A reference model for a sustainable commitment to sustainability in packaging development

Packaging is regarded as a major contributor to the environmental impact of products and supply chains. This is largely infused by the role of packaging in the use and post-use stages of a life cycle, which leads to packaging being regarded as superfluous or excessive. Simultaneously, within the current (product-packaging) development landscape, an erosion of the connotation of ‘sustainable development’ is discerned, combatting the inherent complexities of product-packaging development. In addition, there is a mismatch between sustainability desires (the strategic level) and materializations of it (the operational level) in industry, and a lack of academic or legislative solutions to this. These issues lead to product-packaging development processes in which sustainability-related considerations are subordinate to other decision-making criteria, and which therefore yield suboptimal solutions.