Eco Design – 5 golden rules for sustainable design

… that should be considered when communicating packaging sustainability to customers.

Sustainability has long been more than just a ‘trend’, especially when it comes to packaging. Our Chief Executive Officer Christoph Waldau explained in more detail how to successfully communicate sustainability through packaging design in an article for Touchpoint. With this in mind, nothing stands in the way of successful sustainable packaging.

How do you communicate sustainability?

Sustainability has become an important selling point for consumers. For packaging as a driver of market success, this means that it can make an even greater difference at the POS than before. However, packaging must not only be sustainable, it must also communicate its added value clearly and effectively. Christoph Waldau, CEO of Berndt+Partner Creality, sheds light on the situation and lists five golden rules.

Packaging makes things possible. And it makes a difference. As an enabler, packaging has protected our goods and merchandise since time immemorial. It makes them storable and transportable, facilitates trade and new products, and is at the heart of advertising, marketing and communication. But packaging is not only an enabler, it also makes a difference. As a driver of market success for products, it determines the battle for consumer favour at analogue and digital POS.

For this to succeed, three key hurdles must be overcome. One: packaging must lay the foundations for the purchase decision by transferring the brand identity through its design. Two: packaging must effectively communicate the values, showcase the product and thus trigger the purchase decision. And three: the packaging must confirm the purchase with strong, functional and/or emotional added value, thereby securing the consumer’s long-term loyalty.

Two aspects of sustainability: functional versus emotional

Numerous data from recent studies and surveys show that the sustainability of packaging has become an important purchasing argument for consumers. Consumers are less focused on functional added value and more on emotional added value. Consumers want to be part of something ‘good’. They want to buy and consume with a clear conscience. Sustainable packaging can satisfy this need. It offers consumers emotional added value that can become the key to purchasing and brand loyalty.

Those responsible for packaging at brands and retailers, as well as packaging manufacturers, are aware of the importance of sustainability as a selling point. However, they still too often view the sustainability of their packaging purely from a functional perspective. The focus is then exclusively on materials and designs.

What is neglected or even forgotten is the clear and easily perceptible communication of the sustainability achieved.

This is fatal, because only when the added value is recognised and can be experienced emotionally can it play out its sales-promoting and image-building potential.

Combining both, making the packaging functionally sustainable and its sustainability appeal emotionally tangible, is the challenge with every launch or relaunch of sustainable consumer packaging.

Five golden rules

When it comes to communicating sustainability, there are currently five golden rules.

1. Do good and talk about it!

This rule is as fundamental as it sounds. And it is no coincidence that it contains two aspects. Firstly, it must be possible to develop packaging with genuinely good, sustainable advances. And secondly, these advances must be communicated in a clear and memorable way and be emotionally tangible.

Greenwashing is proving to be a time bomb in this regard. Today’s consumers are not only much more sensitive to environmental issues, they are also more informed. And as a networked community, they learn quickly. Simply labelling packaging as green is a recipe for market failure. On the contrary, sustainability must be based on hard facts. And these facts must be communicated. The challenge is to strike a balance between technical and promotional aspects.

Depending on the sustainability approach chosen for the packaging, there are different requirements, challenges and opportunities for doing good and communicating it. In any case, however, the packaging must find solutions to communicate the sustainable added value. In the simplest case, these can be disruptors that break out of the normal design routine of the packaging and make it clear that something here is sustainably different (and better). Depending on the complexity of the sustainability message to be conveyed, however, additional design space should also be reserved and utilised.

As a media platform, packaging also offers a range of opportunities for communication and emotional engagement in the age of digitalisation through networking with smart devices and digital channels.

2. Be(come) a recycling hero!

Recyclability is the basis of the circular economy. And the circular economy is the great hope for a sustainable turnaround. It is no coincidence that politicians are also placing the circular economy at the centre of their plans and actions.

But recycling also has a good reputation among consumers. Anyone who can credibly present themselves as a recycling hero in this environment will score points. Paper, glass and, to some extent, metal have an advantage here due to the existence of closed cycles.

