Effective Innovations for a Cleaner Planet

We have set out on a journey to leave our planet cleaner and this would be enabled through deep exploration and innovation. We need to build an organisation that stretches imagination and enables ideas to bear fruit so that we create regenerative solutions for the future of humankind.

Background

When we look around us we find that there is a serious challenge that we have created in the last century by enabling convenience through producing, disseminating and consuming products with no clear end of use.

Literally everything we consume today has a component of petroleum based substrate that have complex chemistry and no clarity of disposal. All of these products will either end up as litter or in land dumps, water ways, oceans or be burnt to create noxious gases. This arbitrary usage and dumping causes huge damage to the ecology, marine and terrestrial life and is directly responsible for damage to human health and well being.

The source for petroleum based materials is also limited and the process for extraction is carbon intensive. The ideas of ‘recycling’ are an eyewash as the complexity of the material does not lend itself to be recirculated. There is no such thing as ‘plastic’, all the materials that we classify in that category are different molecular structure as well as complex alchemy that is impossible to break down and rebuild. The best case scenario is that many of these materials are ‘recovered’ as fibre and they go into our clothes, shoes or other materials where they find no further usage. They are eventually either dumped and find their way into our oceans as micro particles or are burnt and become part of the air we breathe.

There is a small set of materials that have economic value and are hence recovered but the majority is created to serve a short ‘single use’ purpose with no possibility of returns. Many of the materials that we use today in the packaging space are multi layered complex substrates that cannot be pried apart. They have been created to provide long shelf life to processed materials and multiplicity of materials does not lend itself to recovery. There is a push towards ‘mono materials’ but even that ends up having complex chemistry in order to serve the purpose that it is created for.

This needs to shift! It is the ingenuity of humans that has provided for the convenience of ‘modern living’ but it leads to harming ourselves and the world around us. We consume foods that have little or no nutritional value, processed and packaged months before only to consume the substance in minutes to dump the packaging that will stay forever.

We all have our roles in this circle of life. We as an organisation find ourselves in the materials world and we choose to build towards a positive impact which means to make a shift in how packaging is created and utilised.

The need for change

In an ideal world there should be no packaging. This will disable not just the damage that we do to the planet but also directly enhance our health and well-being. We will eat fresher, consume locally and have more active lifestyles.

There is more consciousness arising and we hope this movement will gather momentum. We will eat more ‘alive’, nearer to the source and reduce our consumption levels. The ecology will benefit as we care for ourselves more.

We also realise that this thinking may be more utopian as a shift en large from convenience will be a challenge in modern living and we will desire to order our food out and need long shelf life to reduce loss of materials.

Hence, let us work on changing the packaging while hoping that a shift will continue to evolve.

Paradigm shift

There is a broadly held belief that sustainable materials will be poorer in performance and cost greater. We need to alter this thinking to enable a change in our creative potential.

Our dharma as people in packaging is to protect what is inside and there can be no compromise for the customer in that goal as it is a greater ecological damage if the contents are spoils because of lack of efficacy in the material utilised for the purpose.

The price of a product is always ‘in comparison’. It does not mean much in isolation. The current comparison will be with the substrates that are being consumed. This can definitely be influenced through statutory norms and policies that enable a holistic charge based on the overall impact the material creates but we cannot depend on the same. We must strive towards closure of the gap in costs to enable wider adoption.

The third issue is that of scale. In order for a customer to make a shift they must be able to find a product that is available consistently in the quantity needed by them. This must drive our choices for technology and investments. Any base material that we choose must be available in bulk and the processing must enable large scale production.

Hence we have to work towards more effective materials, at lower cost and at a scale that fulfils demand.

What needs to be done?

We, as Pakka, will be investing our resources and energy towards furthering material science and continue to evolve solutions in collaboration with various others across the world. We are fundamentally inspired by ‘natures packaging’ and need to ensure that each material created becomes a resource at the end of use.

These are the domains that need to be worked upon by focussed teams:

Base material research

We explore options for identifying materials that are being ‘wasted’ and can be upcylced. There is a large quantity of agri fibres that is available for utilisation. We currently utilise sugarcane residue but there is so much more out there. We will also look beyond agri residues to other industrial waste streams.

Process evolution

We may create a material that is better at end of use but we need to be very conscious of the methodology that we use in the production system. We find that ‘substractive’ manufacturing systems have a huge utilisation of energy, water and chemicals and also create enormous waste in the process. This needs to shift. We look at reducing consumption but also evolving entire manufacturing systems to be more aligned to natural practices which are fundamentally ‘additive’.

