ACTION PLAN DEVELOPMENT

Action Plan Template

A guide to preparing your action plan

Action Plan Template

Introduction
As a signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant (APC), your organisation has committed
to developing and implementing an action plan which details the actions your organisation
will undertake to further the goals of the APC. This action plan is required to be completed
within three months of becoming a signatory and should be displayed on your organisations
website. It will also be made publicly available via the APC website.
Remember that your action plan is a public document and will be viewed by
consumers, other signatories and regulators.
This template is intended to help signatories develop action plans that meet the
requirements of the APC. As such it provides only guidance rather than prescribed contents;
a list of the minimum requirements for action plans is provided on the APC Resources page,
and is included in Schedule 2 of the Covenant.
It is recommended that your plan goes beyond addressing the minimum requirements
of the APC. Plans that are aligned to your business and account for your place in the
supply chain are both easier to implement and report against, and will be more likely
to deliver beneficial outcomes.
As shown below, there are several stages in developing and implementing a strong and
achievable action plan, of which this document addresses only the development stage. For
best effect, you should consider the other stages of the action plan process when developing
your organisations plan.

Diagram 1: The Action Plan Process

DETERMINE
SCOPE

REVISE ACTION
PLAN AS
NECESSARY

DEVELOP
ACTION PLAN

AUDITING

REPORT ON
ACTIONS

IMPLEMENT
ACTIONS

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Your action plan team
It is important that the right people are involved in the development of your action plan. It is
very unlikely that a single person or very small team alone will be able to address all of the
considerations for an effective action plan, especially within larger organisations. Even if the
primary responsibility rests with a single officer or small team, it is advisable for that team to
consult with representatives from other departments, including Management, Procurement,
Product Development, Marketing, Environment/Sustainability, and Logistics, as applicable in
the development of your plan. It is also good practice to consult with your suppliers in the
development of your plan, as they may be able to provide guidance regarding achievable
outcomes. For more information please refer to Setting up an APC Team.
Remember, it isnt enough to develop an action plan; you must also implement it over the
next months and years. Its therefore important that the actions and targets you develop are
realistic, achievable, and beneficial. For more information on this, please refer to
Developing Actions and Setting Targets and Better Practice Actions and Targets.

Preparing your plan

APC staff are able to assist you in developing your action plan. If you have any questions
about preparing your plan, you should contact the APC early in the process, to address these
as soon as possible. Action plans should be submitted as draft documents in Word for
review by the APC, well in advance of the due date. Drafts will be reviewed by the APC staff,
and any alterations required/recommended noted within the plan.
When the plan meets the minimum requirements of the APC, we will confirm acceptance of
the document and request an official PDF version.

Action plan contents

Your organisations action plan will be specific to your organisations business structure,
place in the supply chain, and the brands owned. Despite this variation, all action plans are
required to include certain content, and to address the specific goals of the APC.
The content as included below outlines the minimum requirements for an action plan to
address the goals and KPIs of the APC and be accepted by the APC Secretariat.
1. Title page
The title page should contain basic introductory information about the plan including:

The organisation name;

A document title, for example, Australian Packaging Covenant Action Plan; and
The period the plan covers, e.g. June 2013 June 2015.

You may also wish to include your company logo and the logos of any brands that are
covered by the plan.
Action plans can be written for a maximum of five years, and are expected to be updated
periodically to reflect the findings of the organisation as the plan is implemented. Plans may

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also be revised if an organisation changes significantly, for example, acquiring or selling
other organisations or brands. See the Action Plan Revision Process for more information.
Your plan is considered a live document and should be reviewed and updated to
account for product and business changes, improved understanding of baseline data
and any other changes that may influence the targets set.
2. Company summary
This should be a brief statement of the background of the company and what it does, and a
summary of the most important programs and commitments in your plan. It is a good idea
to include an organisational overview at this point, including the name of the organisation
and its subsidiaries, the nature of the company, and its place in the supply chain (e.g. brand
owner/packaging manufacturer/retailer, etc.).
Your action plan needs to be authorised by the organisations Chief Executive Officer or
similar. This commitment can most easily be included in this summary, and should include
the name and title of this representative.
3. Covenant contact officer
Your action plan should clearly identify and provide details for the primary APC contact
officer. If you have an APC team, you may also choose to identify members of the team;
however the primary contact should be differentiated.
The details you provide should include:

Name and position;

Phone/mobile;
Email; and
Postal address.

4. Packaging groups and schedule for packaging reviews

The first KPI of the APC requires all signatories to review existing packaging against the
Sustainable Packaging Guidelines or an equivalent (equivalency must be demonstrated). As
the first stage in this review process, signatories are to summarise and group the packaging
formats used by the organisation.
This summary should group all of your packaging into categories for assessment. The way in
which you group these items will be determined by the range of products and brands your
organisation owns or handles; however the purpose of grouping products is to apply the
knowledge acquired from one product assessment/review to other similar products. This
makes it important that the groups selected for assessment contain only similar product
packaging and are not too broad.
Note: You are not required to assess every SKU (Stock Keeping Unit). Rather, we ask
that you assess groups of like packaging and identify opportunities to improve the
environmental performance of the packaging within those groups.

