creative minds safe hands WYG Group Making Eco design work for your business

creative minds safe hands 1. Sustainability is about reducing costs and staying well ahead of compliance 2. Sustainability offers new business opportunities 3. Sustainability is a valid market proposition for your business Before we get started

creative minds safe hands What is eco-design and why does it matter? Making eco-design work for your business; Making changes; where to start What we’ll cover this morning:

creative minds safe hands “What’s a sustainable package?” ……………“One with no packaging!” But we need packaging to: protect products in shipping offer consumers information providing a branding billboard for your business give customers a way to carry things home.

creative minds safe hands “Cradle to cradle” Natural systems are cyclical

creative minds safe hands “Ecological metabolism” In nature, nothing is wasted…….. …there is no such thing as waste! Source: McDonaugh & Braungart, “Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make things”

creative minds safe hands “Technical metabolism” A virtuous circle…… materials are constantly recycled with minimal loss of quality Source: McDonaugh & Braungart, “Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make things”

creative minds safe hands Biological Nutrient: A biodegradable material posing no immediate or eventual hazard to living systems that can be used for human purposes and can safely return to the environment to feed environmental processes. The Concepts……….

creative minds safe hands A product that is used by the customer, formally or in effect, but owned by the manufacturer. The manufacturer maintains ownership of valuable material assets for continual reuse while the customer receives the service of the product without assuming its material liability. Products that can utilize valuable but potentially hazardous materials can be optimized as Products of Service. “Product of service”

creative minds safe hands What isn’t C2C, but may appear to be. Antimony!

creative minds safe hands The market drivers………. Government: legislation and regulation Consumer preference Saving energy and carbon emissions Saving water (and carbon emissions, 8-10%) Saving money!

creative minds safe hands Making eco-design work for your business …by considering and improving each step along the entire product journey

creative minds safe hands In plastic bags reduced by 28%, simply by asking customers if they actually wanted one. 96% of Pret’s packaging can be recycled; they’re working very hard on the last 4%. Were the first retailer to move from plastic sandwich boxes to cardboard in the 1990s. Pret’s ‘bio-box’ is 100% recyclable, made with virgin board from sustainable forests with a water-based coating, not polyethylene. Pret Pots: 100% recyclable, no longer PLA as biodegradable cornstarch impractical (no adequate composting sites and collection services) Case study: Pret a Manger

creative minds safe hands Case study: Cargo Cosmetics Plant Love, first biodegradable lipstick tube made entirely from corn. Sourced from manufacturer Natureworks. Product is PLA, so “carbon neutral” Packaging carton is made with biodegradable paper infused with wildflower seeds —just moisten and plant! The lipstick itself is environmentally friendly, without mineral oils or petroleum.

creative minds safe hands PLA (polyactic acid) fast becoming the favoured Alternative to plastic: Clear - consumers can see the product Stiff/rigid- stands up to processing equipment, Renewable- made from corn/maize Less polluting - uses less fossil fuels, generates less carbon Compostable - easy for customers to dispose of? Also…. maize uses large amounts of petroleum-based fertilizers and oil-based equipment, and can cause soil erosion. Alternative materials may have issues..

creative minds safe hands Materials to avoid!

creative minds safe hands Make it easier for your customers

creative minds safe hands Getting started: getting help and advice

creative minds safe hands Restore - by using materials and supporting suppliers and customers who want to reduce their own impacts; Respect - by examining all the impacts that your packaging may have; Reduce - the amount of materials, layers of packaging, weight of package, fuel used in transport, etc.; Re-use - something that’s already been made, and make your package easy and desirable to reuse; and Recover - the materials used through recycling, composting or reusing as far as you can. The Waste Hierarchy:

creative minds safe hands Materiale.g. Plastic wrapping QuantityRoleEnergy/ Carbon WasteCustomer Restore? Respect ? (impacts) Reduce? Re-use? Re-cycle? A simple audit:

creative minds safe hands Recyclability Water Footprint (of materials) Recycled Content Embodied CO2e (of materials) Transport Product Pack Ratio (weight) Consumables Use Volumetric Efficiency Eco Design Indicator Tool (EDIT)

creative minds safe hands Useful web sites: Be compliant Make a plan ( environment and efficiency tab) Case studies & Tools Get help & get funding reen-business-club/