Hasbro to Eliminate PVC from Packaging

Editor's Note: Senior Writer Marc Gunther's blog post on his interview with Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner and VP Kathrin Belliveau and a contributed piece by Duncan Billing of Hasbro also are available on GreenBiz.com.

Toymaker Hasbro plans to eliminate PVC from its packaging by 2013 and include more recycled content in the other materials used in the wrappings and boxes for toys.

Those are the two newest environmentally related goals included in the company's first corporate responsibility report, which is being released today.

The document also pulls together a number previously articulated aspirations and recaps progress toward goals.

As noted above, colleague Marc Gunther interviewed top executives at Hasbro to find out their reasons for compiling and issuing the report. He shares highlights from those conversations and his insights in his post this morning. Hasbro's Duncan Billing offers an insider's view on what it took to produce the report as well as lessons learned from the process.

Here are some of the report's key points:

PVC Phaseout in Packaging -- Polyvinyl chloride is to disappear from "all new core toy and game packaging beginning in 2013." PVC will still be used in toys, however.

Upping Use of Recycled Content -- By 2015, 90 percent of paper and board packaging used by the company are to come from recycled material or sources that practice sustainable forest management.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions -- The company reduced global GHG emissions 11.3 percent from 2008 to 2010, outstripping its goal of a 10 percent reduction by 2012.

Recycling -- Hasbro is recycling 82 percent of its non-hazardous waste and closing on its goal of 90 percent by 2012.

Curbing Water Consumption -- This one may be a stretch. Hasbro has reduced water use by 9 percent at its U.S. factory; the goal is a 15 percent reduction by 2012.

The full report is to be available later today at www.hasbro.com/csr.

Photo of Transformer by CarlaVanWagoner / Shutterstock.com.