Kraft Foods has started using lifecycle assessment (LCA) to measure its footprint on every step it takes to make a product, deliver it and consume it.

Photo: Kraft YES Pack uses 60 percent less plastic packaging than the previous container design

“Lifecycle assessment is an important part of our sustainability journey,” said Roger Zellner, Sustainability Director for Research, Development & Quality. “It gives us a competitive advantage, as we now have more insight into how to reduce our products’ footprints, find efficiencies and validate and explain those benefits to customers and consumers. Together, we’re focusing and working smarter and communicating better, which is good for the environment, people and our business.”

The LCA is based on the multi-year footprinting project Kraft Foods recently used to map its impact on climate change, land and water use. With help of LCA, the company can measure how product and packaging innovations improve on previous designs.

Kraft gives an example of utilizing LCA in the United States.  The Kraft YES Pack salad dressing team used LCA to prove their design has a reduced environmental impact, because they used 60 percent less plastic packaging than the previous container.

Another tool that Kraft Foods uses is the Eco-Calculator. This tool leverages data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and packaging industry groups to help packaging designers create more sustainable solutions.

With the Eco-Calculator, designers can calculate the percentage of post-consumer recycled material in a given package design, along with the amount of energy and carbon dioxide emissions needed to create the package. Designers can also track how efficiently they’re using materials and how well their designs will fit a product’s physical dimensions.

Currently, Kraft is promoting its Oscar Mayer brand in a humorous campaign.