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You should include a timetable for assessing these groups of packaging. This may be
presented in text, in a table, or inside the KPI table, as long as milestone dates are provided
for each packaging group. The table below is a guide.
Group
Large PET bottles
Small PET bottles
Shipper corrugated cartons
Plastic film
Labels
Closures

Products Included
2l CSD, 1.5l CSD, 2l juice
500ml CSD, 300 ml CSD, 500ml
juice
Brown Board shippers,
partitions
Pallet wrap, stretch film for
cartons
Paper, PET and PP labels
All plastic closures

Assessment Scheduled
2nd Quarter 2013
3rd Quarter 2013
4th Quarter 2013
1st Quarter 2014
3rd Quarter 2014
1st Quarter 2015

The contents of the table and the schedule for assessment will naturally vary between
organisations based on their packaging formats.
5. Action plan KPI table
Your action plan must contain details of the actions you plan to undertake to meet the
Covenant Goals and KPIs. Not all KPIs apply to signatories, but you must address KPIs 1, 3, 4,
6, 7, and 8, and include actions under each. The content of these KPIs is discussed in detail in
Performance Goals and KPIs.
Keep in mind that you are required to report against KPIs 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 every year.
It is important to ensure your actions and targets drive yearly progress across these
KPIs.
Actions must be clearly detailed under each KPI, and should not be either broad
motherhood statements or vague declarations of intent. Each action should identify a clear
process to be undertaken, preferably staged, and be linked to one or more realistic targets
which state what the action is intended to achieve. Actions and targets need to be directly
linked, since the progress of the action will be measured against the target(s). Each action
must also be given timeline or milestone dates to demonstrate progress against, be assigned
to an individual or group, and have baseline data provided for the current state of affairs.
Further, you can include more than one action to address each KPI, and the APC encourages
you to do so having more actions generally makes it easier to show progress when it
comes to annual reporting.
Baseline data is intended to demonstrate the current conditions for organisations. For many
actions, there will be no existing data, and it is perfectly acceptable to state that you do not
currently have data. In other cases, you may have existing programs which do not
incorporate packaging goals, but which will be redeveloped to include these. Baseline data is
meant to demonstrate the current situation and must be included so that progress can be
demonstrated. It is important that you not write N/A or similar in this column.
If you find it more convenient, you can choose to expand on your proposed actions within
your overall document, however you are required to supply these actions to the APC in an
action plan KPI table. The table below is provided as a template in Word on the APC website.

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In addition, while you should feel free to write your own actions addressing each KPI, the
APC does provide resources that list a range of potential actions you can include in your
action plan. These are available on the APC website in the Action Plan Resources section.

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Action plan KPI template
The template below should be used to develop your actions and targets under each KPI of the Covenant. We have provided guidance for what each of your
actions needs to contain to address the requirements of the KPI you should consider this information, and use it to inform the writing of each of your
actions. Note that youll need to provide details for responsibility, baseline data, targets, and intended milestones for each of your actions. Specific
resources detailing the requirements and examples of potential responses to each KPI are available on the APC website in the Resources section.
The content of the table below is meant to inform the development of your action plan. You should delete the current content (other than the Performance
Goals and KPIs) and replace it with your own actions, targets, and other details, for submission as part of your action plan. A Word version of this template
is available here.

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Performance goals and KPIs

Actions
Responsibility
1. Design - optimise packaging to achieve resource efficiency and reduce environmental impact
KPI 1 Proportion of signatories Indicate how the Sustainable Packaging Guidelines will Who will be
in the supply chain
be used for the review of existing packaging, including responsible for
implementing the SPG for
a timetable for reviewing existing packaging.
this action?
This may include:
design or procurement of
packaging.
The % of packaging ranges to be assessed each
year;
Target: 70% of Covenant
Educating those involved in the
signatories with documented
design/procurement to assess packaging;
policies and procedures for
Developing internal processes aligned with the
evaluating and procuring
SPG;
packaging using the SPG or
Developing/adopting specific tools for
equivalent
assessment; and/or
Incorporating the SPG into the review of existing
packaging as part of an existing continuous
Target: 70% of Covenant
improvement program.
signatories assessing 100% of
Indicate how the SPG will be used for the design or
new packaging and 50% of
procurement of new packaging.
existing packaging against the
This may include:
guidelines
Educating those involved in the
design/procurement so they may assess
packaging;
Developing internal design and procurement
processes aligned with the SPG;
Developing/adopting specific tools; and/or
Scheduling packaging assessments.

Baseline data

Targets

Milestones

What is the
current state of
affairs?

What will your

action achieve?

When will your

target(s) be
reached?

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Performance goals and KPIs
Actions
2. Recycling - the efficient collection and recycling of packaging
KPI 3 Proportion of signatories Indicate whether there is a recovery system in place.
with on-site recovery systems
If so, commit to maintaining, reviewing and/or
for recycling used packaging
improving this system.

