Calling all designers and innovators! Beginning in May 2013, Sustainable Brands will publish a new “Issues in Focus” editorial package highlighting breakthroughs in sustainable packaging design.
Cross-Posted from Waste Not. Over 125 billion rigid plastic containers are produced and consumed in the US every year, but according to the EPA only 28% are recycled, with the rest piling up in landfills and oceans. There is an undeniable packaging waste problem in today’s society, which suggests that innovation opportunities are plenty in the packaging industry.
In a 2006 white paper by AcuPOLL North America, Mark Sneider analysed 20,000 new product launches and found — in his own words — that “barely ten percent” succeed. It’s not difficult to think of products that failed to capture the collective imagination: Guinness Red, Heinz purple and green EZ Squirt ketchup, Pepsi Blue, Supersize at McDonald’s ... The history of innovation is littered with failure. None of this is news. But it is shocking if you think about it long enough. If the AcuPOLL figure is even remotely close to being representative of the truth, innovation teams around the globe waste 90% of their time and available resources. There aren’t many professions where such a high rate of failure is considered acceptable.
Cross-Posted from Product, Service & Design Innovation. A team from Seymourpowell, one of the UK’s most established design and innovation consultancies, were thrilled to spend an evening in the company of a select group of motivated Design & Technology teachers, at the recent Tunbridge Wells Teardown Lab led by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. It proved a fascinating evening of new insight and practical hands-on learning.
Designing more sustainable products requires both changes in how designers approach their work and quick access to information that can justify alternative designs and materials.