Sustainable coffee cup. Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Consumer behavior has the power to make or break a business. It guides how they plan, frame and reshape their norms and virtues to adopt changes to suit changing customer needs.

Consider the concept of sustainable packaging.

From a consumer point of view, product packaging makes the first impression. If it’s strong enough, they’re compelled to purchase the product. But today’s consumers go beyond how your product looks on the shelf, they consider the impact it has on the world around them. They broadly prefer products that have a sustainable packaging incentive attached to them.

From a business point of view of course, sustainable product packaging serves a greater purpose than just fulfilling consumer demands:

Importance of sustainable packaging

It helps in reducing the carbon footprint impact for both the manufacturer and the consumer at various stages of the product’s life cycle.
Sustainability in product packaging promotes the positive things that can be done to rely less on earth’s limited resources. This includes ways to prevent wastage, increase the useful life of products, etc.
Sustainable product packaging is also about either discouraging or reducing the usage of practices that have resulted in climate change.
Sustainable packaging practices reflect on a company’s policies in how much it cares for the environment and the society, and how it presumes itself to be an integral part of it.
With an increasing number of customers preferring to buy products that come in sustainable packaging, it also increases loyalty and support for the product.

While adopting sustainable product packaging is important for any business, any oversight while planning or implementing practices could result in negative knockoff effects on other parts of the business.

To properly implement sustainable packaging practices, and benefit from the financial benefits of doing so, it’s important to fully understand what sustainable packaging is.

What is sustainable packaging, really?

When we talk about sustainable packaging, practices involved incorporate the whole supply chain and product life cycle. Sustainable packaging is more than choosing compostable or renewable materials. It’s a full cycle mindset; a decision that’s made at every stage to consider waste and sustainability at every point. Quite often the more sustainable solution to product packaging is wrapping it in a layer of recyclable plastic; in the perishable food industry for example, it’s a delicate balance of extending shelf-life and reducing food waste.

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Costs of ignoring sustainable product packaging

While there are some obvious upfront costs to making the sustainable switch, the costs of not doing so can be just as off-putting, if not more.

A loss in customers due to the choices you make: with an ever-conscious consumer, deciding not to invest in the sustainable option can hurt sales and revenue numbers.
Product waste: without sustainable packaging practices, waste can occur at every stage of the product life cycle, costing in storage and disposal fees. In the case of fresh produce, a delay in the availability of packaging material will raise concerns about the longevity of the product's life.
More physical waste: without optimising the physical space used and adopting a ‘right-size’ model, the packaging process fails in efficiency and overall fulfilment costs are high.
Product prices stalemate: consumers are more and more willing to fork out more for the eco-friendly options, and opting out of providing these options means you lose out on an opportunity to relatively increase price points.

Going beyond the euro signs

Having sustainable packaging practices takes a whole supply chain view. It starts with choosing the most appropriate material for your product that come from recyclable, renewable sources. It spills into avoiding waste at every touch point and eliminating packaging waste from the production process. It considers your product life-cycle and encourages the end user to know how to use and dispose of your product and its packaging (use-by dates, environmentally safe disposal options, clear recycling options based on the type of material used).

And failure to implement these practices can be costly.

Want to find out how to adopt the most cost-efficient sustainable packaging practices for your business?

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