Advance Packaging Corp.’s Green Focused Facility Earns Sustainability Excellence Award

Cole admits that sustainability does make business sense. The 22 percent drop in natural gas usage when compared to the amount of corrugated material produced is proof of that, as are savings from producing less waste and consuming less energy. It also benefits the community, of which Advance Packaging is a part.

Cole points out that her company’s hometown of Grand Rapids is also home to many other sustainably minded businesses. Working toward common goals makes the city and surrounding area “a great place to live and work.” Investing in employees, the community, and local environment means a strong workforce and the availability of resources.

“In detailed review of Advance Packaging submission for this year’s Sustainability Excellence Award, it was observed the company made a serious attempt in not only implementing various measures, but also engaging the work force and educating the public to become more cognizant of the importance of recycling and energy fficiency measures,” said Anoosheh M. Oskouian, president and CEO of Ship & Shore Environmental, Inc.

“After all, the public’s education carries a large weight on sustaining the initial measures and success of the program.” But moving and pouring resources into the wetlands project did not positively affect Advance Packaging’s bottom line—the company makes money printing corrugated boxes, not caring about the environment. Simply put, that project wasn’t designed to generate revenue. Instead, it serves as the most obvious example of a genuine awareness of the environment, the impact a single company can have—positive and negative—and a commitment to doing what’s possible to do more good than harm, not to pad the books, but because it’s the right thing to do.

“As a corrugated manufacturer, we rely heavily on Earth’s natural resources—namely trees,” Cole says. “We want to be around to provide packaging long into the future. That means taking care of our community so we have employees, our economic viability, and the resources we need to produce our product.

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