Green Packaging Memo: Design Firm Says its New, Paper Water Bottle Could Revolutionize How Bottled Water is Packaged

The word "innovation" is used far to casually and often today when it comes to new food, grocery and beverage products and new types of product packaging. In the case of consumer packaged goods packaging (wet or dry), "new" doesn't automatically mean innovative, after all.

We think in order for a new type of packaging to be "innovative," one of the things such packaging must do is to address a need (keeps a product fresher, for longer, for example) or help provide a solution to an existing packaging problem (recycling, source reduction, ect., for example.)

And of course, one of the most pressing issues and problems in the food, grocery and beverage packaging/container realm today is waste vs. recycling vs. reuse; "green" packaging issues in other words. The quest is about how to create more environmentally positive types of packaging that still do there job containing consumer packaged goods in a safe and efficient way, and do so at a reasonable cost to the user.

Using this two-part definition, packaging innovation is the exception rather than than norm.

But we think a design firm called Brandimage might be on to something in the beverage container innovation department with what is says is a new paper water bottle that could replace the plastic bottles used throughout the bottled water industry.

The design firm calls its "innovation" the 360 Paper Water Bottle (pictured at the top, left of this piece). It's made from pressed renewable-plant fibers coated with a thin film of PLA plastic - all 100% recyclable, according to Brandimage. Labels can be printed directly on the material using soy- or water-based dyes. The bottles are designed to bundle together, eliminating the need for separate multipack carriers, the design firm says.

"We have undertaken this program without the support of a manufacturing and/or materials supplier partner," Brandimage writes on its website. "We intend to find the 360 Paper Water Bottle a branded home." You can view the Web site here, where Brandimage writes more about the 360 Paper Water Bottle.

"Some of the world's largest brands" have already expressed interest in the 360 Paper Water Bottle, Brandimage also writes on its Web site. It doesn't offer any names of those brands however.

Obviously the jury is still way out on the design firm's paper water bottle. Little things like: has it been tested yet in a real world situation, in the distribution chain and on the store shelf, for example? FDA approval? Finding a bottled water company willing to use it to package its brand?

But having pointed to those obvious reality-based facts, we think the idea has merit in the packaging innovation realm.

If it works, and is affordable, it also could help solve one of the most heated issues and debates among consumers, environmental groups and the bottled water industry (with retailers right in the middle of the fight), which is the environmental consequences of all the plastic waste generated by all of the plastic bottled water bottles disposed of each year -- or month, week, day -- in the countries throughout the world -- read primarily the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia -- where the marketing of and purchasing of water in plastic bottles is super-high. And where a proper infrastructure for recycling these bottles is lacking in most of these countries, particularly in the U.S.

Additionally, if it works and is reasonable in terms of cost, the first bottled water company to use the 360 Paper Water Bottle, even in a test, could get major props -- and thus sales -- from "green" consumers for using the alternative paper container for its water.

So, we give Brandimage major packaging innovation points for merely coming up with the paper water bottle concept and designing the bottle.

And if they can turn it into a usable and reasonably priced bottle, such innovation could lead to not only a "greener" water bottle (and we would think it might be used for other beverages as well like organic and new age drinks to start), but also to a bunch of that other kind of green -- money -- for the design firm. If the paper water bottle hits store shelves, it also will add an additional element to that frequently asked question at the grocery store -- "paper or plastic"

More on the 360 paper Water Bottle here at the Brandimage Web site.

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Green Memo: Interview - Coca-Cola CEO John Brock Says Sustainability is No Longer 'Niche'

In an interview published in Knowledge@Warton, an online publication of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, Coca-Cola Enterprises CEO John Brock talks about his push to "green" the giant beverage bottler, marketer and distributor.

Environmental sustainability is "absolutely key" to the strategy of Coca-Cola Enterprises. "It's center of play. It's not niche anymore," Brock tells the interviewers.

Coca-Cola Enterprises is the world's largest marketer, producer and distributor of Coca-Cola products. It has operations in 46 U.S. states and Canada, and is the exclusive Coca-Cola bottler for all of Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Monaco and the Netherlands. It's sales represent 18 percent of The Coca-Cola Company's worldwide volume. Coca-Cola Enterprises isn't to be confused with Coca-Cola Company, which is a separate corporate entity.

