The lifestyle, actions, and behaviors that my parents exhibited while I was growing up in India comes full circle today as we think about the two biggest issues dealing with packaging sustainability i.e. minimizing waste and lowering carbon footprint. As an example, growing up, my parents utilized re-usable cloth bags to pack and bring home a lot of everyday living essentials. Those bags were washable and would last us forever.

Companies, societies, and individuals need to adapt to the new normal i.e. at current plastic demand, global plastic waste volumes would grow from 260 Million Metric Tons per year to 460 Million Metric Tons per year by 2030 (McKinsey Article Dec 2018).

We as individuals need to do our part not only in our personal lives but also in our professional ones to strive towards zero waste and reducing carbon footprint. Company conversations are never easy but more than ever they require bold leadership to elevate and push the sustainable packaging agenda.

Here’s what I think can help accelerate a company’s goal towards sustainability.

• Seat At the Table:
  A collaborative effort between several departments i.e. Technical, Supply-Chain, Procurement, & Marketing functions to come up with a bold vision for sustainability. It helps to organize the thinking and layout the vision in Objective, Goals, Strategies, & Measures (OGSM) format. Be prepared to identify resources necessary (people & money) as you will be asked to explain the rationale and importantly if the vision is compelling than be asked the question of “what do you need to accelerate executing this vision”

• Commitment:
  Find a sponsor at the senior most level in order to seek commitment for resources. In most organization (a) and (b) work in parallel. Sponsorship

• Organize to act with urgency:
  Pull together a cross functional team (keep it small) with a team leader. Empower team for decisions to be made at the lowest level while pushing progress over perfection. Learn to behave like a start-up i.e. organized for effective decision making with a sense of urgency

• Design Thinking:
  Sustainability cannot be an after thought and needs to be part of the packaging design process. Design packaging with Sustainability as one of the key drivers. Embrace Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) design guide to help design sustainable packaging.