About Compass > Project History

History

The began in 2005 with a review of existing tools applicable to the packaging supply chain. During the review process, MERGE™ (Managing Environmental Resources, Guidance and Evaluation), developed by Environmental Defense Fund was identified as a potential platform from which to develop a new tool. MERGE was originally developed for both package design and chemical formulation. In 2006, Environmental Defense Fund granted an exclusive license to GreenBlue to redevelop the package design portion of MERGE. The project was guided by principles identified by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s (SPC) Definition of Sustainable Packaging.

Funding

In September 2006, the SPC was awarded a $150,000 cooperative agreement from the U.S. EPA to redevelop the MERGE tool. Additional resources were needed in order to complete the project, so GreenBlue directed $50,000 to this project from a grant received from the Summit Foundation. SPC membership dues have provided the remainder of the funding needed for software development and data verification. In order to provide funding for future updates, maintenance and the development of new data, the SPC charges a modest annual licensing fee for access to the application.

Project Development

This project was divided into three stages of development: 1) Data Collection; 2) Metrics Development and 3) Creation of the Tool.

Data Collection

As part of the redevelopment in 2006, a survey of publicly available life cycle inventory datasets was conducted for the main classes of packaging materials. During this assessment, it was noted that much of the data available was ten years old or older and not transparent (meaning it was not reported at a unit process level). The SPC joined efforts with the Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard Development and the U.S. EPA in the development of the WARM and ReCon tools and launched an effort in March 2007 to collect new datasets from industry including paper, plastic, biopolymers, metals, and glass. This effort is ongoing.

Metrics Development

During the summer of 2007, the SPC convened a group of twelve stakeholders from across the packaging supply chain to develop new metrics for . The objective of this process was to develop a set of metrics that:

  • Supports the SPC's Definition of Sustainable Packaging
  • Is accessible to the target audience of packaging designers and engineers
  • Is informed from the guidance found in ISO 14044 Sections 4.4.2.2.1 - 4.4.2.2.4

Since that time, the metrics have undergone both an internal and external peer review involving government agencies, companies, consultancies and environmental nonprofit organizations. Full metrics documents are available to paying licensees only under the resources section.

Creation of

The SPC contracted Intalgent, a software development firm, in early 2008 to develop the final web-based application. A Beta version was released to SPC membership in the fall of 2008. Testing and comment period remained open until November 2008, and programming for Version 1.0 commenced in December 2008.