We're putting this one on the calendar early because it's the kind of session members ask us to repeat every year: our Packaging Sustainability webinar is set for November 2, and registration opens this week. If your business has been fielding questions from buyers about recyclable wax, compostable wrap, or shipping materials that hold up in transit without adding weight, this is the session built for you.
Like most of our programming this year, it's virtual — a choice that's stopped feeling like a compromise for a lot of members and started feeling like the actual preference. Several of you have said the same thing about our other sessions this year, and it's true across the industry: this year's largest national cheesemaker gathering ran entirely online for the first time, and organizers said the format made it easier for smaller operations to send someone, since attending no longer meant covering travel and a hotel bill on top of the registration fee.
Why packaging, and why now
We picked this topic because members keep raising it, not because it's trendy. A buyer asking about your wax coating or your shipping box isn't just being polite — retailers are fielding their own questions from customers about what happens to packaging after the cheese is gone, and a producer who has a clear, honest answer is easier to say yes to than one who doesn't. That's true whether you're selling into a regional grocery chain or a single specialty shop.
The session will cover the packaging choices that actually affect a small creamery's bottom line: what a switch to a different wax or wrap costs per unit at real production volumes, which claims on a label ("recyclable," "compostable," "biodegradable") mean something specific and enforceable versus which ones are just marketing language, and how to talk to a co-packer or supplier about a materials change without disrupting a shipping schedule you've already built other commitments around.
What to do before November 2
If you want to get the most out of the session, start pulling together what you already know about your current packaging costs — per-unit material cost, waste rate, and any complaints or questions you've fielded from buyers in the last year. The session works best as a working conversation, not a lecture, and members who've come prepared with their own numbers in past years have told us they got more specific, usable answers out of the Q&A.
Registration is free, as it is for all of our webinars, and it'll be available live or on demand afterward if the date doesn't work for your schedule. We'll send a reminder as the date gets closer, but if you know now that your team wants to attend as a group, loop in whoever handles your packaging and purchasing decisions — this is one where having both voices in the room during the Q&A tends to produce a better outcome than one person taking notes to report back later.
Questions about the session, or about packaging topics you'd like to see covered that aren't already on the agenda, can go to the Events Committee. We're still shaping the second half of the hour and there's room to adjust it based on what members tell us they actually need.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.