Packaging Design and Social Responsibility
Can Go Hand-in Hand

by Marianne Klimchuk

The wave of recent tragedies across the country forces us all to stop and ask what our profession can do to as a group to help in the disaster relief. Fireman, policemen, doctors, nurses, celebrities, chefs, builders, and many other professions found their role in the relief efforts. Their way of coming together made sense. Individuals have all found a way to support and provide assistance to fellow countrymen. But what can the packaging design profession do in a united effort to make a difference?

The events of these past months lead to the larger issue of how packaging design could have played a role in the response efforts. Homes were flooded, electrical power was out. Could packages of non-perishable foods have been designed in a way so as to endure such a situation? We watched as many were were stranded unprepared. Our country so rich in products had nothing to offer those in need of food, water, or personal care supplies.

Consider the broad world issues such as energy costs, global warming, and terrorism. Packaging designers and their companies can take an active role in these areas. By advocating the technologies that are becoming available, we can work to chart a course for our future and develop a legacy for future designers to be proud of. We can take a proactive role in making "intelligent" packaging move into the mainstream.

Packaging technology developed jointly by the Food and Packaging CRC, Swinburne University, CSIRO, and the University of Queensland in Australia may revolutionize packaging with biodegradable materials like the wheat-based material in these plant pots.

New materials and technologies applied in packaging designs would not only address social issues such as literacy, aging, etc, but also could be a source of information. The developing technology of polymer electronics will enable packaging design to be more interactive and able to provide the consumer with more detailed information or help someone locate a product on a shelf or in the home. Electronic papers and inks will enable packaging designs to provide audio on many packages. These technologies open up many possibilities, one of which is providing information to the sight impaired.

Our profession can also take an active role in addressing environmental issues. How many designers really know all the materials that are environmentally friendly? What inks are better for the environment? How do production and manufacturing practices reduce emissions?

Packaging designs, whether we like it or not, leave a mark on society. Look at all the trash that was left in the Superdome in New Orleans after the thousands of people lived there for days. Consider where the trash went. This was a fraction of what the country produces in an hour. Is this the mark we want to leave on this generation?

Packaging design is a mechanism of a production driven society. Our clients are facing higher energy costs and rising raw material costs. We work in partnership to make packaging designs an instrument of social good. Our legacy can be one in which we take responsibility for design innovation and design-driven change. The design profession must commit to socially responsible design.

Many companies have taken this on as their corporate mission—companies such as the Body Shop, Aveda, Whole Foods, and Seventh Generation. Other not-so-visible companies such as the Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) make it their corporate responsibility to provide community outreach. PCA's commitment to community is demonstrated through their many programs from the Adopt-a-School program or their Corrugated Box Donation program. Their philosophy is one to be emulated.

The technological developments and the availability of sustainable materials provide for immensely creative opportunities for packaging designs. Aveda's use of sustainable materials for many of their product lines, for instance, reflects a company willing to take on this creative challenge.

In sum, here are a few directives that the packaging design industry could work toward. We should:

• recommend that socially responsible design strategies be incorporated into effective packaging design solutions, and that every design firm allocate resources to developing a much greater awareness of the products that can meet the social and environmental challenges the world faces.
• take responsibility for the messages of the packaging designs. Through an environmental tag line of copy or icon on packaging designs we can expand the markets consciousness of the role of each packaging design plays in our physical world.
• stay abreast of the technological developments in materials and manufacturing.
• encourage a client to make a change in a product's strategic marketing based on environmental responsibility.
• encourage employees to focus on innovation and new design techniques in the use of materials.
• work together to deliver innovative, socially responsible, cost effective, competitive packaging designs.

Packaging design can have a valuable role in transmitting values from one generation to the next. We have the power at our fingertips to create designs that ethically and socially could improve the lives of future generations.