Pet Food Processing - September 2024 - 68

ASSOCIATIONS
pet sustainability
COALITION
Guiding the pet food and treat industry
through its sustainability journey.
CONTACT PSC
2530 Junction Place,
Suite 100
Boulder, CO 80301
(203) 993-0977
admin@petsustainability.org
www.petsustainability.org
A
After celebrating its 10-year anniversary in 2023, the Pet
Sustainability Coalition is poised to scale its programs
to address the advancement of sustainable ingredients,
packaging and corporate social responsibility throughout
the pet and pet food industries. Since its founding in
2013, PSC has grown to represent nearly 200 pet product
manufacturers, suppliers, brands, distributors and
retailers, attracting a broad number of industry leaders
seeking to advance sustainability. According to the coalition,
its innovative programming has driven significant
growth, something it hopes to continue in its next 10
years in operation.
Jim Lamancusa joined the PSC as executive director
in early 2024, taking the reins from Caitlyn Dudas, cofounder
and former executive director, who now serves
as senior advisor to the PSC. During her 10-year tenure
with PSC, Dudas helped drive the coalition to become
a leading sustainability organization in the pet industry.
The coalition's programs support members on their
individual sustainable packaging journeys by providing
tools and resources to help companies achieve their
goals. In addition, the coalition has developed programs
and services designed to guide members to success.
Flex Forward - A return-to-retail pilot program,
which was completed in 2022, collected more than 8,000
lbs of post-consumer packaging for recycling trials. The
program shed some light on challenges presented by the
current composition of most pet food packaging.
UnPacked - A bi-annual summit dedicated to packaging.
The event brings together packaging experts with
pet industry brands, manufacturers and retailers to learn
about how to approach one of the industry's biggest
challenges.
Packaging Pledge - A voluntary, industrywide commitment
to move toward more sustainable, refillable,
compostable and recyclable packaging. The pledge asks
pet industry companies to develop measurable goals and
track progress toward the use of refillable, compostable
and recyclable packaging by the end of 2025. In exchange
for their commitment, PSC will provide informational
tools to help them achieve their goals.
Packaging Legislation Tracker - This tool provides
detailed information about the regulations, which are
broken down by region, how the regulations could affect
operations, and where to go to find additional information.
The Tracker includes a comprehensive overview of
over 100 packaging-related regulations in four regions:
the United States, with state-by-state data, Canada, the
United Kingdom and the European Union.
In August, PSC was selected as a sub-awardee of
Growing GRASS, a US Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
Grant project. The initiative supports large-scale projects
that promote agricultural practices reducing greenhouse
gas emissions or sequestering carbon. USDA is
investing $3.1 billion in 141 selected projects under the
partnership.
The grant supports PSC's ongoing mission to advance
sustainable ingredient sourcing practices within the pet
food industry, according to the association. Through the
utilization of regeneratively sourced bison and beef ingredients,
pet food brands and manufacturers can help
reduce the carbon footprint of production while supporting
long-term sustainable sourcing in the industry.
68 PET FOOD PROCESSING | September 2024 | www.petfoodprocessing.net
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Pet Food Processing - September 2024

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