In This Issue

Put the Triple Bottom Line at the center of your sustainability agenda No matter where you are or what business you’re in, you’re getting battered with environmental or green messages from every information source imaginable.

Next moves in sustainable design I hope you will take a few minutes to read the article on sustainable design in this issue of Shelf Impact!

Dates set for SI’s 2009 Package Design Workshops Shelf Impact!’s one-day Package Design Workshops will return in 2009 with its popular fast-paced, roll-up-your-sleeves interactive format in an intimate setting.

Package Gallery

Five ideas for sustainable design

By Jim George, Editor-in-Chief

Designing a “sustainable” package is daunting, say those leading the industry’s so-called “green” movement. The challenge is enormously complex, and it is tempting to take shortcuts.

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If hasty decisions are made, important and costly decisions can be finalized without weighing each factor involved in creating a package to meet a host of different needs. On one hand, the package has to function as an effective sales tool to meet business objectives. Yet, the materials used must be suitable either for reuse or being returned naturally to the earth

Shelf Impact! consulted a variety of packaging professionals and also sat in on conference presentations to assemble best practices for where and how to begin an effort toward developing sustainable package design. There is no one right approach, but our cross-functional experts agree that any attempt requires homework and the need to extend a branding strategy rather than replace it. The following five ideas will help give your creative team direction.

• Approach sustainable design as an extension of a brand strategy rather than as a tactical issue.
• Research available material options and understand whether they work together, and how.
• Adapt current packaging to a more eco-friendly version by starting modestly and building incrementally.
• Make decisions on packaging materials that reflect the brand design objective, as Procter & Gamble did with packaging for its Cover Girl TruBlend makeup.
• Pick a start point and begin the journey.

It is essential to tackle the challenge of sustainable design holistically and become thoroughly educated on each relevant factor, says Phil McKiernan, Business Partner at Packaging & Technology Integrated Solutions. This step is vital for marketers, who usually lack a packaging background.

“Sustainable packaging development is all about tradeoffs across the value chain. It’s not just about material use. It’s about energy use and water use and the triple bottom line of economic, social, and ecological drivers to deliver corporate growth,” adds McKiernan, formerly Packaging Director at Kimberly-Clark who now leads The Essentials of Sustainable Packaging Workshops, developed by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and the Packaging Association of Canada.

Read the details about each of the five ideas for sustainable design.

INTELLIGENCE ON DESIGN Put the Triple Bottom Line at the center of your sustainability agenda By Mike Richmond, President Packaging & Technology Integrated Solutions

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No matter where you are or what business you’re in, you’re getting battered with environmental or green messages from every information source imaginable. It’s not going to stop any time soon, either. But maybe that’s a good thing.

A renewed and refreshed corporate model focused on economic, social, and environmental principles, often called the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), is fast becoming the new mainstream business model. And it’s focused on the right stuff: people, planet, and profitability. Isn’t that what makes the world go round? Why not help it go round for generations to come?

We packaging professionals shouldn’t be too surprised by all the fuss over sustainability. Think about the real or perceived packaging crises we’ve weathered in the past few decades, from litter in the ’60s to oil and energy in the ’70s to solid waste in the ’90s. In many ways, these foreshadowed today’s concern about sustainable packaging.

What makes us such a lightning rod where these issues are concerned? Why does this happen to the packaging industry when in fact our contribution to such problems is really very minor? The answer is fairly simple: It’s because we are so visible. After all, what doesn’t come in a package? The packaging sector is a huge target, representing $450 billion globally.

So whether we like the attention or not, maybe it’s time to view the sustainability hubbub not as a crisis but rather as an opportunity. After all, we can make a significant difference and a positive impact on the future of society.

First we need to get re-educated, beginning with terminology. Figure 1 identifies more than 20 terms that are a part of the new lexicon in sustainability and sustainable packaging. Are you familiar with these?

Once we understand how important TBL has become and that a working knowledge of the new terminology is essential, we must adopt a new approach to the package development process. This new approach should start at the back. We need to think Cradle-to-Cradle; we need to think Design For the Environment; we need to think Design for Recovery. By rethinking the process and significantly elevating TBL in our thought patterns, packaging will be able to make significant progress, resulting in new innovations.

Look to see more focus on sustainable packaging in the future across all parts of the packaging value chain, which, by the way, is undergoing some significant changes. TBL will be a key driver in the future. Sustainable packaging will continue to gain momentum in the coming year by providing wins for companies, people, and, yes, the planet.

Read more of Mike Richmond’s thoughts on the Triple Bottom Line.

STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING Next moves in sustainable design By Jim George, Editor-in-Chief

I hope you will take a few minutes to read the article on sustainable design in this issue of Shelf Impact! The article provides a top-line overview of some of the pointed and thoughtful discussion on sustainability that has taken place in 2008—barely scratching the surface on this important trend.

Shelf Impact! peeked into the mind-sets of companies both large and small, and found one common message: Whatever sustainable-related actions you take, understand what makes your consumers tick. Then, deliver on it with packaging that stays on-brand and also reduces your carbon footprint over time.

While traveling around the country this year, I’ve listened to some pretty sharp people talk about sustainable packaging. They universally agree that one serious flaw in current brand thinking is that marketers too often are looking at green initiatives and innovative product branding separately when they really should be treating them as two parts of a whole.

When package-design and sustainability considerations work independently of each other, the end results often are out of sync. That further confuses consumers, who already are on information overload. As a result, brand owners risk greenwashing consumers in attempts to convince them to believe exaggerated or untrue claims about their product/packaging footprint. That path is a recipe for turning off today’s savvy consumers, who are conditioned to turn a skeptical ear to advertising claims.

Education—all around—is the operative word here, and we provide some of it in this issue with Mike Richmond’s article on sustainable packaging solutions and the Triple Bottom Line. Brand owners can’t talk to consumers about what makes their brand authentically eco-friendly unless they holistically understand it themselves. And any successful attempt at leveraging sustainable design to its full potential will require balancing the quantity and quality of packaging with the energy, transportation, and logistics costs that are necessary in getting packaged products to market.

With 2009 upon us, a fair number of pessimists remain on the sidelines in the push for green. To them, sustainability means brand owners have to spend money for production line changes and different and sometimes more expensive materials, while retailers reap the benefits and get to save money. If the sustainability movement is to gain stronger footing in these challenging financial times, retailers and brand owners will need to find more effective ways to work together, along with the entire value chain, for the common good.

Dates set for SI’s 2009 Package Design Workshops

Shelf Impact!’s one-day Package Design Workshops will return in 2009 with its popular fast-paced, roll-up-your-sleeves interactive format in an intimate setting.

The 2009 workshop dates are: March 18, San Francisco, CA; April 23, Atlanta, GA; May 20, Tarrytown, NY; June 17, Chicago, IL; and Oct. 21, Cincinnati, OH.

The 2008 Package Design Workshops series drew branding, marketing, and design professionals from companies including Kraft Foods, Unilever, Microsoft, Energizer Personal Care, Human Genome Sciences, Sally Beauty Supply, and J.M. Smucker Co., as well as professionals from design firms and materials suppliers, and also university-level educators.

Shelf Impact! Editor-in-Chief Jim George and Publisher Jim Chrzan lead the workshop discussion. They will present the latest information on trends and best practices in package decoration, materials, consumer and store insights, managing the creative process effectively, and sustainability. They also will invite audience participation to make the workshop an interactive learning experience. The midday lunch will feature a guest speaker.

Because these workshops include breakout group discussions, seating is limited. Workshop price is $425.

For more information and to register, visit www.shelfimpact.com/pdw.