Crown Van Gelder is going for Gold with development partners in the Eurosac Grand Prix on May 19-21 in Bilbao, Spain.

This year, 3 members of Eurosac (Novidon, Fiorini and Crown Van Gelder) will pitch together, in collaboration with sugar beet pulp supplier Cosun and brandowner DLF in a 5 minute video, not as individual companies going for own glory, but as value chain partners. Herewith the partners show, that fast innovation for creating a greener world is possible. This is a story about how Cosun Beet Company, Novidon, Crown Van Gelder, Fiorini and DLF came together and from synergy created swift innovation with a more sustainable product as a result.

DLF was looking for the reduction of the environmental impact of their 3-layer 15 KG bag for packaging grass seeds, compared to their current bag, produced with kraft paper. The new and more environmentally friendly packaging had to contribute to the sustainability ambition of DLF.

The search of DLF led to Crown Van Gelder – who developed Crown Native sugar beet paper within a 5-year collaboration with Cosun – after which Fiorini as DLF’s bag producer and both Cosun and Novidon were involved.

In collaboration with DLF and Fiorini, an open mouth bag consisting of three layers of Crown Native was developed. This paper is produced with a residual flow of fibers derived from the sugar production process. With these Dutch sugar beet fibers an 80% lower environmental impact can be achieved, compared to wood fiber. Adding 20% sugar beet fiber to the paper gives a 16% lower ecological footprint of the paper. This is confirmed by an independent life cycle analysis. On top of that, bag producer Fiorini uses the side stream potato starch based Novinexx glue from Novidon.

The paper is strong, food safe, recyclable, compostable and flexo and offset printable, perfectly suitable for bag production: a true sustainable innovation with value chain partners.