What giving to Michigan State University’s School of Packaging means for Ring – and for the industry as a whole.

In late 2021, Ring Container Technologies gifted $1.5 million to the Michigan State University School of Packaging, in support of renovations to and expansion of that school’s building.

This decision came easily for us. This was a chance to make a generational investment in an institution several of our team members graduated from, and one with a shared institutional belief that collaboration and innovation will carry the packaging sector forward into a dynamic and sustainable future.

For us at Ring, sustainability measures need to broaden their focus to hastening environmental, social and governance achievements of the present, as much as the future. Indeed, the latest technological capabilities need to be matched by best-in-class service, and a point of pride for us is that our customers know we have their back no matter the issues they, or the sector at large, is facing. Whatever the context, because Ring is reliable, we help those customers thrive.

Reliability and sustainability need to go hand in hand because, in many ways, the future is now. Corporate expectations for flexible and customized products with minimal resource use, and consumer expectations for more environmentally friendly products and responsible industrial approaches to waste and carbon emissions, have already arrived.

More bright minds are entering these discussions by the year. With average wages of nearly $95,000 a year, declining tuition fees and an expanding workforce, packaging degrees are a path to the frontlines of a sustainability revolution taking place in manufacturing. The number of students receiving these degrees is steadily growing. And the same group of statistics show that of the 440 degrees awarded in the discipline, just under half were given by Michigan State.

For these reasons and more, Ring Container Technologies is proud to have our name on the main corridor of the School of Packaging’s new building.

This upgraded facility will be a new home for their top-ranked program, the first and largest in the U.S. with the sole Ph.D. program in packaging in the country. Renovating and expanding will help MSU remain a leader in the field – modernizing teaching and learning.

As MSU has noted, the changes will include flexible, technology-integrated classrooms, spaces for discussion and engagement among industry leaders, bigger premises to attract leading faculty and conduct world-leading research. Some of the questions that experts here will continue to answer include keeping plastic waste out of landfills, and continuing to search for sustainable manufacturing solutions.

Participating in these changes are important for us as an organization. With the national packaging community set to benefit and grow from MSU’s campus expansion, we are helping to ensure that important questions continue to be asked and research pursued, and that people from all backgrounds and skill sets are inspired to choose packaging careers – truly where the action is when it comes to satisfied consumers and a healthier planet.