Global Label Award winners announced on the opening night of Labelexpo Americas 2022. The winners were chosen by a judging panel consisting of Lori Campbell, chairman of TLMI; Linnea Keen, president of TLMI; Philippe Voet, president of FINAT; Greg Hrinya, editor of Label & Narrow Web; James Quirk, then group editor of Labels & Labeling; and Jean Poncet, editor-in-chief at Etiq+Pack. The chair of the judging panel was Andy Thomas-Emans, strategic director Tarsus Labels & Packaging Group.
As previously announced, the winner of the 2022 R. Stanton Avery Global Achievement Award was Harveer Sahni. The judging panel felt Sahni met all the criteria for excellence demanded by the industry’s most prestigious award for an individual’s contribution to the growth and development of the global labels industry.
The Rising Star Award went to Stijn Billiet, Global Sustainability Director, MCC Label. Billiet joined MCC in 2020 and made an immediate impact bringing sustainability onto the agenda of the business. Early 2021 he presented a roadmap for all global production sites to reduce their carbon footprint, guiding the Belgian facility to carbon neutral production. Billie represents MCC in its collaboration with organizations such as Holy Grail, RecyClass, APR and CELAB.
The Environmental Sustainability Award was won by Flint Group Narrow Web for a new line of products designed to enable more sustainable packaging. The first product in the series, Evolution Deinking Primer, when used with Flint Group EkoCure XS inks, enables deinking of crystallizable shrink sleeves, allowing the clean sleeve label material to be recovered and recycled into PET packaging.
The Innovation Award for companies with more than 300 employees went to Actega for its Signite decoration technology. Utilizing the latest in UV-curable chemistry, Signite decorations are created entirely on press, eliminating the need for the laminated constructions used in traditional pressure-sensitive label production. Signite decorations are built in register with the graphics and label content, so there is no die cutting and no matrix to dispose of. Signite decorations are applied with a specialist inline applicator developed by Actega, initially for glass straight-walled containers.
The Innovation Award for companies with less than 300 employees was awarded to S-OneLP for its ReEarth compostable flexible packaging films. ReEarth films have achieved ASTM D6400 commercial compostability standards and are both BPI and USDA Biopreferred certified. A compostable print film, adhesive and sealant layer make up this laminated structure that can be surface printed with digital or flexographic technologies.
