Abstract
This study addresses the synthesis of sustainability-related considerations in packaging design curricula by means of educational interventions. The core of the research revolves around an educational module for students in packaging design and development. This research targets the current late-stage integration of sustainability considerations in product-packaging development processes. The combination of the front-end involvement of sustainability considerations with the focus on educational interventions in product-packaging development is lacking in currently available research. The educational interventions which are tested in representative educational environments—as presented in this article—address the required focus on the balance in decisions and criteria, trade-offs, and team dynamics within multidisciplinary product-packaging development teams. The educational framework targets five perspectives of packaging sustainability: (1) managerial decision making, (2) life cycle assessment (LCA), (3) consumer purchase behavior, (4) recycling efficiency and effectiveness, and (5) plastic recycling chain redesign. This research’s main contribution is bridging the gap between implementing new scientific insights in the field of sustainable packaging from various perspectives, and practicing by applying the relevant knowledge in this field, by means of a design synthesis approach. This research derives findings from both an extensive introspective analysis and expert analysis of the results of the educational module.
Highlights
As the urgency of tackling climate change continues to grow, sustainability remains a hot topic
This paper describes the quality of the results of an educational module, integrating five different perspectives on designing sustainable packaging with young packaging designers of the University of Applied Sciences in The Hague
The holistic approach of the course and the tools that are offered support young packaging designers in making more balanced choices to design a product-packaging combination that leads to synthesis of all disciplines
Summary
As the urgency of tackling climate change continues to grow, sustainability remains a hot topic. The field of sustainability is still developing in this direction; we can speak of a misalignment between the strategic and the operational levels [3]. Across Europe, new laws and policies are being proposed to tackle this problem, from plastic bottle deposit systems [4] to phasing out non-recyclable packaging [5]. Such measures are being developed to prevent the environmental burden imposed by existing packaging. If we really want to address this problematic development, we need to tackle the roots of the problem, focusing on developing more sustainable product-packaging combinations. We speak of product-packaging combinations, because the packaging is in the service of the product within the complete supply chain and provides more than just the function of protecting the content, and informing about and transporting the product [6,7,8,9]
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