Regulars / Branding and design | 25is to help brands educate their shoppers too much energy to get the paperboard forests, how we were planting 10 trees for so they understand the importance of white enough. Plus, the fber in the every single one we cut, and how those are sustainability, change their behaviors, recycled paperboard may not be strong absorbing carbon. These are great things and learn what they can do to have their enough. A lot of recycled board goes into that are helping the planet. OK, my turn own impact. manufacturing other types of materials— to ask you a question. Tell me about chipboard, newsprint or even those cores a project you did that you felt had a CC: Oh, important; so true. We talk that go inside toilet paper rolls. That’s all positive impact on the sustainability a lot on the podcast about lifecycle, recycled material, but that may not be of a company’s packaging.from the very beginning. How do we what my luxury perfume carton is made harvest the raw materials? Are we using out of. VS: Recently, I did some packaging post-consumer recycled material? Are we I try to use as much paperboard in and labels for a specialty food company. using virgin materials? Sometimes virgin packaging as possible because paperboard I think every designer and converter can materials are more sustainable because is the most recycled material – typically relate to this: the client says, ‘We need it they’re stronger and you can use less. It’s around 68 to 70 percent, whereas plastic now.’ But they don’t actually need it now, a common misconception that if it’s made may be recycled only 8 percent of the time. they want it yesterday. Right? They are from recycled material, it must be more Many paper mills have fow loops built into that anxious for it. However, if you want sustainable. Well, most of the time, but not their manufacturing processes to minimize a very sustainable package, you actually always. It’s really important to say that and waste. They’re using renewable energy need time to test different materials talk about making small changes. and wood, which, as you mentioned, is a and different coatings and different renewable resource. They are planting new embellishments, in order to see if you can VS: I think post-consumer waste is trees and managing the forests. So it’s a get the shelf impact that you need and then another place where we can educate complicated issue, but I think that’s part balance that with sustainability. So, in this shoppers because there is another myth of how we need to educate consumers and case, I designed the labels, which had to be that using as much post-consumer waste everyone within the ecosystem. produced overseas. The client couldn’t take as possible means the packaging is more the time [to explore sustainability], even sustainable. But you’re right, that’s not CC: Well said. I spent the frst fve though I wanted them to. They wanted always true. With paperboard, if a brand years of my career at Weyerhaeuser and metallics on the labels, so we did some needs a bright white board, it’s actually we talked about forestry all the time. I metallics. And it worked great on the shelf. better to use virgin fber than a board made worked at a corrugated mill making boxes Afterward, I came back to the client from post-consumer waste because it takes and learned about sustainably managed and said, ‘OK, now that you are on the “All of us need to work together. And that includes the government; the municipalities need to say, “We’re going to make recycling easier. We’re going to give you the opportunity to re-use” shelf, in round two, you actually do need to make these labels more sustainable.’ Because that was part of their brand story, in terms of being all-organic and good for the environment and healthy for people. So now that we had the time, we prototyped six or eight ideas in order to get a similar design with a similar shelf impact. We prototyped labels that are 100 percent recyclable. These are the practicalities of what can happen in real-time. Not all brands will allow their designer or their converter or others in the ecosystem to take the time and give them the best sustainability solution. They’re balancing getting the product on the shelf; they’re balancing the economics and the sustainability of their business, not just sustainability for the environment. So I think it goes back to that ecosystem and everyone working together.CC: That’s a valuable point. Brands are taking calculated risks. They have to say, ‘Are we going to be more sustainable? Jan - Mar 2023