Products and Design

Is Your Company Truly Thinking Outside of the Box?

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.

By Jennifer Elks | Published 11 years ago | About a 3 minute read

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.

Guest editors Katherine O’Dea of GreenBlue, Charlie Sheldon of California College of the Arts, Chris Sherwin of Seymourpowell and the SB editorial team are seeking articles, interviews and case studies for publication.

The Issue in Focus

Design plays a fundamental role in nearly every system on earth and impacts every stage of a product’s life cycle. We are seeking stories of brands, designers, concepts and case studies that are re-imagining and improving the way packaging impacts our lives and our planet. We will highlight the various ways designers, engineers, R&D, scientists and entrepreneurs are approaching the design of more sustainable packaging solutions, and the materials, systems and processes that inform these efforts.

Please send article ideas to the email address below.

Content guidelines

Our readers are business leaders seeking information about how others are profitably innovating for sustainability. They seek insights and ideas that might be applied across market sectors about how to drive top-line growth while successfully reducing the impacts of their operations.

We evaluate submissions based on currency and relevance of the example or idea presented, balance of perspective, strength and clarity of content and delivered principles. See our Writers’ Handbook for further guidelines.

What

Written (600-1000 words), audio and/or video perspectives. Broad focus areas include:

Integrating sustainability into a design department or function
Global perspectives on sustainable design and innovation
State-of-the-art tools and methods for sustainable packaging design
Considering the whole system — product, process and package
Inspiring case studies of new sustainable packaging design
Embedding sustainability into your design and innovation process
When design for recyclability doesn't make sense

Specific topics might include:

Destination-specific packaging — differentiating point-of-sale from shipping packaging
Whether EPR and take-back models drive more sustainable packaging design
How user-centric design might improve both customer experience and supply chain efficiency by designing more sustainable product systems
How the democratization of manufacturing, the maker movement and 3D-printed products might be packaged
How large brands can reduce waste created by disposable products without losing marketshare
Unintended consequences of single-serve packaging in emerging markets
Why BPA is still used in packaging

Who

Designers, engineers, consultants, scientists, students, entrepreneurs, branding and marketing consultants, LCA practitioners, procurement specialists — anyone integrating sustainability into packaging design.

When

Article ideas are welcome anytime!

How

Share a one-paragraph to one-page overview describing your most successful (or unsuccessful) ideas, initiatives, campaigns, implementations and takeaways from your company, industry, students, staff, etc.

Criteria

We’re looking for leading-edge thinking, tools, designs, processes and protocols from the field of sustainable packaging. Preference will be given to pieces that provide perspectives with enterprise-wide and ideally market-wide implications and applications.