Metsä Board's Better with Less – Design Challenge is an international packaging design competition created to find new packaging solutions for frequently used and fastest growing types of consumer packages. First place prize is 10,000 euro/$12,000, and one student winner will receive a two-month internship at Metsä Board in Shanghai.

As consumption grows, it’s becoming more important to develop packaging solutions with the use of renewable, non-fossil based materials and a wiser use of resources. Metsä Board recognizes that packaging designers play a decisive role in this and that environmental impacts can be reduced, for example, by making packaging lighter, using renewable materials and making recycling easier.

“We need to come up with new solutions and consider future generations – and think of ways we can create better consumer experiences that create less impact on the environment. With this competition, we aim to help advance innovative and sustainable packaging design in the world,“ said competition jury chairman and member of the competition jury, Cyril Drouet, design & innovation director, Metsä Board.   

The competition will be judged on aesthetics, product protection, sustainability, ergonomics/functionality, user experience/human interaction, mass production/commercial feasibility and degree of innovation by an international jury including: Terri Goldstein, branding and packaging design professional, Peter Désilets, strategist and specialist in packaging sustainability aspects; Marianne Rosner Klimchuk, packaging design expert and Chair at Communication Design Pathways Department of Fashion Institute of Technology; Lars G. Wallentin, packaging designer; and John B. Mahaffie, futurist with primary expertise in future packaging solutions.  

The deadline to enter is March 31, 2018. Rules and submissions can be found at: betterwithless.org. Finalists and the winners will be announced during Spring 2018.