How Your Brand Can Be a Friend to the Planet
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How Your Brand Can Be a Friend to the Planet
Thu Apr 18, 2024Introduction
You’ve likely encountered images of oceans filled with waste and heard alarming reports of climate change. You’ve likely heard advocates like Greta Thunberg spur conversations about the need for change. Amidst this urgency, countless companies are stepping up to have an eco-friendlier existence while emerging brands are offering innovative, eco-friendly solutions. What steps has your brand taken to become a friend to the planet?
A Major Way Brands Can Reduce Their Footprint is Through Packaging
Did you know, 50% of global plastic waste comes from packaging? Sustainable packaging proves to be a major way brands can reduce their footprint and adopt eco-friendly practices while appealing to their customers.
When analyzing product packaging, it’s vital to consider a product’s full lifecycle to appropriately measure its impact on the environment. This consists of the extraction of resources, manufacturing and processing, transportation, usage, and end-of-life. In each of these phases, environmental impacts exist, and should be considered when approaching a sustainable packaging solution to effectively measure its effect on the environment.
Existing sustainable packaging solutions a brand should consider for an eco-friendlier existence:
- Recyclable packaging
- Reusable packaging
- Compostable packaging
- Biodegradable packaging
- Water Soluble packaging
- Flexible packaging
Companies with Initiative in Sustainable Packaging:
- BOXED Water: Offering an alternative to the most common packaging for water, plastic bottles, BOXED Water’s packaging is 92% plant-based and 100% recyclable.
- Kencko: A nutritional supplement brand with guaranteed home-compostable packaging film across their product line.
- Plaine: A personal care brand that utilizes reusable containers that consumers send back when ready for a refill.
- Amazon and Proctor & Gamble: A collaboration that brought us the “Tide Eco-Box” an alternative to the long-standing, memorable orange bottle, with a four-pound reduction in weight that uses 60% less plastic and 40% less water.
Forward-Thinking and Environmental Commitments
Many companies openly discuss their sustainability initiatives and goals. In Starbucks’ 2023 ESG Report, they set forth goals to make all their customer packaging 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2030. Likewise, PepsiCo aims for all its packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable, or reusable by 2025, while also aiming to reduce virgin plastic usage in their global beverages and convenient foods portfolio by 50% by 2030. Earth Breeze is another great example of a company dedicated to providing eco-friendly solutions with its biodegradable, plastic-free laundry detergent alternative. Additionally, Earth Breeze has made impressive strides in making the planet a better place by planting over 150K trees, cleaning over 12K pounds of plastic, and donating over 100M loads of laundry detergent through their “Buy One Give Ten” program.
Sustainable Packaging Challenges
Sustainable packaging solutions present challenges for many brands. Balancing cost-effectiveness and functionality while maintaining high-quality standards are often significant concerns. While cost remains a significant consideration for companies, consumers often have a product’s environmental impact in mind when purchasing. In fact, 43% of US consumers consider environmental impact a very important packaging characteristic when making purchasing decisions, according to a study conducted by McKinsey & Company. As sustainability continues to be at the forefront, innovative technologies continue to emerge, offering more eco-friendly solutions than ever before. Exploring these technologies or partnering with companies who specialize in the development of sustainable packaging solutions, will assist in companies’ sustainable packaging strategies. However, companies must ensure that sustainability efforts do not compromise product functionality or quality. Thus, finding the right partner becomes imperative.
It’s Time to Act
It’s evident that companies must take action to mitigate their environmental impact. As mentioned, sustainable packaging emerges as a pivotal strategy to do just that. One ally in this endeavor is Sonic Packaging, a leading provider of sustainable packaging solutions. As brands seek to prioritize sustainable packaging, partnering with Sonic can streamline the journey towards a greener future.
Sonic Packaging: A Sustainable Packaging Solutions Provider
Sonic Packaging is a turnkey packaging solutions provider. Not only does Sonic simplify brands’ supply chain, but they offer sustainable packaging solutions. From considering a product’s life cycle to exploring the best-fit eco-friendly solution for products, Sonic has a brands’ requirements and the planet in mind. Explore sustainable packaging solutions with Sonic Packaging today.
Sources:
https://www.pepsico.com/our-impact/esg-topics-a-z/packaging
https://www.cleanhub.com/brands
https://www.kencko.com/blog/the-goods/2022-corporate-responsibility-update