Altering chemistry

Nature has simplicity built in. Most base materials are either sugars (carbohydrates) or proteins (amino acids). The solvent is water, source of energy is the sun and a very small part of the periodic table is utilised for evolving materials. We need to adopt more ‘green chemistry’ and the work towards finding alternates will continue to be explored.

Waste valorisation

Almost all industrial processes create alternative materials and there is inherent value lost apart from ecological damage when we are unable to find alternative usage and there is arbitrary disposal. We have created great alternates when it comes to certain materials but there is more to be done. We need to upcyle more and more to ensure we create greater economic value as well as lower our impact.

Carry solutions

The poly bag is ubiquitous and convenient. It does not go away easily even with bans being enacted. We need to provide alternates. There is work to be done in order to ensure that the required utility is provided at the cost that is easy for the customer to accept. We currently utilise paper based materials but that remains a poor substitute as various performance parameters are compromised and cost is enhanced.

Flexible packaging

This is our greatest quest. We find that even when the carry bags are banned our shopping remains full of multi layered packaging substrates designed for long shelf lives and storage. The packaging is so well engineered that there is little none moisture or oxygen ingress enabling the material inside to be well protected. This of course leads to no end of use. We need to continue to evolve alternates that provide the consumer with the convenience they seek while ensuring the ecological disaster is eliminated.

Food services

Part of modern living is ‘eating out’ and ‘ordering in’. Much of the service is in disposables that are thrown away after a single use. The customer and consumer need us to provide products that perform for the required activity and then are ideally upcycled along with food waste into fuels and manure utilising the energy that is inherently available in the substrates.

Food packaging

There are so many packaged meals that are either frozen or dehydrated to be consumed at a later date. The current packaging substrates enable the activity through the ability for accepting different temperature and moisture conditions but of course end up as waste after usage. We need to evolve the substrates as demand rises for such materials to enable a clear end of use.

How are we evolving?

Pakka is to invest significant part of its revenue towards evolving the solutions listed above but it will need more than monetary resources to be able to build the change we wish to see.

Build talent density

The first and foremost ingredient for any change is ingenuity. We look to find lots of minds that believe in change and have the required gumption and competence to work towards that aim. We look to attract and build diversity within our teams.

Create a culture that enables ‘risk’

There is a joy in ‘failing’. It is only then that we learn. Pakka rewards ‘daring to try’. We need to invest towards creating a culture that celebrates effort and ideas. This can specially be a challenge when we are brought up in a culture that just rewards ‘wins’. We believe that the real joy lies in the effort and will to try something that is unique. We need to continue to build a culture of ‘no fear’ and openness to enable learning and growth for each individual to enable their highest potential to be manifested.

Build unparalleled infrastructure

We have been investing in equipment needed to carry out the tasks that we have undertaken and now there will be further investment in location and building as well. We have carved out capital that enables us to provide our team with what is needed for them to succeed and we will also continue to collaborate with partners for utilising complementary facilities.

Enable global collaborations

There are so many amazing developments that are happening globally and we need to build relationships to be able to learn from each other and collaborate. We pride ourselves with the relationships that we have built and we need to continue to invest towards joint explorations and creation with similar organisations. There are startups and younger minds with less ‘jaded’ minds who we would wish to incubate and enable with our facilities. We will also continue to work with various researchers and academicians in the domain.

Strengthen customer and converter connect

There is an ecosystem in place and we need to learn from the same. Magic happens when we truly understand and appreciate the challenges with the supply chain and work with people who know much more than us to be able to address what emerges. There is huge economic investments in place that enables the current systems to function and we are able to bring greater change by deeply engaging and understand the challenges and apprehensions felt by those who utilise the materials.

Focus- on the now and the future!

We need to keep delivering on products that are needed to be able to sustain our work and that happens through strong and clear understanding of what is expected from us in the short term. We need to keep defining clear responsibility and accountability for short term results but we also have to enable long term effort and thinking. Each person needs to be able to devote time and resources towards contributing towards their ideas and expanding possibilities. At Pakka, at least 20% of our time needs to be spent on exploring projects that excite us.

The path ahead

The quest we are on is greater than our business and our jobs. We are here to try our very best to carry out our purpose to make the contributions that we have been bestowed with. Our business is in the service of the goals that we pursue and not the other way around.

We look for people and organisations that are like minded. We look to collaborate openly. We wish to bring change by openly sharing the work that we do and encourage other to create beyond our limited knowledge so that we are able to witness change and our future generations benefit from the work that we do today.

Come join us and let us work together to make a difference!