With Packaging, Define the Solution...and the Problem Takes Care of Itself

By Wendy Jedlicka, CPP

The Uruku Lipstick package from Aveda and Estée Lauder exemplifies many sustainable principles.

"Sustainability? That's that greeny thing right?" A packaging engineer of 20+ years remarked to me in a meeting recently.

My response, in one breath no less, was: "Green? If you mean money, yeah! If you mean green like all squishy, Kombya—hardly. It's about creating a solution that will let the customer feel good about their product choices—reinforcing brand loyalty—by keeping the buyer and eliminating the remorse. It's about making products that don't make us sick to produce, own, or dispose of. It's about restoring—putting back resources we've just been blasting through. And it's not about making just more things, but creating systems and solutions that are long term and forward thinking."

Toward a definition

These are some pretty bold words, especially in an industry that accounts for a full one-third of the waste stream. Yet it's these very concepts that the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) is looking to tackle. The purpose of this project was to take the important first step in articulating an agreed upon definition of the term "sustainable packaging" so that all parties could work toward the same vision.

The definition concept is a remarkably simple one: Work with the Earth's systems rather than continually trying to reinvent the wheel. The planet's been designing and building products and systems for millions and millions of years using a cradle-to-cradle approach (barrow it, use it, recover it, and barrow it again), not man's cradle-to-grave (take it, make it, use it, chuck it). So why do we think we can run off and do better in the few hundred years we've been at industrial level effort? The straight answer is—of course we can't.

So... What Would Gaia Do?

The criteria for Sustainable Packaging are clearly defined, and really only ask these simple questions...

• Does it make us, or the planet, sick? Don't do it!
• Can we use renewable resources, energy as well as substrates, and then use them again without going back to virgin sources?
• Are we doing it efficiently, considering all costs (logistics, materials use, recyclability, etc.)?
• And are all components doing what they're supposed to do? Do they protect, inform, and sell with an added bonus of restoring some of the resources we've already wasted as well as increase positive consumer perception?

These criteria blend broad sustainability objectives with business considerations, and strategies that address the environmental concerns related to the lifecycle of any manmade product. In addition, they relate to the activities of the Coalition's membership, and define areas in which they actively seek to encourage transformation, optimization, and innovation. Going further, they believe that by successfully addressing these criteria, packaging can be transformed into a cradle-to-cradle flow of packaging materials, in a system that is economically robust and provides benefit throughout the lifecycle—a sustainable packaging system.

The criteria are an end-goal—not the Ten Commandments. As we begin new products, or look to improve our systems, the criteria provide a benchmark against which to measure our efforts. Sometimes we'll hit all the marks, sometimes just a few. But in every case the movement is always forward. No one expects a company to change all of their systems all at once, but the realities of how we do what we do provide natural opportunities for all players to improve or update systems as part of their normal modus operandi.

One industry design leader

Many great examples of applying the criteria to new projects can be found from Sustainable Packaging Coalition member Aveda (an Estée Lauder company). Aveda has long been a leader of sustainability in action and has profited well by keeping to their core principles of natural inspiration and systems thinking. By maximizing post-consumer resin content in their shampoo bottles, for example, coupled with a structural redesign to make them as thin as possible, Aveda enjoys savings of about $1 million a year.

Not limiting their creativity to efficiency issues, Aveda design team members used Aveda's core principles to develop the Uruku Lipstick Package. Using sustainability concepts of recycled, reuse, natural, and renewable, the Uruku molded pulp outer package is made from 100% recycled newsprint, with a soy-ink printed, 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content paper sleeve. The accessory case is a blend of 30% flax shives (a crop residue) and 70% polypropylene (containing 90% PCR content). The lipstick cartridge itself is made of up to 65% PCR aluminum, and is designed for disassembly, allowing for separation from the small internal dispensing mechanism and recycling of the aluminum.

These small internal components too are themselves made of recycled polystyrene with 88% PCR content. The system itself is a modular system with the idea that the refillable cartridge delivered the consumable, and so sells separately from the more durable accessory case. This is completely different from how lipstick is usually sold, with material heavy outer case intended to be disposed of along with the inner mechanism. By better understanding the lipstick delivery experience, separating the outer case from the consumable function alone saved enormous resources, energy and money—as well as creating an innovative and fashion forward package system.

In today's ever more competitive market, it's the player that can look several moves ahead that will capture the greatest advantage, profitability, and market share—not the companies stagnating in short term thinking.

Wendy Jedlicka, CPP, is president of Jedlicka Design Ltd., chapter chair for o2-USA/Upper Midwest, and liaison for the o2 Global Green Design Network. Additionally, she actively contributes articles on sustainable packaging to publications around the world, and lectures on leveraging positive consumer perception and sustainable design and business issues. Contact her at www.jedlicka.com or www.o2umw.org.