NewWays for Daily Change

Idea type: Non-Profit, business, or advertising organization.

Green packaging promotes “green” eco-friendly packaging that can quickly grow to become a standard for packaging around the world.Cultivate a multi-brand multi-corporation campaign that creates cultural cache for the packaging of products in eco-friendly, minimal packaging.

Research what products in packaging are currently in the marketplace that are more eco-friendly and biodegradable.Green packaging is slowly emerging. A grocery outlet store in the Uk is presently pursuing the new direction of green packing, to “to improve their green credentials.”[1] Follow these trends and form relations with people who are changing the way people do packaging.

Industry Going Green
The Packaging Association of Canada (PAC) and U.S. based Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) are coming together to make it easier for businesses to make product packaging across the US and Canada more eco-friendly.

Together these organizations are developing a curriculum to help educate packaging professionals on ways to “achieve more sustainable packaging solutions.”

The partnership comes after Wal-Mart recently announced plans to get its 60,000 suppliers to reduce uneccessary packaging and develop more environmentally responsible ways of packaging goods.
Green Packing
At first glance it might look like a simple, run-of-the-mill paper coffee cup. But according to Jennifer Wright, founder of Toronto-based consulting agency Green Shift, the world’s first commercially viable biodegradable hot drink cup has been years in the making.

   Jennifer Wright, founder of Toronto-based consulting agency Green Shift, holds a biodegradable cup.

The cup is an example of new “green” packaging materials that are designed to be kinder to the environment. Wright has been working on the project since the late 1990s, collaborating with researchers and coffee lovers at home and abroad to get just the right ingredients together to pull it off.

The key is the biodegradable liner, which is made from a vegetable-based resin. Although it’s still a work in progress — the first iteration hit the market 18 months ago — Wright says she is “getting calls from the U.K., Japan, Israel and more asking about it.”

Further Information/Models

Wild Oats Markets Inc.in the US has started the trend of being the first grocery in the states to use corn in replace of petruleum based products in their packaging. [2]

The shift towards green packaging can begin in conjuction with the Organic food movement starting within our own communties. Green packaging can also begin with corporations taking giant steps towards advertising their products through the use of eco-friendly packaging that also has the potential in boost profits, as more people feel better about investing in their company.

SpecificsPackaging should use no artificial dyes or harmful toxins, and should be easily recognized among other brands on shelf. The standards of packaging can be set in accordnace of the how the FDA manages Organic food, maintaing that 95% of the ingredients contain unharmful ingredients.

Package should contain all required information: product name, company, nutrition information as well as logo for this Product Design Idea

As more and more products adopt this packaging, this form of design will literally take over the aesthetic of store shelves.

Action

To cultivate literacy concerning the look and idea behind this packaging (PR) effort.

Create a central web site conveying this information.

Spread the news of this through VNR’s, interviews and other PR activities.

Final Thoughts

This idea is easily pitched to corporations to take on themselves. Tell them: product cost will decrease; advertising for product will both be free and visually stylish; this product will link corporate efforts with ecological movements and potentially gross more sales.

Image from Treeson Packaging of packaging prototypes made with the printouts from ink-jet printer.