Sustainability
Bobbing plastic in the sea is drastically affecting the lives of marine wildlife.
Is there a mindset that companies should have when tackling these issues? Wingstrand highlights the three main motivations. “Eliminating waste from the outset, and rethinking not just the packaging, but the product and the business model. This forms the crucial upstream innovation mindset that we set up. There is a lot more to how to achieve this, and that is why the book is set up for all users.”
Background help ‘For all users’ is key. Wingstrand believes there is no difference depending on where in the value chain someone reading the report is based; indeed, she is very clear that “you need everyone across the supply chain and organisation to be part of a really successful system, but the report does aim to be a reference for checkpoints to succeed, and actually provides actions and steps to help develop a winning upstream innovation process. It provides concrete support about what to put in place in your company that will support your vision and target packaging waste reduction.
“We cannot recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis. We need to move upstream and look at what is put on the market in the first place.”
“This could include a global commitment to remove problematic and unnecessary plastic packaging, or implementing a reuse model and so on. Go company- wide with vision and targets that are translated throughout the business. It is vital not to expect a return on investment tomorrow, but allow the innovation process some leeway to take root and make room for failure. Even failure is a route to success as it will help narrow down future strategies.”
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Wingstrand is optimistic about the future, excited about how many paths there are to successfully reducing packaging, and, most importantly, the potential untapped in rethinking the way aspects of capitalism, investment and business practices work. But she also preaches patience. “It will take time for these innovations to have an impact. It is important to promote an entrepreneurial culture internally to rethink and be innovative. It can also help to get external input, and to break down the silos across your organisation – these would be the different key ingredients that kept recurring when we looked at innovation.
“When we have specific deep dives for different companies that were really succeeding in this space, these ingredients would repeatedly appear.” That is why the report and its latent capacity for instituting change could be so important – particularly in this moment, post-pandemic, where the rules for how charities, corporations and governments work suddenly seems fluid and unrestrained. “We cannot recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis,” Wingstrand concludes. “We need to move upstream and look at what is put on the market in the first place so we can eliminate waste, not simply manage it better. “The circular economy allows us to redesign the entire plastics system to not only overcome the global challenge of plastic pollution, but to do so in a way that allows us to grow prosperity, jobs and resilience, while cutting emissions, waste and pollution. Designers and businesses are at the heart of this transition, and we hope this guide will help them on that journey.” ●
‘Upstream innovation’ can be downloaded for free on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website.
Packaging & Converting Intelligence /
www.pci-mag.com
Rich Carey/
Shutterstock.com
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