How do you ensure your products are eco-friendly?

LCA on it's own is not enough. Social metrics, impacts on biodiversity, and realistic end of life are as important as carbon and water metrics. A low-carbon or no-plastic alternative material may hit basic internal KPIs and reporting goals, but if it cannot be recycled or responsibly sourced, the pack may have a larger long-term impact than the initial pack it was intended to replace. It's critical to carry out a holistic assessment of social and environmental impacts to futureproof your business against the regulatory landscape and ensure you factor in actual end of life impacts - not LCA assumed.

It's really important to be consistent with environmental assessments and product development should always start with the end in mind. There is still too much subjectivity in the examples I see coming to market. The headline result of a new sustainable packaging initiative is often reduced to a particular environmental benefit (such as improved recyclability or reduced plastic-use). The true and complete impact is often hidden behind the scenes. KPIs should be "big impact" - i.e. targeting carbon reductions, for example, rather than initiatives like plastic-reduction, which although appealing to consumers may not significantly reduce environmental impact.

This is not straight forward, as there is no such thing as an eco-friendly material. Many materials have benefits in one category and increase the impacts in another. New Green Claims regs around the world will require you to discuss these trade-offs in your marketing materials. Fossil-free materials may be sourced through deforestation, intensive mono-culture farming, or chemically intensive mining processes and cause disaster to communities, ecosystems, and biodiversity in the source region. However, if you develop a material hierarchy or a RAG list (red, amber green) your internal and external stakeholders will work toward the same standards.

We assess packaging against our Design for Life methodology, incorporating whole lifecycle thinking with hard to quantify factors to interrogate packaging and design and push clients to go further. Designing through eco-design or design for recycling/disassembly is the start of the journey but on it's own not enough. Designing for longevity and reuse is one way to maximise the value of your packaging and the materials you use, whilst keeping your manufacturing footprint low. Reuse infrastructure is in it’s infancy in many cases, but in some localities and industries such as beverages, on-the-go, and B2B logistics, reusable packaging is becoming common-place and systems are scaling rapidly

80% of a product's impact is defined at the design stage and less material = less risk. Designing out excess, switching materials, using recyclable and reusable formats can only take us so far. The ultimate issue driving the crisis of packaging waste and pollution is excessive consumption. Using less packaging and saving resource for critical applications is the most effective way of reducing your impacts across all the critical KPI’s your business measures for packaging. Carry out an audit to identify what superfluous packaging can be removed or reduced as a simple starting point. Less is more!

This is the tricky part. Many consumers don’t know what bin to put packaging in and/or how to engage with new reusable systems. On pack, in store or online comms to help educate consumers about where and how to reuse or recycle is critical to increasing capture rates for your packaging and oozes brand responsibility.