FBA Blog

Fibre Box Association: 2021 Year-in-Review

As 2021 comes to a close, I want to thank Fibre Box Association (FBA) members for their continued support and encouragement. Each year has its own set of challenges and 2021 was no different. This past year, the corrugated industry’s top five issues included Covid-19, plastics substitutions, cybersecurity, extended producer responsibility (EPR) and supply chain concerns. As an association, FBA looked to its member-driven standing committees to act on these issues and others in the areas of technical, safety, health, the environment, and data services. The FBA Board and Executive Committee were very engaged in identifying strategic issues facing the industry and FBA’s role in addressing them. In the end, 2021 was one of FBA’s most productive years for delivering results and value to its members.

Below are a few highlights:

  • Monthly production reports were successfully transitioned to


    Quarterly Statistical Reports


    and more than 120 data services reports were generated on production/consumption/inventory and benchmarking operations.
  • FBA introduced members to the new



    Box Segment Demand Indicators Report



    which provides member companies with macroeconomic and market segment data in graphs with accompanying bullet point information.
  • A new


    Cybersecurity Committee


    was established with 19 members. The committee led two cybersecurity training sessions, conducted a cybersecurity spend survey, and hosted a variety of cybersecurity speakers.
  • The technical committee completed its second research project analyzing current data to assess the Environmental Factors used by package designers. The


    pallet unitization research project


    examined the impact of stacking patterns on top to bottom box compression (BCT).
  • A new edition of the


    Hazardous Materials Packaging Training Program


    was developed for release in January 2022. The program trains corrugated industry Hazmat Employees with new training videos, tests, and reference documents.


  • Customer (virtual) meetings


    were held with Amazon (2), Kroger (2), Walmart (2), Bolthouse Farms, Costco, IKEA, and General Mills.
  • Data was collected for a new corrugated box


    Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)


    . This fourth industry LCA is expected to be completed by December 2022.
  • Nine (9) of ten (10)


    supplier partners renewed pledges


    for 2022-2024.Pledges support the Corrugated Industry Promotions Program extolling the benefits of corrugated packaging through advertising and social media.
  • In all, approximately


    27 committee meetings


    were held.
  • 2021 financials were positive to budget.

If additional information is needed on any of these topics, please reach out to me or the FBA team for assistance.

On behalf of FBA’s staff, I wish everyone peace, joy and happiness during this holiday season.  From my family to yours, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

Best regards,

Dennis J. Colley

President and CEO