In this interview, Packaging Strategies Multimedia Specialist Brett Parker sits down with Balaji Jayaseelan, Vice President of Sustainability for Berlin Packaging, to discuss sustainability in spirits packaging.

Jayaseelan explains the multiple factors that guide the company’s decisions, including how marketing intelligence influences design thinking.

“What we see from the consumers is that they want to have a holistic experience,” says Jayaseelan. “It’s like, ‘I need to know where these ingredients are coming from. I need to know how the bottle is particularly made. Can you make this particular bottle recyclable?’”

Jayaseelan also notes that sustainability efforts are becoming such a “value creation exercise” that the packaging industry will become much more efficient across the next several years. “A value creation and a risk management exercise becomes the core competence of a business strategy,” Jayaseelan explains. “As companies embed sustainability into their journey, the best ones are the ones who look into these elements in a holistic way along with operational efficiency to make it a very strong case.”

Be sure to check out the podcast interview below to find out more about Berlin Packaging’s process of determining the most important sustainability avenues for a product and the importance of making spirits packaging as lightweight as possible.