From simple container to powerful communication tool: packaging increasingly succeeds in conveying the environmental impact of the product contained within it and the producer's path to sustainability. Environmental communication is one of the tools a company uses to supplement its environmental policy to tell the story of the choices it has made and enhance the results it has achieved.f

With the IdentiPack report now at its fourth issue, Italy's National Observatory on Environmental labelling - which originated from the partnership between CONAI and GS1 Italy - highlights the increasingly strategic role played by labels in conveying businesses' commitment to the environment and highlights how products carrying environmental information related to packaging are steadily increasing.

Prepared with the contribution of market data from NielsenIQ, the report takes a snapshot of the situation regarding the packs available on the shelf and then purchased by consumers, segmenting them according to the departments they belong to, and finds that there are now over 60,000 packs on shelves featuring an identification code for the packaging materials, with percentages differing according to the market segment and the grocery share standing at 44.1%.

To date, over 10,300 articles carry voluntary environmental information and marks, making up more than 7% of the products on the shelf in large-scale retail and almost 11% of the packs sold.

Leading the way among the various goods classes analyzed, the cold sector is confirmed for the communication of mandatory environmental information of packaging: ice cream and frozen food have the leadership for the number of products that show on the label the identification coding of the material, in addition to the indications on the type of packaging and on the correct disposal in separate collection.

In second place for attention to environmental labeling is meat, followed by the sector related to fresh food.

The report can be read in full online on the  osservatorioidentipack.it website.