Responsibility

Baseline data

Who will be
What is the
responsible for current state of
this action?
affairs?

Targets

Milestones

What will your

action achieve?

When will your

target(s) be
reached?

If not, outline how you will establish a recovery

system for used packaging and other materials.
Note: You may want to include an action to review the
current contents of the waste stream(s) from your
sites to inform other actions under this KPI.
KPI 4 Proportion of signatories
with a policy to buy products
made from recycled packaging.
All APC signatories will have a
formal, documented policy of
buying recycled products or
materials

Indicate whether there is an existing policy or

procedure (such as a Buy Recycled policy). If so,
commit to maintaining and/or expanding the existing
policy, and include targets to demonstrate progress
against.
If not, you must define a timetable for establishing
and implementing a policy or procedure, or modifying
an existing policy to incorporate the buy recycled
commitment.
Note: As a higher level action, you could prepare a
sustainable purchasing policy which would go above
and beyond a commitment to buying recycled.

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Performance goals and KPIs
Actions
3. Product Stewardship - demonstrated commitment to product stewardship
PI 6 Proportion of signatories
Include ways of developing formal processes to work
that have formal processes for
with your supply chain to improve packaging design
working with others to improve and recycling.
design and recycling of
Possible actions include:
packaging
Integrating packaging sustainability criteria into
contracts and tenders;
Target: 70% of Covenant
Writing waste management contracts that require
signatories implementing
collection and recycling of packaging; and/or
formal policies and procedures
Developing procedures to work with suppliers
in working with others to
towards packaging sustainability.
improve design, procurement
Include any other product stewardship actions you
and recovery of packaging
will undertake to support the APCs objective and
goals. This can include broader environmental/
KPI 7 Proportion of signatories sustainability programs or initiatives which you may
demonstrating other product
already have in place.
stewardship outcomes
Examples could include:
Assessing resource consumption within your
facilities and those of your suppliers;
Developing or expanding green product lines;
Working with community groups or associations
to deliver social benefits;
Exploring options for, or maintaining,
environmental certification; and/or
Developing environmental management
procedures.

Responsibility

Baseline data

Who will be
What is the
responsible for current state of
this action?
affairs?

Targets

Milestones

What will your

action achieve?

When will your

target(s) be
reached?

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Performance goals and KPIs
Actions
3. Product Stewardship - demonstrated commitment to product stewardship
KPI 8 Reduction in the number Include actions to reduce litter. Litter is different from
of packaging items in litter
general waste, and is specifically those items which
end up outside of the recycling or waste streams, and
in the environment. Actions to reduce litter might
mean identifying ways to reduce your products
packaging in the litter stream, reducing litter on your
site, or reducing litter in the local community.

Responsibility

Baseline data

Targets

Milestones

Possible actions include:

Redesigning packaging to reduce the number of
detachable components likely to become litter;
Including recycling and/or disposal logos in
packaging artwork approval processes;
Identifying and cleaning up litter hot-spots on
your site; and/or
Joining and participating in a community-based
litter reduction program (e.g. Clean Up Australia
Day).

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Optional action plan inclusions
Beyond the key requirements listed above, you may find it valuable to include other content
relevant to your organisations commitment to the APC. This might include details of the
environmental performance of your packaging, other packaging initiatives, sustainability
programs more generally, or records of achievements to date under the APC. However, you
need to make the relevance of the additional content apparent.
Positions/departments responsible
Many signatories find that the most effective way to identify and achieve appropriate
actions and targets under the APC is to build and use a cross-functional APC team. This helps
members to be more effective in devising appropriate actions, and builds capacity to
address any future change. Providing details of this team and their roles and responsibilities
can help ensure accountability, and incorporation into your standard business practices.
Benchmarking
You may wish to include descriptions of existing programs and approaches to address the
environmental impacts of packaging at the point of design, or recycling and waste
management initiatives currently in place. This may tie into your provision of baseline data,
but should serve to help demonstrate progress against the APC goals over time.
Supply chain collaboration
One intention of the APC is to promote supply chain collaboration to improve environmental
outcomes. You may wish to include information on any existing programs or agreements
you have in place between your organisation and suppliers, customers, and/or industry
peers, to drive and promote collaboration.

Reviewing your action plan

An action plan is a living document that should respond to business and operational
changes. As such, it should be reviewed regularly to ensure the actions detailed in it are
appropriate and achievable. When making changes to the action plan, you must ensure that
the plan remains aligned to the goals of the APC, and resubmit for approval by the APC.
If you choose to review and update your action plan, you will need to supply a copy of the
new plan and a coversheet detailing the changes and their rationale. The revised plan will
not be considered active until it has been reviewed and approved by the APC.

Further information
For any further questions regarding your organisations action plan or any other APC-related
issue, do not hesitate to make contact with a member of the APC.
For support developing your action plan, completing annual reports, developing a Buy
Recycled policy, implementing the Sustainable Packaging Guidelines or product assessment
issues, contact Member Services:
Phone: (02) 8249 4080 or email: apc@packagingcovenant.org.au.

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