«An enveloping lightness: we have tried to sum up the strategy of Giflex, the national association of producers of flexible packaging solutions intended for the packaging of food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and other industrial applications, in the “pay off” of our new identity symbol.
It follows that the fundamental objective set years ago is to always look for new opportunities for dialogue with all institutional, national and international stakeholders, offering our expertise on the theme of the environmental sustainability of our products.
It’s a commitment that we pursue with great attention to finding the right “balance”, that is, seeking an alignment between environmental and industrial policies, between protecting the planet and jobs, without favouring one aspect over the other.
What is more, it should be clear by now that the term sustainability is broken down into environmental, economic and social sustainability, a fact that should always be borne in mind when starting new projects or when a new regulation is introduced.

Too often complex themes are dealt with by seeking simple solutions.
The starting point is to evaluate different types of packaging in a scientific way, and to this end, we have created a specific working group in Giflex with the aim of defining a protocol on how to carry out the LCA of flexible packaging from a circular economy perspective.
We are working with Enea (the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) to establish a clear scientific method validated by a third-party body. We are converters without any preconceived positions on any material, from cellophane to polypropylene, from paper to biodegradable plastic.

In other words, we are packaging “designers”, able to design not only the product, but also how it will be perceived and what will be its end-of-life.
Another basic theme that we at Giflex take very seriously is the inter-associative one.
Employers’ organizations too often focus on the short-term interests of their sector, but to reason in circular economy terms, it is necessary to know how to reach out and interact with those who come before or after you in the supply chain.
Thinking about defending your own “backyard” without looking at the entire value chain is a losing strategy. All of us are constructing a packaging vision for the future and for this we need to apply shared basic values.

Precisely in order to be open to confrontation in a constructive way, we have initiated a reflection on who we are, what we do, what are the values of our products.
We have invested in this project, commissioning the University of Bologna to carry out research on how flexible packaging is perceived, which has searched databases, websites and interviewed opinion leaders.
At the same time, we have sought to work on our identity, that is, to explain to ourselves and to the world around us what is flexible packaging, what are its values, summing up the results in the new symbol.
This is just at the beginning of a journey, because first identity has to be defined and then shared.
Furthermore, it’s true that the passage from rigid to flexible, from heavy packaging to a light one is an advantageous one for us, but now we have to make sure to improve the recyclability of our products in a circular economy logic.
This is what consumers are asking of us.

We producers of flexible packaging provide – and certainly not by chance – a service in line with our way of life and consumption habits.
We therefore have to concentrate on the things we are able to do, how we can enhance the functions inherent to packaging, first and foremost that of guaranteeing the preservation of products, in the food sector combatting food waste.
This aspect is linked to that of the shelf-life of food products, about which the end-users basically decide.
Packaging is certainly a tool that makes it possible to extend shelf-life, perhaps avoiding the use of preservatives or heat treatments, but a reflection on the question – still lacking and which is not considered as a priority – in relation to the impact that different types of packaging have in terms of sustainability, would be useful.

On the other hand, we talk about packaging but much less about, and this is in spite of the data that we everyone has: 20% of the CO2 emitted at global level derives from food production and, of this amount, only 2-3% is attributable to packaging.
We nevertheless have to do our part, also because today technology enables us to make high-performance recyclable packaging, as the market demands.
Today the dissemination of more sustainable packaging is still conditioned by the evolution of packaging machinery, and this is why we work with UCIMA (the association of Italian Manufacturers of Automatic Packing and Packaging Machinery) to accelerate the change.

As an association, we are convinced that attention towards the environment must go hand-in-hand with attention to the social aspect.
It could be said, therefore, that the more you listen to the market, the more you listen to the needs and requirements of people.
It is necessary, therefore, to reason on the theme of diversity and inclusion, on young people, but also the generational change in family enterprises.
Companies must be increasingly attractive, also because today it’s easier to lose an employee than hire a new one.

An increasingly strong sense of responsibility with respect to all stakeholders is gaining momentum among entrepreneurs in the sector, aware that it is necessary to search for a proper correlation between the quality of the products and the quality of the company. This includes also the organisation aspect: for example, businesses able to manage work from remote, in fact, have already been able to manage change, learning to plan the performance of work duties in a more rational way, taking account of employees’ needs.
It’s a continuously evolving situation which we at Giflex carefully monitor and which will give rise to a specific training project for managers in our companies.»