Ludovic Capt, Balcan Innovations Inc. | Notable Leaders in Sustainability 2023

For Ludovic Capt, the words "plastics" and "sustainability" can co-exist.

When he started his career at Balcan Innovations Inc. in 2004 as a development engineer, sustainability wasn't even an afterthought: "It wasn't a thought," said the vice president of innovation and sustainability.

"Nevertheless, I quickly came to realize that as a company of our size in North America, every decision that I was making would have a potential impact on the environmental footprint of our company and the footprint of several key industries, like building and construction and lawn and garden," he added.

Capt said his philosophy is "all about developing circular economy models to meet the needs of our customers without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

"What steps have I taken to shift our sustainability momentum over the years? It all started with growing my team of product engineers and teaching them to evaluate our products through a sustainability lens. Over time, I've built an R&D infrastructure that has enabled us to shift more and more products to monomaterial structures; introduce newer, more sustainable resins; and downgauge wherever possible, among other key measures. We're constantly exploring new and emerging technologies to move the needle," he said.

Capt said he emphasizes to colleagues that sustainability plays a role not just in the health of the environment but also the health of the business. "Sustainability is now a companywide value that's baked into all key company decisions. This has all culminated with the establishment of our lofty company sustainability commitments for 2025 and 2030," he said.

Outside of work, Capt strives to incorporate sustainable approaches and practices in everyday life. He transitioned to vegetarianism "primarily for its environmental impact," and he bikes to work to reduce his carbon footprint.

"Even when renovating my house recently, I made decisions that would foster the best environmental footprint possible," he said. "I'm always thinking with that mindset. And while I know this is negligible in the big picture, these are steps that I take every day to play my part."

Capt said he was an early adopter of using the life cycle assessment as a tool for manufacturers to make sustainable business decisions — his first in 2010 investigated paper vs. plastic for wood shaving bags.

Under his leadership in 2014, Balcan was "part of the inaugural cohort of manufacturing companies — we were the only ones in flexibles packaging — to join Quebec's Ecoleader Fund, an initiative aimed at pooling experiences and resources within the province to meet the shared environmental needs of our industry."

Capt was a member of the technical committee that revised and renewed the Canadian General Standards Board's vapor barrier film standards for the construction industry in 2022.

"I pushed and succeeded in recommending the product to be approved with up to 50 percent recycled content. Now, it's the new standard," he said.

Earlier this year, Capt led Balcan's partnership with the Circular Plastics Taskforce to "develop a new, printed film for shipping sacks with Digimarc bar code technology."

"The digital watermarks are printed in an invisible pattern all over the film, making it fast and efficient to scan from any angle," he said. "The new technology could potentially enable recyclers to implement intelligent sorting for packaging waste at scale and unlock new recycling streams that currently do not exist."

Also in 2023, Capt has been involved with Balcan's commitment to a new set of sustainability goals and lasting infrastructure, "where we can offer high-quality, PCR [post-consumer] films to our customers for their wide-reaching needs."

"By the end of 2025, all shipping sacks and shrink film produced by Balcan Innovations will contain PCR," he added. "And by the end of 2030, 50 percent of all resin purchased for our technical films and flexible packaging products will be PCR."

Capt earned a bachelor's degree in materials engineering from Polytech Montpelier in France, a master's degree in polymer engineering from McGill University in Montreal, and doctoral degrees in polymer engineering from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany and McGill University. He was a research associate at McGill University and a research assistant at Nova Chemicals.

In addition to his roles at Balcan in Montreal as development engineer and vice president of innovation and sustainability, Capt has served as a development manager, technology development manager, and research and development and sustainability director.

He is involved with the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada's plastics division, Sustainable Packaging Coalition, Circular Plastics Taskforce and Society of Plastics Engineers.

"In our industry, we have too many materials to treat. If we just look at my industry, flexible packaging, the variety of materials used across the market make it difficult during the recycling and sorting process," Capt said. "As a collective group, we need to work together to design our products for circular models, where it's easier to sort and recycle. By saying 'we need to work together,' I'm referring to resin suppliers, equipment companies, regulatory bodies, brands — even our competitors. … If we can collaborate and find a way to design our products to be more consistent from application to application, then we can adapt the recycling infrastructure accordingly. If we focus on this simple problem, I think we're going to go far."