The 2009 Sustainable Package Design Workshop provided critical guidance on systems thinking about sustainable packaging for structural and graphic designers; direction on how to approach “responsible, sustainable” design principles as a natural and logical extension of traditional package design, and presented easy-to-understand case examples and practical exercises.

Poignant Points Made At Sustainable Package Design 2009

• The gap between industry and consumers regarding sustainability and sustainable package design is widening as industry becomes better educated. By and large, consumers still only recognize the concepts of recycling and climate change, not sustainable packaging. To most consumers, packaging is still considered waste, not something that is necessary to safely deliver and dispense a product.
  
  
• Structural package designers are still unsure about “tradeoffs.” They don’t yet fully comprehend that even one input can result in multiple outputs – many of which can negate the one positive attribute they were initially seeking.
  
  
• Many package designers still equate sustainable packaging with biopolymers. They have not fully grasped the concepts of process vs. materials.
  
  
• Package designers are beginning to understand that design for the environment can include the use of existing materials – including glass, metal, and plastics – because the design process can take advantage of existing recycling infrastructures.
  
  
• Package designers are learning they don’t have to “design for the Scorecard.” That if they design for greater overall process efficiency, the Scorecard score will naturally rise.
  
  
• Package designers are not yet confident enough in their ability to ask the right questions about design for the environment in a way that creates meaningful results.
  
  
• The consumer packaged goods industry has moved quickly during the past five years from stewardship to corporate social responsibility to carbon footprinting, and is now entering the next phase of responsibility – water footprinting.

How Sustainable Packaging Influences Purchasing Decisions