Eco‐efficient Value Creation: An Alternative Perspective on Packaging and Sustainability

Abstract

The classical sustainability perspective on packaging is to reduce the environmental impact or eco-burden of the packaging, using life cycle assessment to evaluate different design alternatives. Simultaneously, the classical marketing perspective on packaging is to generate value through differentiation, for instance, by providing additional convenience. These two perspectives often conflict. In business reality, there is currently no established method to deal with these conflicts. Life cycle assessment is methodologically incapable of incorporating the difference in convenience. This article uses the eco-costs/value ratio (EVR), as a method for dealing with the environmental assessment of packaging design alternatives with such unequal 'soft' functionality. The article reviews the current debate on packaging and sustainability, highlighting some of the shortcomings of the methods currently applied. Subsequently, the EVR model is introduced and applied to five examples. These examples consist of pairs of products, where the product, the amount, the brand and the retail outlet are identical and only the packaging design and the value differ. The examples illustrate how the EVR model fits better to design decision making in business reality than classical life cycle assessment.

Desired, Perceived, and Achieved Sustainability: Trade-Offs in Strategic and Operational Packaging Development

“…However, this perspective ignores the impact of the product that is contained by the packaging. Packaging is usually intended as a facilitator of a product's ability to provide added value to a supply chain [23,24], aligning with packaging's main functions. This perspective materializes in the consideration of a product-packaging combination-where packaging acts as a beneficial add-on to a product-instead of an isolated entity in a supply chain.…”

Measuring the recyclability of e-waste: an innovative method and its implications

“…In the initial manufacturing phase, a producer can employ eco-design to quantitatively choose more recyclable materials such as carbon nanotubes and lead-free solder; the packaging can also be designed for efficient dismantling and recycling (Wever and Vogtl€ ander, 2013). In the endof-life (EoL) phase, the producer's eco-design rating can be scientifically determined, making a much more convincing argument for shifting the financial responsibility from producer to recycler.…”

LCA benchmarking study on textiles made of cotton, polyester, nylon, acryl, or elastane

“…Eco-costs is part of the bigger model of the eco-costs value ratio (EVR) and the method of eco-efficient value creation (Wever and Vogtlander 2012;Mestre and Vogtlander 2013).…”