A: Thought-provoking and comprehensive, the new “Design Guidelines for Sustainable Packaging” offer the first tool created to stimulate innovation and provide direction to packaging designers and converters “interested in moving toward a fully sustainable future.” The result of collaboration between the staff of GreenBlue and members of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition—with special acknowledgement given in the introduction to individuals from Target, Starbucks, the US Environmental Protection Agency, Kraft and others—the guidelines introduce four quality criteria for package design to aid in creating packages that address sustainable objectives in every stage of the supply chain.

Laying the foundation in Part I, the guidelines provide definitions for “sustainable development” and “cradle-to-cradle design” and include SPC's vision for sustainable-packaging design as articulated in its eight-part definition. These concepts, the guidelines relate, are systemwide models that, in packaging, encompass everything from the sourcing and converting of materials to their transport, use and disposal. Therefore, a tremendous opportunity exists for designers to “design-out” the potential negative environmental and societal impacts of packaging. “If we are to improve what we make, reduce our impacts and create a better world, we will need to rethink the way we design at every scale,” the guidelines advise.

Hence, to the conventional design criteria of Technical Performance, Cost, Appearance and in some cases, Regulatory Compliance, the guidelines add four new quality considerations: Optimizing Resources, Responsible Sourcing, Material Health, and Resource Recovery. Now, in addition to evaluating whether a package meets cost considerations, protects a product properly, communicates effectively and meets or exceeds regulations, the guidelines challenge converters to design a package with these sustainable objectives in mind.

Part IV presents each of the four design criteria, along with strategies for achieving each objective. For example, to Optimize Resources, the guidelines suggest source reduction, recycled content and design for transport. An explanation of each, in turn, provides the converter with practical steps, poses questions, lists related regulations and standards, and points to additional resources.

In the above instance, where source reduction is offered as a strategy for Optimizing Resources, the guidelines advise designers to ask the following: “Could minor changes be made to the product that would eliminate the need for packaging?” “Have all the unnecessary packaging components been eliminated?” and “What level of protection does the product require?” The guidelines' practical steps to source reduction include specifying materials with lower-impact production processes; considering a minimal number of materials, additives and auxiliaries (labels, closures, etc.); and sourcing materials from suppliers who implement environmental best practices.

With four design criteria and 12 strategies for meeting these objectives, the guidelines encourage integration of physical design, material selection and end-of-life considerations to create packaging that satisfies creativity while being environmentally responsible.

Anne Johnson, DirectorSustainable Packaging Coalition434/817-1424, anne.johnson@greenblue.org