For plastic packaging materials, recycling is currently a major challenge – and at the same time a great opportunity to become a little ‘greener’ again. Brands that have been pioneers in this field of sustainability for years have the best prerequisites for becoming recycling heroes through the use of recycled materials. A well-known example is the washing and cleaning products with the green frog.

New approaches for recycling heroes can be found where the production and use of plastic is enhanced with socially positive factors. This is the case, for example, with the use of ‘ocean plastic’ or ‘social plastic’. Ocean plastic uses, at least in part, plastic that has been fished out of the sea and processed into recycled material. Social plastic has its home in regions with inadequate waste infrastructure. There, unwanted plastic waste is collected and sent for recycling. In addition to the environmental aspect, the social aspect also plays a role in these recycling heroes, as it creates or maintains important sources of income for a local, mostly socially disadvantaged section of the population.

3. No plastic, no cry

Plastic is currently the pariah among packaging materials for consumers. The actual ecological balance plays no role in this. Accordingly, any packaging that reduces, partially replaces or even completely substitutes plastic scores highly.

There are numerous current examples of this sustainability strategy. They range from bundling containers with cardboard instead of plastic to beer bottles and lipsticks made of cardboard.

Depending on the previous packaging, the sustainability advantage achieved is communicated simply by the fact that the changed packaging material or the absence of plastic is highly noticeable and eye-catching. The less the new added value stands out from the old packaging, the stronger the communicative performance of the new packaging must be.

4. Paper rules!

The renaissance of paper is more than striking – and it’s no wonder. This is because the cycles for paper and cardboard are largely closed, at least in Europe. Compared to glass and metal, the material has weight advantages, which leads to advantages in terms of CO2 emissions during transport in the current climate debate, which is currently a particular focus.

It seems that you can’t go wrong with paper at the moment. Another advantage of this packaging material is that it usually communicates its sustainability value on its own. To reinforce this message, the ‘eco ugly’ design principle is often used, true to the motto that only brown paper truly expresses and conveys sustainability.

The triumph of paper is currently almost unstoppable. Despite some considerable technological hurdles relating to food safety and machine compatibility, paper is conquering areas that were previously the domain of plastic, such as confectionery, frozen foods and microwave meals.

The ‘icing on the cake’ is the use of paper made from alternative raw materials such as grass. They can further increase the added value of paper in terms of sustainability, but at the same time require greater communication efforts, as the material and its advantages do not convey themselves.

5. Get rid of extra pounds!

In the eyes of consumers, packaging is a sustainability calorie that should be avoided. Across all materials, less is more. The less packaging is used, the greater the added value in terms of sustainability. Product protection, convenience and, in some cases, marketing department requirements set the limits of the diet.

Examples of more or less radical reductions in packaging can be found where ice lollies in multipacks are no longer individually wrapped in plastic but lie loose in cardboard compartments, right up to the point where biscuits are offered completely unpackaged in a cardboard display.

To be continued

The topic of sustainability and the communication of sustainable added value will remain with us for the foreseeable future. Among other things, because the last word on packaging materials has not yet been spoken. It is more likely that we are only at the beginning of the packaging materials discussion. It is already clear that the actual ecological balance of packaging is gaining importance among NGOs and in the minds of consumers.

However, a true life cycle assessment, which is best determined as part of a life cycle analysis, takes into account a multitude of factors, ranging from energy consumption, raw material sources, volume and transport weights to climate impact, biodiversity protection and animal welfare. This makes it more difficult to make blanket statements about sustainability. The complexity increases, partly because the sustainability of solutions can vary depending on the product and market.

When the simple and striking sustainability assessment of packaging materials and packaging gives way to a more complex view, the communication requirements for packaging naturally increase. In order to communicate the added value of sustainability and convey it emotionally, holistic and interdisciplinary expertise is all the more necessary. Creating sustainability benefits and communicating them in a way that influences purchasing decisions can only be achieved by a team of engineers, designers and branding professionals.