Susan Martin is the Head of Packaging Procurement at one of the main Organic Nutraceutical companies in Europe. She was tasked by her company board with a clear mandate: adopt packaging solutions that were in line with the company’s values.
Sharing this story may help many professionals like Susan understand that adopting sustainable packaging is possible, is not a one day thing and requires significant effort but results have tremendous positive effects on the company, the customers and society overall.
In her own words, this is her experience as she describes it:
“In market research we realised that our customers had a cognitive dissonance about our product. The vitamins are organic and vegan, but the packaging did not share the same eco-friendly attributes as our product.
The management team, upon seeing the results of the study, gave us a clear objective: to align the packaging with our customers’ values. To do this, we set up a sustainability committee, with representatives from all functions of the company.
Production, Quality, Marketing, Sales and Marketing were present, but it was the Packaging Procurement department that was to lead the project.
The first proposal we presented to the committee was to use glass packaging. It is a recyclable material, so apparently it met the consumer’s expectations.
When we presented the prototype to my colleagues in logistics and production, they quickly dismissed it. The risk of breakage on the filling and transport lines was too high.
In addition, my marketing colleague discovered that its carbon footprint was the highest of all materials. Not only because of the weight in transport which increased the fuel required, but also because of its high carbon footprint in manufacturing and recycling.
We realised that for this project we needed a plastic, as its weight and melting point is much lower, saving in any case thousands of tonnes of CO2 compared to glass.
After more research we found HEIS, who offered us advice on the project in order to find the most suitable material for our needs.
After a few meetings with HEIS and several samples and industrial tests, the sustainability committee decided in favour of their organic compostable pill jar option.
When we presented it to management, the advantages of sustainability, compostability, low carbon footprint and no breakage convinced the entire management team.
We finally found a 100% organic and 100% biodegradable solution. HEIS compostable pill jars meet all marketing, production, logistics and quality requirements. And all this at prices in line with glass packaging.
This was the reason why our company was able to reconnect with our customers.
We expanded the project to the rest of our company’s products as it benefits any product whether it is organic or not. For example, our range of children’s vitamins will be safer than with glass, as the plastic will protect children from bumps and cuts with the product.
Finding HEIS and their compostable bottles and pill jars has been the biggest breakthrough in the last few years”.
If you have a project similar to Sonia’s and need recyclable, recycled or compostable packaging solutions, don’t hesitate to contact HEIS Global. You can do so by using the contact form on the website or by calling +34 965 810 415.
