Safe and Sustainable

SUSTAINABILITY is steadily gaining in importance for consumers, who want ethically and ecologically impeccable products, packaged in a resource-conserving manner that nevertheless ensures their perfect condition when purchased. This is a major challenge to packaging producers, as the industry wants to save on materials without compromising the stability of the packaging in any way.

The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group Unilever, owner of international brands such as Knorr seasonings and Lipton teas, is pursuing an ambitious strategy. It plans to double its worldwide sales from the current 40 billion euros by 2020, and simultaneously to halve its carbon dioxide emissions by improving efficiency in packaging and production. Moreover, Unilever is assuming greater social responsibility. By 2020, for instance, it aims to have integrated half a million small farmers and traders in developing countries into its supply chain. “We intend to be a sustainable company in every sense of the word,” says Unilever CEO Paul Polman.

Unilever’s primary motivation is not the conservation of nature, however, but economic success. For many consumers, sustainability has become an important purchasing criterion. Buyers who formerly seldom inquired about origin, type of production and packaging now put a high priority on ecologically and morally ‘clean’ goods. US market analyst Pike Research estimates that global sales with sustainable packaging will almost double between 2009 and 2014, from $88 to $170 billion. “The environmental awareness of consumers has significantly increased as a consequence of the climate debate,” explains Pike Research president Clint Wheelock.

Lifestyles are becoming greener

Alongside climate protection, social aspects play an increasing role. Modern consumers want to lead a more healthy life, and therefore value natural food products that are absolutely safely packaged and have an unadulterated taste. For this client group, it is a matter of growing importance that product manufacturers demonstrate social engagement and offer ‘fair trade’ goods. “We are seeing a trend towards ethical consumerism,” declares analyst Jens L?nneker of the Cologne market research company Rheingold. Fair trade is firmly established amongst LOHAS (consumers who aspire to a Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability), he observed. Now,l it is spreading to ‘18-plussers’, who prefer fair trade beverages in chic bottles to conventional soft drinks.

For the industry, the sustainability trend is both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand it means considerable investment to develop new products and campaigns. On the other, the increasing demand for sustainable products promises economic growth. This is why the financially strongest big companies such as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Nestlé and Unilever pursue comprehensive sustainability strategies. They support environmental, nature and aid organisations or provide development aid themselves. They also invest in more efficient production lines and packaging. “We will cut our materials consumption by a third by 2020,” promises Unilever CEO Polman.

Packaging manufacturers help the industry to reduce their ecological footprint. They design new packaging and develop the associated production processes. This is no easy task. Raw material consumption needs to be reduced by using thinner and smaller amounts of resource-intensive materials, but this must not compromise the integrity and stability of the packaging. “The top priority is protection of the packaging contents,” says Stefan Glimm, managing director of the German aluminium industry association GDA (Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie). There is a good reason for this. AccordinZoom Kobe X ZK10