packaging Innovation and Sustainability.
The center, which will be located in the MSU School of Packaging, will serve as a global think tank and a research, outreach and education hub for work focused on measuring and reducing the environmental impact of packaging and promoting sustainable packaging practices throughout the product lifecycle.
"The Coca-Cola Company is honored to collaborate with Michigan State University in its quest to bring corporate, academia and packaging professionals together to foster new ideas in sustainable packaging," said Ingrid Saunders Jones, senior vice president, Global Community Connections. "Our Company has set ambitious environmental goals to not only deliver quality products, but to also have minimal impact on the environment. Research and work generated through this collaboration with MSU will assist us in reaching our goals."
The Center for Packaging Innovation and Sustainability will involve the MSU colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources (School of Packaging), Engineering and the Eli Broad College of Business (Department of Supply Chain Management). It will provide a platform for both collaborative, non-proprietary research and proprietary work conducted by industry partners, both in partnership with and independent of MSU researchers, to develop innovative packaging solutions that reduce production costs and improve sustainability.
"By bringing together university and industry resources in supply chain, packaging and engineering, this center will be able to effectively address issues of sustainability, discover environmentally and economically operative solutions and consider new ways to manage environmental impact throughout the value chain," said Elvin Lashbrooke, interim dean of the Eli Broad College of Business.
The center will include state-of-the-art technology for research and testing of packaging materials and will offer academic, outreach and continuing education programs focused on innovation and improvement of the environmental impact of packaging. The Center plans to open research, development, education and training facilities in Dubai and Shanghai.
"Packaging is ubiquitous throughout the food system and a critical component to the quality, safety and sustainability of the products we buy and eat," said Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. "Coca-Cola's funding commitment to establish the Center for Packaging Innovation and Sustainability will move us toward an unprecedented level of industry collaboration that will have global implications for improving packaging performance and sustainability."
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