Here’s a secret no one tells you when you set out to “change the industry” … the first year isn’t all that cool. It’s spreadsheets, second-guessing and wondering whether your enthusiasm for carbon accounting has made you less fun at parties.
That was my experience when I began this role directing sustainability and responsibility for PPAI midway through 2023. And it’s what will await any one of you seeking to reimagine your own company’s impact on the planet and your community if you’re starting today.
My advice: Don’t be discouraged if everything’s not solved overnight. You may feel like progress moves at the speed of molasses in winter. But sustainability isn’t a sprint. It’s more like a scenic marathon, complete with unexpected hills and a lot of cheering each time you hit a milestone. You may accomplish less in one year than you hoped – but far more in five years than you ever imagined.
But you’ve got to start. So much is possible if you get going in 2026. From my own experience at PPAI and what I’m eyeing in the near future, here are some important mile markers:
The Steady Start
The first 12 months of any sustainability effort are about building the scaffolding: Map your baseline, gather supplier data that may not live in one place yet, and be prepared to explain what “Scope 3” means for the 10th (or 50th) time.
By year’s end, you will have moved the needle, just maybe not as far as you dreamed. That’s OK. Those quiet, behind-the-scenes systems you’re building are the foundation for everything that follows.
Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS
Director of Sustainability & Responsibility, PPAI
Finding A Pacesetter
There’s proof all around that the industry is already moving. The latest ESG Impact Reports from PPAI members show what happens when companies stay the course:
- SanMar reduced its combined emissions intensity by 11% compared to a 2019 baseline, demonstrating how stretch goals pay off when early infrastructure is in place.
- PCNA increased waste diversion at its Leed’s facility from 76% to 83%, saving more than $110,000 in avoided costs – proof that optimizing the unglamorous parts of the business can yield big wins for both the planet and the balance sheet.
- Fairware reported that 42.5% of its significant product sales came from items with verified sustainable attributes. That’s nearly half its business reflecting conscious material choices.
- Koozie Group reaffirmed its commitment to responsible sourcing, maintaining FSC certification across all U.S. manufacturing facilities and continuing participation in Sedex for third-party verification.
Individually, these updates may seem incremental. Collectively, they mark the unmistakable shift from sustainability as an initiative to sustainability as an integrated business practice.
When you keep note of the overall progress in the industry – perhaps by some competitors – it’s reinvigorating to your own fire.
Acceleration: Hitting Your Stride
For me, if 2023 and 2024 were about building foundations and 2025 was about growing them, then 2026 is shaping up to be the year when momentum compounds.
Data prepared by PPAI and others will start telling richer stories as industry-wide, category- and product-level carbon footprints move from hidden spreadsheets into real-time design and purchasing decisions. Partnerships will evolve beyond paperwork as distributors and suppliers co-invest in traceability, shared material platforms and digital product passports. Circularity will emerge as a true selling point, shifting conversations from “Is it recycled?” to “What happens next?” – from resale and refill to repair and reuse.
Verification will move into the mainstream, with certifications like FSC, GOTS and bluesign becoming not just badges but differentiators in RFPs and client storytelling. And sustainability will increasingly become a sales tool as teams learn to translate ESG data into client value, transforming sustainability from cost center to growth driver.
Setting Goals, Not Finish Lines
On an industrywide level, what’s in front of us is staggering.
Imagine opening the 2030 impact reports and seeing product-level impact data from every PPAI 100 supplier, an industrywide benchmark for responsible sourcing, and clients expecting ESG data as part of every quote. Distributors may differentiate not on catalog breadth but on circularity, repairability and material innovation.
RELATED: Key Takeaways From The Latest Industry ESG Reports
Most transformative of all, industrywide emissions could decline measurably – not because one company raced ahead, but because collaboration replaced competition.
That macro progress is happening because people just like you, in individual companies, are taking serious looks at the micro. Operating procedures and standards are improving business by business.
None of this happens overnight. But it’s absolutely within reach, because the groundwork is already being laid by the companies whose reports we’re reading today.
If sustainability progress feels slow, that’s because real change takes root quietly. It’s less “ta-da!” and more time-lapse. As we turn the page into 2026, don’t measure your success by how flashy your one-year wins look. Measure it by how durable your systems will be five years from now because by then, you won’t just be catching up – you’ll be leading.
And who knows? You might even become fun at parties again. Especially if the party has only reusable cups.
Wimbush is the director of sustainability and responsibility at PPAI.
