Sustainable Packaging: Making it Stick

Sustainability issues in packaging continue to generate headlines for many audiences — The latest biobased packaging material innovation. Food waste prevention. The most recent adoption of new labels to empower consumers to recycle packaging. But if your company is like most, you’re still finding it challenging to incorporate sustainability goals into the packaging design process. In this article, we build upon PE International’s white paper on implementing a sustainable packaging initiative to take a closer look at what it takes to change the way your organization thinks about driving more sustainable packaging. The punch line? Don’t underestimate the importance of integration to the way your company does business.

In our white paper, we talked about the importance of starting your packaging sustainability effort by clearly articulating your objectives. Before you can determine the role of innovative materials or new designs in your sustainable packaging strategy, you must have an understanding of what sustainability means to your organization and what your plan is to drive it. Without this vision and strategy in place, it becomes difficult to know where to focus resources and whether what you are working on adds business value. Diving straight into conducting footprinting or design may give you an answer to a question, but without a context in which to leverage those results, you may find yourself wasting time chasing after the small details with no clear end in sight.