CONAI gives 200,000 euros to companies producing and using packaging that invest in the eco-sustainability and innovation of packaging. The winners of the “CONAI competition for prevention – Valuing the environmental sustainability of packaging,” launched by the Consortium last November, awards sustainable and innovative packaging solutions that entered the market between 2011 and 2013. The prize for companies producing and using packages is a total of 200,000 euros. 36 out of 68 companies and 73 actions won prizes, reducing CO₂ levels by 34.5%, energy consumption by 36.3% and water consumption by 36.2%. To take part in the competition syndicated companies used the Eco Tool CONAI (www.ecotoolconai.org), the tool that calculates, via a simplified LCA analysis, the effects BEFORE and AFTER the companies put in place preventative actions on their packaging (saving raw material, optimising logistics, facilitating recycling activities, using recycled material, reusing, simplifying the packaging system). Cases were evaluated according to the results given by the Eco Tool CONAI and were awarded using a scoring system attributed to each prevention criterion adopted. The list of winning companies, their score and the actions they implemented, is available on the website www.conai.org, classified according to small and medium sized companies and large companies. The CONAI competition for prevention is part of the wider project “Think Future” that brings together different topics relating to preventing the impact packaging has on the environment. For CONAI prevention means adopting changes aimed at reducing the environmental impact of packaging in terms of both the quantity of materials used and production and use processes, considering the entire life cycle of the packaging itself. These activities define the strategy summed up in the formula “from cradle to cradle” which focuses on the objective of reducing the use of upstream raw materials and increasing the use of downstream waste resources to limit the environmental impact of packaging consumption. The most widely adopted changes identified by the CONAI competition for prevention were saving raw materials and optimising logistics. What’s more, the majority of actions were implemented on primary packaging as shown in the graphs below. The winning companies were: 3M Italia srl Assograph Italia S.r.l. Auchan Spa Barilla G. e R. Fratelli S.p.A Bayer MaterialScience SpA BB Line S.r.l. Big Paper Italia S.r.l. Bticino spa Cabot Switzerland GMBH Colussi S.P.A. S.P.A Coopbox Group Epson Italia s.p.a. Ferrarelle S.p.A. Goglio Cofibox S.p.A. GPP Industrie Grafiche S.r.l. Granarolo spa Gruppo Coin SPA Henkel italia spa Interchem italia srl Irplast spa La Fonte s.r.l. Lindt & Sprüngli S.p.A. Luigi Lavazza S.p.A. Nestlé Italiana S.p.A. Nuncas Italia Spa Orogel Società Cooperativa Agricola Pelliconi & C. SpA Pibergroup srl Poli-Box Italiana S.r.l. Rachelli Elio & C. S.n.c. Sabox S.r.l. Saponificio Gianasso S.r.l. Scatolificio Cristina S.r.l. Startec S.r.l. Tia Stretch S.r.l. Vidrala Italia srl Vimar spa