The Wicked Problem of Packaging and Consumers: Innovative Approaches for Sustainability Research

Brennan, Louis; Parker, Lukas; Lockrey, Simon; Verghese, Karli; Chin, Shinyi; Langley, Sophie; Hill, Allister; Phan-Le, Nhat Tram; Francis, Caroline; Ryder, Maddison; Jackson, Michaela; Sherman, Anouk; Chorazy, Ella; Alessi, Natalia

doi:10.1007/978-981-16-4609-6_6

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…Notwithstanding the different terminologies, participatory design involves affected people in ideating, creating and implementing "solutions" to social problems (see, for example, Cargo and Mercer, 2008;Halskov and Hansen, 2015;Robertson and Simonsen, 2012;Willmott et al, 2022). This multifaceted approach acknowledges that social marketing is most effective when the strategy considers the various needs and wants of the target population and also includes them in the solution design process (Brennan et al, 2021c). The call for papers for this special issue is Fighting food waste described succinctly as "nothing about us without us" (Willmott et al, 2023b).…”

Section: Participatory Design In Social Marketingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective intelligence for fighting food waste: changing the way things are done with participatory design

Brennan,

Micallef,

Jenkins

et al. 2024

JSOCM

Self Cite

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Purpose This study aims to explore the use of a double diamond design method to engage the industry in a sector-wide response to the issues of food waste as constructed by consumers. This particular design method is achieved by an exploration of a collective intelligence-participatory design (CIPD) project to engage industry participants in understanding and responding to consumers’ perceptions of the role of packaging in reducing food waste. Design/methodology/approach Using the UK Design Council’s double diamond design method as a guiding conceptual principle, the project recruited industry participants from medium to large food businesses across various food categories. Two scoping workshops with industry were held prior to the initiation of a 12-stage project (n = 57), and then two industry workshops were held (n = 4 and 14). Eighty participants completed an online qualitative survey, and 23 industry participants took part in a Think Tank Sprint Series. The Think Tanks used participatory design approaches to understand barriers and opportunities for change within food industry sub-sectors and test the feasibility and acceptability of package designs to reduce consumer waste. Findings For CIPD to work for complex problems involving industry, it is vital that stakeholders across macro- and micro-subsystems are involved and that adequate time is allowed to address that complexity. Using both the right tools for engagement and the involvement of the right mix of representatives across various sectors of industry is critical to reducing blame shift. The process of divergence and convergence allowed clear insight into the long-term multi-pronged approach needed for the complex problem. Originality/value Participatory design has been useful within various behaviour change settings. This paper has demonstrated the application of the double diamond model in a social marketing setting, adding value to an industry-wide project that included government, peak bodies, manufacturing and production and retailers.

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Section: Participatory Design In Social Marketingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective intelligence for fighting food waste: changing the way things are done with participatory design

Brennan,

Micallef,

Jenkins

et al. 2024

JSOCM

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…However, due to the scarcity of empirical research, consumer perceptions of food packaging have been identified as a gap in scholarship [3]. This paper is part of a larger study designed to address the lack of understanding of consumers' perceptions of food packaging by investigating their perceptions of packaging and their relationship to food waste [41]. Hence, this study aims to contribute to the body of literature by investigating whether consumers positively perceive food packaging as playing a role in minimising food waste and, if not, their reasons why not.…”

Section: Aims and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To address this aim, four hypotheses were formulated as informed by a literature review and an in-home consumer journey mapping project [3,6]. For a concise readership, the entire project protocol used for the current study, including overarching research questions, can be accessed through Brennan et al [41].…”

Section: Aims and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research posits that consumers are unwilling and unlikely to adopt or demand the use of advancing packaging technologies [41,42]. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 (H1) set out to provide empirical evidence to distinguish whether there are common clusters drawn from consumer demographics and their perceptions, for or against, with the thinking that packaging plays a role in food waste reduction.…”

Section: Aims and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Consumer Perceptions of Food Packaging in Its Role in Fighting Food Waste

et al. 2023

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Consumers are vital stakeholders in creating and reducing food waste. However, limited research into consumers’ perceptions of food waste and food packaging is available to inform research, packaging design or policy so that sustainable consumption practices among consumers might be better encouraged and enabled. By applying multivariate linear modelling to a sample of 965 Australian consumers, this study investigated consumers’ perceptions of packaging and packaging’s relationship to food waste. Overall, consumers perceived packaging waste as a more serious environmental issue than food waste. Most consumers did not consider food waste as an extreme environmental issue. Consumers’ perceptions of the seriousness of food waste also influenced their perceptions of packaging designed to reduce food waste. Significant differences between men and women and older and younger consumers were found regarding the relationship between packaging and food waste as well as food waste as an environmental issue. This study provides a detailed understanding of consumers and packaging, and it alerts designers and decision-makers to the differing attitudes towards food and packaging waste as well as the likelihood of consumers taking up more sustainable consumption practices.

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“…However, focusing merely on changing behaviour can lead to the overuse of one-size-fits-all approaches that target only the individual level, while collective change across multiple levels is needed to transform a community for an overall positive impact. For example, trying to reduce plastic packaging without considering the benefits of the packaging in a consumer's food consumption journey may increase the amount of food waste [5]. As a result, sustainability campaigns and interventions have left many individuals in different segments unreached, uninterested, or unchallenged [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Integrated Model of the Sustainable Consumer

Phan-Le,

Brennan,

Parker

2024

Sustainability

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The term ‘sustainable consumer’ (SC) is used across various knowledge domains, from sustainable consumption, green marketing, sustainability, and social change to social marketing for sustainability issues. However, the term SC lacks a precise definition, which leads to the inaccurate evaluation and measurement of the impact of green marketing or social marketing campaigns on consumption—sustainable or otherwise. This paper develops a framework to clarify the term ‘sustainable consumer’ to assist both scholars and practitioners. The application of systems thinking was applied to the extant literature to theorise the SC. This conceptual paper provides a new framework for theorising SCs: the integrated model of the sustainable consumer (ISMC). This framework emphasises the interconnected relationships of influences within the SC profile to assist scholars in examining SCs within these systems with precision. We contend that, to promote and maintain the desired sustainable consumption for long-term effects, researchers and practitioners should consider the impact not only of the socio-psycho-demographic characteristics but also the connection of the person to the environment and their community, in addition to their worldviews. The framework presented here challenges linear models by proposing a nested, dynamic structure that recognizes the interconnected influences within the sustainable consumer’s ecosystem. The framework also enables a targeted intervention design according to the layer and element and permits more precise evaluations of behaviour change campaigns’ effectiveness.

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The Wicked Problem of Packaging and Consumers: Innovative Approaches for Sustainability Research

Cited by 5 publications

References 109 publications

Collective intelligence for fighting food waste: changing the way things are done with participatory design

Collective intelligence for fighting food waste: changing the way things are done with participatory design

Consumer Perceptions of Food Packaging in Its Role in Fighting Food Waste

An Integrated Model of the Sustainable Consumer

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