CSR & Sustainability

When we see or hear “Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability”, our minds often drift into a “Zen” mode where things are light, airy, and green, taking us to a place where all stakeholders come together working in tandem to make the world a better place.

CSR and Sustainability are typically thought of as challenges for the world of “today”; but in reality, they have always been in existence.

How often do we hear, “our company doesn’t participate in sustainable activities, we’ve always just been economically motivated” or “how can we possibly change into a CSR and Sustainable organization?”  What we have discovered along our journey is that we as organizations must challenge ourselves, look “within” for the truth; and more often than not, we find that we really have been acting responsibly and sustainably in many ways but have simply not been thinking of our activities in those terms.  In essence, it really doesn’t matter “how you get there”, it’s okay to be fiscally responsible—in fact it would be nearly impossible to remain in business for long without the management of finances! But, those same activities we’ve all been participating in for years, i.e. adjusting heat/air to reduce electrical usage in buildings, recharging fork truck batteries in the evening when utility rates are lower, using wind power, reducing—light-weighting raw materials; reusing—production waste, containers, packaging, etc., recycling—converting to a new item; or by hiring and sourcing locally, etc., etc. These cost saving activities also happen to be the very activities of an organization that practices CSR and Sustainability!

Once we all start thinking of our actions as being sustainable, the sky is the limit when it comes to finding other utilitarian ways to help our organizations and communities prosper!

C.L. Smith is moving forward with sustainability.

For us at C.L. Smith, we rely on our company culture to garner the strength needed to make CSR and Sustainability an everyday way of life. As a packaging and container Supplier, it’s through our long-term values, operating as an Authentic, Passionate, Dedicated, Trusting, Collaborative organization, performing with a Sense of Urgency, Focusing on Adding Value while Servicing Others that we have responsibly impacted our surroundings, not just in business, but also in the socio-economic environment. By managing our impact, we are able to keep our costs low, manage risks, and strengthen external relations.

As a way to help measure our impact and continuous improvement to our surroundings, we have partnered with EcoVadis, a global organization that provides holistic CSR ratings service of companies. EcoVadis assigns rated scorecards after assessing results of non-financial management systems focused on Environmental, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement impacts. We are extremely proud to share our scorecard identifying our current CSR & Sustainability performance awarded at a Silver Medal recognition level! Not only does our scorecard help us stay on target in these areas of improving our internal measurements and reducing our carbon footprint, we are also able to identify potential and existing Suppliers competing to achieve global best practice in global supply sustainability to consider partnering with — helping us to further mitigate risks in the Supply channel.

As important as managing our impact, we draw on the strengths of our culture through the embracement of economic reality, collaborating with the external and social environment by reaching out to the local community for our purchasing and hiring opportunities. We recognize the ever most importance of relationship building with our complex network of Stakeholders who integrally impact how we compete and manage risks in the environment.

While there is no argument that there can be costs associated with acting responsibly and sustainably or that we are all in business to make money; we move forward toward our goal of actively participating in the marketplace as good Corporate Stewards. We will continue embracing Sustainability and serving you, our Customers, our Community, and other Stakeholders as a Supplier of long-term value, providing sustainable packaging solutions throughout the entire packaging lifecycle by:

• Reducing gram weight
• Providing returnable bulk packaging options
• Reconfiguring cartons to lighter board grade
• Offering Re-shipper packaging
• Providing Alternative options to PVC
• Reducing SKUs
• Offering re-fillable/reusable containers
• Offering Integrated partitions

In summary, when asked “What is CSR and Sustainability?”
We say, it’s C. L. Smith!
Helping to keep the environment safe while building a framework for a successful future.
It’s the right thing to do.

Find more on CLS Sustainability:

• Sustainability Statement
• Bottle Molding Manufacturer Custom Design
• Product Design Gallery
• Pace – Client Case Study: The Green Way to Clean
• Pace – Source Reduction Made Easy