3 Things I learnt from attending a Packaging Workshop

Not all workshops are made equal.

When I recently attended a packaging workshop, I came into with the mindset to learn and collaborate, however, I wasn't expecting to take away tangible plans and workings with me.

In this particular workshop targeting sustainable packaging, which was held by Re: Plastics and facilitated by the wonderful crew from Circularity, I learnt a number of valuable things, and so I thought I would share my top three learnings in hopes it would help you with your sustainable packaging goals and journey.

One - "Whole System Thinking"

When it comes to understanding packaging, especially problematic packaging, one of the important factors we can do is to look at it through its entire supply chain, or in other words "Whole System Thinking".

Since the impact of materials is never isolated, we must view the material across all areas of society, the economy and the environment.

What this does is create better awareness across different groups, stakeholders and give us a better understanding of the environmental impacts.

Two - "Be creative in your solution designs"

Sometimes we think that the solution to more sustainable packaging is simply improving the current packaging.

BUT what if the potential solution needed radical design in order to unlock it? And the key to unlocking it required imagination?

This is exactly what I learnt and something I felt helped break the traditional design thinking and come up with more creative solutions to a problem.

Making positive change to your packaging is hard work. It takes preparation and planning, but it also takes courage to learn, break old habits and go out and try new things

Three - "Understanding who the stakeholder's are"

Big important decisions require a lot input from different departments and leaders.

My good friend and best selling author Graham Hawkins highlights this so accurately in a selling environment and points out a number of research and evidence that suggest the selling journey now requires 6+ people to make a decision.

This is no different when it comes to sustainable packaging. Understanding who the decision makers are and what influence they have is key to making the change, without the buy in it becomes pretty hard to change anything let alone get the right people.

So...

Those were three things I learnt from attending this packaging workshop.

To summarise...

Making positive change to your packaging is hard work. It takes preparation and planning, but it also takes courage to learn, break old habits and go out and try new things.

Till next time,