Consumers are beginning to express their desire for more sustainable products. But by and large, those products are not making themselves easy to love. Lance Hosey, who keynoted at the recent Sustainable Brands conference, believes there’s still a fundamental disconnect between form and function in green product design. Simply put, products that are more sustainable tend to telegraph sensible, not sexy.
This attribute was personified by Seventh Generation, a company with an incredible line of products that suffered from generic "Brand X" packaging. With that in mind, I was excited to hear about the partnership Seventh Generation had struck with Ecologic Brands, a packaging company that balances low-impact materials with eye-popping design.
Milk pouch, meet iPhone
Julie Corbett, CEO of Ecologic Brands, grew up in Quebec, Canada. As it turns out, her background had a great deal to do with the inspiration behind her product.
For a start, her childhood home was deep in pulp and paper country. This imbued an appreciation of pulp’s sustainability and design potential. Fast forward a few years, when Corbett purchased her first iPhone and was struck by the high-tech, yet warmly familiar molded pulp packaging. It was, in her own words, "comfort food" for her senses.
Another inspiration was the humble milk pouch. Essentially a sealed plastic bag holding a liter of milk, this pouch was a staple of Quebec supermarkets in the 70’s. Drop one of the bags in a special re-usable jug, snip the top, and you had fresh milk with virtually no packaging.
Years later, Corbett tapped these influences to create her breakthrough packaging: a lightweight plastic bag surrounded by a protective molded pulp shell. She sensed her product would answer a nascent demand for eco-packaging that had shelf appeal. But first, it had to make it to market.
Insight + design = success
Corbett emphasizes the rigors her container needed to withstand in order to pass North American certification. “Our packaging had to hold up under extreme heat and cold, wilting humidity, drops and shakes, you name it."
The packaging held up well and was certified. But then came an equally daunting task: finding early champions to back the new idea. “The Straus Family Creamery in Northern California agreed to use our packaging for their nonfat milk so we could track market impact. Turns out nonfat milk in our bottle saw a 72 percent upswing in sales,” says Corbett.
Next page: How Seventh Generation found the pouch
Let's take a step back
Let's take a step back here.
Once again, there's talk of greenwashing, and whether or not we're improving our actions.
Let's be reminded that in any big box or grocery store we walk into we have a plethora of non-sustainable, toxic choices to choose from... Now we are starting to see the cropping up of limited, BETTER choices, and we're still focusing on whether or not this is the ultimate solution?!
We need to start appreciating, as a global environmental community, that even slight steps towards sustainable practices are steps in the right direction. Yes, these products may not be fully "sustainable" yet, and maybe the full life-cycle assessment is not optimal yet. However, we need way more awareness about this topic than we currently have.
I'd like to see us start celebrating these small wins... Calling out the inefficiencies, of course, but in a way that is constructive for all of us and provides us with education on this topic that brings more people to want to join in the cause, not push them away from it.
Green as sexy? I of course think it is! But unless more of us are willing to cease in-fighting, we're missing the point of doing this work in the first place.
Hmm it seems like your
Hmm it seems like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I'll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog.
I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I'm still new to everything. Do you have any recommendations for newbie blog writers? I'd
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Any article should offer
Any article should offer insight into the limitations of a given product.Why is it not discussed that the product has many limitations in its current form and should not be allowed to be called green,this has greenwashing written all over it unless we are printing in huge bold letters the proper disposal.
An article was post by Pat Reynolds/Vice President Packaging World Dated June 22/2012 the title is Twelve Principles Of Green Packaging.
I have copied this directly.
• Select packaging material based on its disposability. For example, use the same or similar materials for different components of a package, from cap, to label, to bottle. “It is industry’s or the retailer’s responsibility to ensure that the packaging material selected can be disposed of properly at the end of its use,” said Iyer.
The above statement makes a lot of sense,design for ease of recycling.He states as well the comment below.
Use raw material/feedstock of greener origin. This could be materials that are bio-based or from renewable resources. P&G’s Pantene bottle made partly of sugarcane is one example. “Try some portion of bio-based materials if the whole container can’t be bio-based right away,” advised Iyer.
This is another rule in his twelve principles,even the experts are constantly double speaking so how is it that we need to accept the 2nd rule on raw material?
Its because its easy.
i personal think this bottle could be a winner as long as the consumer understands that in its current form,it cant be recycled.
The only way we evolve is by expressing opposing views and not cease the infighting.We are not sheep,we should not accept everything, we need to grow and to grow requires many channels of thought.
There is no crying wolf here,
There is no crying wolf here, just pointing out facts. Sorry if I was a bit blunt. But this has a negative effect on sustainabilty and this product is intentionally misleading. Main purpose is to sell their product, not help the envirnoment. And the sad part is it takes advantage of well meaning people.
Even the Sierra club was shocked when it researched deep where it's paper came from. It is a fact that toilet paper, magazines, and paper packaging still can come form Canadian virgin paper. Do some of your own research before making comments please.
And not sure what you mean by, "and the bag means that the pulp can be recycled." Attaching a plastic bag inside a paper outer covering is not recyclable anywhere that I know of. It is impractible to think someone could separate these and recycle and save any energy or material on a life cycle basis. Think about it from the poor Material Recovery Faclities standpoint. I have been in a waste management advisory for over 20 years.
You are "Anonymous". Care to identify your experience or company background?
More greenwashing. At least
More greenwashing. At least she admits "‘feel good’ -- not to mention subliminally alleviating consumer guilt".
And duh, she has connections to the Canadian pulp industry, and will profit from higher sales of cutting down virgin forests to make paper products.
This is not sustainable...
Sometimes a little skepticism
Sometimes a little skepticism is called for, and sometimes the cynicism is a bit over the top.
The article wasn't clear, but who said anything about virgin forests? I'm sure Seventh Generation asked about the supplier; it would be nice to know if it was PSC certified or not, and the bag means that the pulp can be recycled.
Obviously the bottle still has an impact, but it seems highly likely that the life-cycle assessment will come out on top for this product over heavy plastic.
Greenwashing is a problem...so let's not cry wolf here.