Permaculture Principles Can
Flourish in Package Design

Review These 12 Principles for Successful Systems Thinking

By Daniel Halsey

Like agricultural products, packages must ultimately produce results. The ultimate "yield" of a package is determined by its multiple functions and multiple yields.

Nothing exists outside a relationship. Everything is related in the working systems of nature, economics, or package design. A designer that does not take into account the effects delivered works will have on users, resources, or society, depletes the design's potential and future viability.

Systems thinking requires that we develop the awareness and skills to define and design the functional relationships that reduce waste and enhances yield from existing relationships [Source: David Holmgren, The Essence of Permaculture, 2002]. Permaculture is a practice that uses a set of principles to assure the long-term viability of self-sustaining systems in agriculture. Permanent + Agriculture = Permaculture.

In the 1970s, ecological activist Bill Mollison of Australia retreated from popular culture to study and develop a set of principles that would assure success in ecological-minded farming. The resulting 34 principles for permaculture were refined by his close associate David Holmgren over 25 years of putting them into practice.

In his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, Holmgren lays out his refined list of 12 principles for sustainable living systems. These powerful concepts, here applied to package design, can open a new worldview of our responsibility as professionals and our possibilities as people.

1. Observe and Interact: The Omnipresence of Relationships – Careful observation of the environment in which our work is used gives us the power to respond with new ideas for design, materials, and integration. Knowing the environment our materials come from and the ultimate end of the product is an important step in defining the parameters of our packaging strategy. The lifecycle of a package cannot be ignored in the process. Interaction with warehouse, store, or consumer is not the end of the relationship; the package lives on in an environment as inert or toxic waste, as fuel, or it has a second extended life in another purpose. As an extension of ourselves, we interact through it.

2. Catch and Store Energy: The Real Life Cycle, Assets, and Waste – The "paid" time we spend in developing designs and the funds invested in the ultimate container creates an asset. If the ensuing container is seen as "stored energy" and a potential marketing resource beyond the trash bin, or if it has a second purpose beyond its initial use, it has additional stored potential for the end-user. Harnessing this stored potential for marketing and extended customer interaction increases the return on the packaging investment. Shortsightedness leads to lost opportunities. What can we do with the unused potential?

3. Obtain a Yield: All our efforts in packaging must ultimately produce results. The engineering, marketing, corporate, and government requirements for "allowable" designs must be met. Yet the ultimate yield of the package is not a result of any of these singular dictates. The package has multiple functions and, thus, multiple yields. Some of these are: structure to protect and hold the contents until used; shelf or appetite appeal to increase or keep sales; brand recognition for other products; and regulated or standardized information for public safety. Once these are secured, the designer determines the final yield in the life cycle—for few others are really aware or really care.

4. Apply Self-Regulation and Feedback: Within the cubicle, the designer is in total control of the direction of a package. Innumerable options are assessed and personal creativity blends with good design. Effort is used to find suitable materials. Personal ethics are used to specify which of these materials are acceptable. A proposal is made to use ecologically minded vendors and resources ...or not. Questions are asked of consultants and suppliers...or not. Excessive waste is minimized...or not.

5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services: Using renewable resources for transient purposes such as short-lived packaging may seem practical. However, valuing the materials as limitless is naïve. The cheapest paper has value and uses non-renewable energy to be produced, processed, and shipped. A large portion of renewable materials' inherent cost is in production and transportation. Understanding the source of material and its processing methods is central in understanding the ecological cost or sustainable value of the material.

6. Produce No Waste: In the electronic age, paper is run through printers as if it came from the sky; which it does—by sunlight, water, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. But from that point, however, the waste starts in processing, trimming, shipping, and round filing. Keeping proofs to a minimum and using electronic PDFs surely diminishes wasted paper. Then putting the PC to Sleep (or better, Off) when out of the office reduces more. In the quest to produce no waste one must ultimately limit consumption. It cannot be waste if you don't buy it, wrap it, bag it, transport it, unwrap it, or toss it. If an item can be sold without a package (absolute heresy?), where is the waste? Again the second life of all things can extend its useful period and catch and save energy otherwise used in its disposal.

7. Design from Patterns to Details: Changing the pattern in a department or corporation is hard. Yet one person can make a small adjustment each time an opportunity arises and thereby bring about change. Broad patterns of corporate culture can be shifted with small details. A pattern is made of small details repeating over and over. Gradual shifts in materials, modest requirements of suppliers, and eco-options for employees will set the corporate culture on a course for change. An award for the company for a green design can go a long way, as can observing and highlighting trade trends in eco-minded design.

"No Package Required" except a small paperboard hangtag with UPC. The jacket packs into its own reversible pouch pocket, and branding, company, and product info are carried by sewn-on label that only is visible when jacket is in reversed "packaged" mode

8. Integrate Rather than Segregate: Compartmentalized resources in a company reduce the potential solutions. Designers working with engineers at the inception of a product can add to the functionality and aesthetics. Status quo rationale for engineering design can be opened to other possibilities by simple questions, and designers can also seek to understand basic concerns of engineers. Teams integrated with diverse disciplines add value and understanding, solving problems before they have a chance to cause trouble.

9. Use Small and Slow Solutions: Using the smallest, cleanest, simple solution to a problem makes for less waste and faster turnaround. Answering the basic question, "What does this really need to do?" may help define the solution, then gradually make for opportunities to advance new design improvements. Build momentum with gradual changes and small efficiencies when revisited, and map out possibilities.

10. Use and Value Diversity: Using only one supplier, one method, and one material makes the design process vulnerable to outside forces and internal disturbances. It is dangerous to keep all the creative eggs in one basket or source all the materials from one warehouse. A diverse source of intelligence ensures a broad scope of reference. One plastic does not a selection make, and a favorite medium may not be the best. Appreciate diversity in sources, materials, and the benefits of each.

11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal: To be definable, one needs to be extreme. To ride the edge of technology, design, engineering means to be noticed. Graduate from the leading edge, with all its resistance and polishing, to the bleeding edge, where new ideas are tested and challenged. Resources collect at the edges waiting for a purpose or the excitement. Win or lose, there is knowledge to be gained. Nothing is wasted on the edge. It is the highest point of concentration. The marginal areas are to be explored, because opportunities are missed and resources are ignored in the margins. Both edge and margin are a place in transition. The edge is where the action is. The margin—wide or narrow—is where things are waiting for change.

12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change: Nothing sits still for very long. Keeping in mind that everything is moving and adjusting position, the ups and downs are time to be creative. Nature fills all voids. Skills untapped suddenly find use. Solutions lying in wait, shelved long ago, find a need. It is an opportunity to be creative while the paradigm shifts and the scripts are being written. A disturbance in the "natural order" is an opening for both weed and flower. The seeds have always been there or will soon blow in, catching on the bare soil. Even if the weeds take hold, they are but placeholders while the deeper plants make roots and prepare to emerge. Nothing is wasted, unless there is nothing to respond. In time, something always will.

Daniel Halsey is a certified permaculture designer, graphic designer, and food photographer. He lives with his wife Ginny in SouthWoods of Spring Lake, MN, a 25-acre wetland with an Edible Forest Garden installed by the Twin Cities Permaculture Collaborative. Halsey is working on a degree in Temperate Climate Polyculture Design at the University of Minnesota, and is faculty for Minneapolis College of Art and Design's groundbreaking Sustainable Design Certificate Program.