According to the OECD, plastic consumption has quadrupled over the past 30 years and accounts for 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Adapting environmentally-conscious practices in your business is a more urgent need than ever. Additionally, the climate crisis has consumers more concerned about their buying decisions and are intentionally looking for businesses that use best ecological practices. Therefore, more companies have turned to eco-friendly packaging in solidarity with their customers and the environment. Let’s explore the advantages of a sustainable packaging strategy.
What is Sustainable Packaging?
In the most obvious and straightforward terms, sustainable packaging is better for the environment. While there is no one-size-fits-all definition, sustainable packaging is typically reusable, recyclable, or biodegradable. Eco-friendly packaging usually comes from sustainable sources, like the FSC-certified material used by Ekan Concepts. Each stage of the packaging’s life cycle may implement cleaner practices. This includes using more efficient technologies and transportation and ensuring that customers can reuse or upcycle the packaging.
Why is Sustainable Packaging Important?
Traditional packaging is usually made out of polyethylene, a type of non-biodegradable plastic filled with toxins. As mass production creates more plastic, recycling initiatives fall behind. Consequently, these materials pile up in landfills, contaminating our land and water ecosystems. While toxic chemicals in plastic materials can harm land animals and marine life, they can also negatively impact human health through inhalation or consumption.
Advantages of Sustainable Packaging
Sustainable packaging reduces carbon footprints and creates less environmental damage. Every step of the average packaging production process emits greenhouse gases. Eco-friendly packaging intentionally reduces carbon emissions in each phase, such as during extraction, transportation, distribution, and disposal.
Additionally, environmentally-friendly packaging benefits ecosystems, consumers, and manufacturers because it is non-toxic. Eliminating the harmful chemicals found in traditional packaging reduces contamination risks and the adverse health impact on customers and workers on the front lines of production.
While the environmental and health advantages may be obvious, using sustainable packaging can also reap benefits for your business by contributing to your brand message, expanding your customer base, and increasing brand loyalty. As our world becomes increasingly aware of how personal choices impact the environment, more consumers are considering sustainability in their buying decisions. A brand that promotes environmentally-conscious thinking is more likely to attract these customers. Using eco-friendly packaging can build trust with buyers, showing that you care about the same environmental issues as them and that you are committed to making a more positive impact.
Implementing a Sustainable Packaging Strategy
Adapting an eco-friendly process often starts with research. Understanding the harms of traditional packaging and the advantages of sustainable packaging is essential to create a motive for changing your current practices.
After researching, you can evaluate your current environmental impact by conducting a life cycle analysis. This analysis essentially holds every stage of your packaging’s life cycle under a microscope so that you can target specific areas for change.
Once you have identified the impact of your practices at the extraction, manufacturing, transporting, distribution, and final use stages, you can create a set of targets and goals for your sustainable packaging strategy. Examples of targets and goals include extracting from more sustainable sources or using cleaner technologies. You can also create more durable packaging to reduce the risk of damage during shipping, eliminating emissions caused by the back-and-forth transport of a product.
We at Ekan Concepts want to help your business improve its ecological footprint. We will support you with our sustainable, high-quality and customizable wooden box packaging so that you can deliver products to your customers while championing their values and contributing to a cleaner world. Build your ideal box today, or contact us so that we can find the best packaging solution for you.
