Sustainable packaging an expectation and not a trend

Over 600 business executives heard how a change in packaging design and material can help them meet their own sustainability commitments and goals at Smurfit Kappa’s recent Better Planet Packaging Innovation conference in Amsterdam. 

The aim of the company’s Better Planet Packaging initiative is to support more sustainable consumption and production patterns for packaging that will require a big shift in consumer behaviour and place new responsibilities on producers. 

The conference heard the packaging industry plays a crucial role in adopting sustainable strategies and developing innovative eco-friendly models for product packaging. Now that the shift towards sustainability has become front and centre in the minds of consumers, businesses know they need to make changes and are keen to learn and implement.

Launching the conference, Smurfit Kappa CEO Tony Smurfit said that when he took over, he wanted the company to be globally admired, dynamically delivering superior returns to stakeholders.

 “Our last stakeholder is our planet. I’ll be honest. If I was standing here 20 years ago, I might have said these words, but I might not have recognised the importance of them. I think today, everybody says the words and recognised their importance,” he says. 

 “When my granddad started out 80 years ago in packaging, the box was brown, it was simple and it got goods from point A to point B. We can now use packaging to not only promote your brand but protect your reputation and reduce plastic waste," he said. 

The conference heard the closure of the Chinese market for low cost recycling of plastics has brought the issue back to Europe and is at the forefront of customers minds. The European Union's Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive and Circular Economy Package, including legislative changes to waste management, means Europe has taken the lead globally on tackling plastic waste. 

Naturalist and wildlife TV presenter Steve Backshall said the effects of poor packaging and single use plastic are destroying the environment and we must curtail the damage for the sake of future generations. "There is no other species on earth that destroys the environment it relies on to survive. Becoming a father made me sit up and think even more about the environment so that my children wouldn't say to me in years to come - Daddy, what did you do about it?" said Mr Backshall.

Co-President of Industries at SAP, Lori Mitchell-Keller shared her insights into the future of supply chains and how customers can leverage today's intelligent technology. She explained how the consumers of the present and the future are more environmentally aware and look for a more personalised approach when making purchasing decisions. 

"Millennials are going to be responsible for 30 per cent of all sales by 2020. There will be more and more demand for individualised products and customers want to feel like they are buying a product with purpose," said Ms Mitchell-Keller. She predicts a move away from mass production to mass customisation, but that packaging must be sustainable, eco-friendly and have little or no plastic waste. 

Vice President of Innovation and Development at Smurfit Kappa, Arco Berkenbosch, said companies must take a "customer-first approach".  

"With consumer insight we can design sustainable packaging that has an impact on the supply chain.Real better planet packaging needs to be adaptable and sustainable as none of us here will know what our supply chains will look like in five years’ time. The days of packaging outliving the product it contains by hundreds of years are gone and circular design should be the ambition for companies," he said. 

The overall take-away message is that by integrating more environmentally conscious practices into their business and drawing on innovation and technology, companies can not only reduce their costs but benefit the environment and meet the needs and expectations of environmentally aware consumers. 

The visibility factor of the damage wreaked on the environment has led to a change in attitudes as evidenced by the increase in Green Party election candidates being elected across Europe at local and European level this year. 

Attendees were visibly surprised by some of the presentations showing the impact SUP and other non-recyclable materials is having on our climates and environment as highlighted by naturalist Steve Backshall. There was nodding agreement in the audience when he said our generation would live to regret not taking steps to prevent climate change and that our planet is only on loan to us for the next generation. 

As we move from the supermarket shelf to the doorstep with the massive jump in online retail, a rethinking of product and package design is needed that can combine being visually appealing to the new type of online consumer, equipped for the new distribution network and environmentally friendly. This consumer demand for more sustainable packaging has moved from a maybe for companies to a must-have as it is no longer a trend but an expectation for consumers - something attendees highlighted as a key concern for them. 

From the discussion at the conference, it is clear businesses feel confident about the future and committed to making their business as sustainable as possible and want to learn best practice on implementing these changes. 

As manufacturing advances, it is now clear attractive design and the bottom-line need not be sacrificed for sustainability and paper-based packaging will open a world of possibilities for manufacturers. 

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This is a Smurfit Kappa Paid Post. The news and editorial staff of the Financial Times had no role in its preparation