Early last year independent folding carton plant General Converting, Inc., Bolingbrook, Ill., began to make a concerted effort to educate itself about sustainability issues. The company has now put together a plan to address sustainability from the manufacturing plant and processes sides of the business. Areas that were addressed by the company last year include:

•Using reusable plastic pallets through all processes in the plant;
•Entering into reusable plastic pallet exchange programs with key customers;
•Over 45 percent of paperboard material purchases are 100 percent recycled (clay-coated newsback);
•Recycling over 99 percent of paperboard waste into bales that are used to make recycled paperboard;
•Using soy-based inks that have 40 percent fewer VOCs than conventional inks and are composed of 100 percent natural and renewable oils;
•Recycling of all core plugs and cores from incoming raw material; and
•Using ethanol instead of alcohol in printing to reduce VOCs.

The major elements of this year’s plan are:

•Applying for LEED certification for its building. It is pursuing a certificate to a platinum level;
•Signing a contract with its energy supplier to source all of its energy through wind power so that every carton produced at the plant this year will be made with 100 percent renewable energy. This action will result in a reduction of 1,468,000 lbs of coal being burned this year; and
•Investing in a lighting system upgrade that will use motion sensors with T8 and T5 bulbs to reduce energy consumption. The upgrade will result in a reduction of 281,826 kilowatts per year. For more information, visit www.generalconverting.com.