Sustainability often comes with a premium price tag, that much is well-known. In terms of packaging, however, it often comes in the cheapest brown cardboard boxes you’d find on a discount supermarket’s shelf, or with barebone minimalist design. How could [censored-green-s] strategically go about creating premium sustainable packaging?
Digging deeper, it becomes clear that the two ideas are distant relatives rather than opposite ends of a spectrum. They have a widely shared lexicon of materials and textures: a sturdy, heavy glass bottle in matt finish feels as premium in hand as it is reusable. Aluminium cans were once derided in design as the trashiest of all containers. Yet cans in matt or slightly textured finish can shed their default beer can association and be found making their way into premium body care products, as in KanKan’s soaps: texture means complexity means premium, while aluminium is making a comeback as one of the most energy-efficient and recyclable containers.
And to come back to the boring, brown cardboard box from the outset: there’s brown, and then there’s brown; and there’s cardboard, and then there’s cardboard. A rich, deep brown as Gucci has used in its sustainably packed line, embossed, is as simple and minimalist and natural in packaging as it can be, while at the same time offering complex texture and richness of colour that is the hallmark of a premium ‘touch and feel’.
By using codes of premium－be it weight and durability, a relatively set colour scheme of natural and subdued colours, or more textured finishes to create more interesting materiality－[censored-green-s] can add a new twist on conventional recyclables and build out a host of packaging ideas that convey to consumers that they are sustainable without looking cheap.
While the resulting framework is [censored-green-s]‘s alone to use, there are dozens of cues, be they from colour, material, weight, or texture from the world of premium that can be readily adapted without meaning wasteful. There really can be a lot more to premium sustainable packaging than just a brown box, or a hyper-minimalist, pared back packaging. A new packaging language is being born, and it’s best to prepare your brand for that.
