Sustainability - The bottom line

Let's get one thing straight: We are in the environment-harming business. No product or production process has a positive impact on the environment; all have a harmful effect at some level. Each process and every product uses resources and leaves its own footprint. It is up to designers to help marketers and manufacturers minimize the environmental impact.

Guy Williams, Creative Director Structure

There's another side to being savvy about sustainability. In today's economic climate, saving money has become a key driver for consumers and commerce alike. A 2009 Leo Burnett Group Predictions trend report notes: "A major juncture is about to be reached in the future of the planet as austerity turns the environmental case into an economic one. Energy efficiency saves money as well as the planet, and the uptake of this critical message is about to define our future development... The recession will hijack the green argument, turning it from a moral argument to an economic one."

As product manufacturers and retailers across the spectrum embrace sustainability, there is growing evidence that it can make a bottom-line difference by reducing waste, increasing productivity, promoting sales, and in some instances, saving millions in packaging costs and supply chain efficiencies. Walmart has stated its commitment to environmental issues. CEO-elect Mike Duke says: "We at Walmart are also committed to being a leader on sustainability." Where Walmart goes, others follow.

Sustainability has become the cost of entry in practically every consumer goods category. Witness the meteoric rise of Persil Small & Mighty, which pioneered 2x concentrated liquid laundry detergents and has spawned much mimicry, inside and outside the category. It is a beautifully simple and effective idea: half the size means half the water used in production, half the packaging, therefore half the trucks and half the transport-related environmental damage.

A Gyros Marketing survey of 2,000 consumers across Europe and the U.S. shows that the environment remains a priority for shoppers despite the recession, and that brands' green credentials have a far greater influence on consumer purchasing habits than many marketers are prepared to recognize.

So, sustainability is a moral issue, an economic issue, and a populist one, but it also is a creative issue. The challenge is to produce aesthetically pleasing packaging that is environmentally sound, fulfills the fundamental job of protecting and presenting the product, drives consumer behavior to purchase and repurchase, and is innovative. Far from putting a straitjacket on creativity, being kinder to the environment is inspiring designers to push further and try harder. Indeed, some have come up with highly disruptive treatments that create a huge impact on shelf. Some have even managed to pull off category-busting packaging by using different structures or materials.

UK dairy producer Daylesford Organic's sensational milk packaging manages to innovate in both structure and materials. Made from calcium carbonate, this bag-like plastic pack is cut into a striking jug shape and breaks down over time to natural compounds; chalk, water and carbon dioxide. It is innovative, stylish, sustainable and entirely unexpected for a ubiquitous product.

In the U.S., Method Home Products provides another good example. Method has changed the way people approach cleaning products. The products themselves are innovative and the packaging is striking, beautifully simple and absolutely right on. Many lines are packaged in 100% post consumer-recycled material, all packages are recyclable, and the company offers extensive refill systems.

Here are two other examples in which green packaging helped a brand owner reduce costs:

UK retailer The Boots Group reduced PVC use by 30 tons a year and saved about $307,000 a year by overhauling transit packaging for cosmetics. In addition a simple switch from single-use trays for transporting sandwiches to trays that can be used about three times produced savings for Boots of $179,000 a year and plastic use reduction of 200 tons a year. IBM's redesigned keyboard packaging produced cost savings of $645,000, increased transport efficiency by 190%, eliminated 200 tons a year of plastic from the waste stream and taken together with other measures involving re-usable packaging brought total cost savings to over $2.87 million a year.

Dairy and cleaning products have been two of the most innovative categories in greener design terms during recent times. In 2008, UK milk producer Dairy Crest launched its Jugit system, based on a strong, recyclable milk pouch. A reusable, recyclable jug cuts packaging by 75%, compared with traditional plastic milk bottles. The skepticism with which this brand's packaging initially was met seems like nothing compared with the backlash that Walmart and Costco's own new milk packaging has met with in the U.S.

Walmart and Costco's redesigned gallon milk jug is cheaper and much more efficient to ship and store, better for the environment and enables the retailers to get fresher milk on shelf. Unlike the previous design, the jugs can be stacked without the use of crates, which need transportation and cleaning. In addition, considerably more can be transported and stored in the same space as the old-design jugs, cutting transportation and labor costs and reducing water and fuel usage. Consumers, however, hated them at launch. There is much debate as to whether this makes these packages a design failure, but shoppers hate change, and there is always a degree of resistance to anything that affects the delivery of staple products. If in-store demonstrations and consumer education programs work, once that initial resistance is overcome, the new format no doubt will be hailed as a design triumph.

Consumers are far more willing to embrace change in traditionally high-tech categories like cleaning products. U.S. brand Arm & Hammer Essentials Cleaner is using smart packaging based on an empty sprayer bottle to which a small bottle of concentrated cleaner is attached. The consumer then adds water to complete the product. The design uses 93% less plastic and 83% less packaging than traditional household cleaner package designs. The use of concentrated cleaners further saves on transportation and fuel.

Occasionally, an opportunity presents itself to marry beauty with sustainability. Norwegian premium glacial natural mineral water Isklar needed distinctive packaging to stand out in an intensely overcrowded market. The bottle Blue Marlin created took its inspiration from the dazzling glacier from which the water comes. This intriguing structure is inherently lightweight, thus minimizing the raw materials involved.

There are many ways to embrace greener packaging, but they all require commitment to change on the part of both the brand owner and packager. Soon, that commitment won't be optional, as consumers become more demanding. The economic environment we now find ourselves in will affect the spending power of both brand owners and consumers alike. Some of the savings generated through rationalization of supply chain and materials reduction should be passed on to the consumer, which will help to reduce the perceived premium or luxury tag attached to greener products that deters some consumers from making a purchase.

Capital expenditure is, of course, one of the main constraints on green-driven innovation. Mostly designers are tied to existing production lines that only can be minimally adapted. The efficiency and intensity of the production setup will affect the carbon footprint of any product. However, the setup of these lines tends to be a once-in-a-decade expenditure, and is outside designers' ability to change. That said, there's no harm in trying to effect large-scale packaging line change if there is a provable, profitable payoff. If a fundamental overhaul is attempted, it is vital to audit production facilities and review supply systems so that the scope of the project can be realistically set out. It stands to reason that the packaging design brief has to be within production capabilities, but it is also true that the tighter the brief, the more creative designers can be—indeed, the more creative designers are forced to be.

When designers work to a tightly defined brief it, forces us—or should that be enables us? To look both backward and forward. We look further back through sourcing and the materials supply chain, and we look forward, not just at the design phase, but also across the lifespan of the product. We can drive change in manufacturing by bringing design and manufacturing together, each pushing the other to be more creative. Working together, we can challenge what is feasible and become a force for good, both environmentally and commercially.

There are numerous barriers to implementing greener design, not least of which is the time frame in which many packaging projects exist. By and large, it isn't possible to go green by next week. But with a little time, a realistic and informed idea of what is achievable and why it is important, and a genuine commitment to change, creative design can make a vast difference. Green design is real design. And real design delivers results.

By Guy Williams, Creative Director structure and Shaun Jones, Realization Director, Blue Marlin Brand Design for Shelf Impact