In June of this year, Natural~Specialty Foods Memo reported on and wrote about one of Coca-Cola Enterprises' new"green" efforts, this one in the transportation sector. In this piece [Green Transportation Memo: Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. to Go Green; Plans to Add 142 Hybrid Electric Delivery Trucks to its North American Fleet] we wrote about Coke Enterprises' plans to buy 142 hybrid- electric delivery trucks, the start of what the company said would be an eventual conversion of its entire diesel fuel-powered North American delivery truck fleet to 100% hybrid-electric.

In the Wharton interview, CEO Brock says Coca-Cola Enterprises has now purchased all 142 of those hybrid-electric delivery trucks -- and plans on buying more.

The hybrid-electric trucks, custom built for the company, use 35% less fuel and produce about 35% less emissions than conventional diesel fuel-only powered delivery trucks do. They also cost the company about 45% more than the conventional trucks, according to Brock.

Brock appears to be big on the hybrid-electric delivery trucks though, as you can read in the Wharton interview, despite the significantly higher upfront cost.

Part of his glee has to do with the fact -- despite the per-gallon cost of diesel fuel having decreased considerably over the last couple months (it will go back up) -- that with the high price of diesel fuel being pretty much a constant, he knows the hybrid-electric trucks will pay for themselves over time. [The reduced carbon emissions also will come in handy in the event the U.S. Congress passes carbon cap-and-trade legislation in 2009, which is something a majority of Democrats, President-elect Barack Obama, and some Republicans support.]

In the Wharton interview, CEO Brock also addresses a number of other environmental issues, including recycling and what the beverage giant is doing in that regard, since it is one of the biggest users of plastic packaging in the world.

In the interview piece, the chief executive of Coca-Cola Enterprises also discusses corn -- and its soaring cost -- which is used to make Fructose corn syrup, the current sweetener of choice in the bottler's carbonated beverage brands, including its flagship Coke. He also touches on the "green" issues of packaging reusability, climate change, energy conservation and other related sustainability issues.

You can read the Wharton interview with Coca-Cola Enterprises CEO John Brock here.

Retail Memo: Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott to Conference Attendees: 'We Are Not Green'

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, who has spent a great deal of his executive time the last few years touting the Bentonville, Arkansas-based mega-retailer's environmental initiatives, policies and commitments, told a group of people this morning at the ECO:nomics conference in Goleta, California that "We (Wal-Mart) are not green."

Scott, in response to a question by a conference participant, who asked the Wal-Mart chief how he could reconcile why the international retailer's carbon emissions were continuing to grow despite his stated commitment to reduce the chain's carbon footprint, declared flatly: "Wal-Mart is trying (to reduce it's carbon footprint), but we also need to grow at the same time." Scott further added: "I haven't a clue," when asked when he thought Wal-Mart would meet his goal of having zero waste and 100% renewable energy-powered stores and other operations over time.

Scott didn't elaborate on or further define what he means when he says "We (Wal-Mart) are not green. But we accept him at his word that the retailer is not a "green" retailer, despite the fact that much of its policy initiatives and environmental activity over the past few years seemed to indicate that was the message the world's largest company and retailer was attempting to convey to the investing, selling and consuming world.

But, to Scott's credit in terms of consistency, we've heard him make similar statements at more than one conference in the last two years. We have never heard Scott claim Wal-Mart is "green." Rather, we have heard him say it's his goal to be a better company from an environmental perspective. But, again, the green retailing implication has always been there in the company's initiatives and public relations activities--so Scott's words and Wal-Mart's corporate green policy and messaging are somewhat in conflict in our analysis.

At this morning's conference, Scott did say he believes Wal-Mart is making great strides to be a "greener" company and retailer. (Maybe that's why he says Wal-Mart isn't green? Rather, maybe he believes it's a work in progress? That is more honest. It's also safer of course. Perhaps all of the company's PR materials should carry CEO Scott's "We are not green" statement as a disclaimer from now on?)

Scott talked about the company's green packaging vendor initiative designed to reduce the amounts of plastic and cardboard in the products Wal-Mart buys from its thousands of suppliers. The retailer has introduced an environmental packaging scorecard in which its vendors will have to eventually reduce the amount of plastics and cardboard in the products they sell to Wal-Mart by at least 25%. Scott also said the retailer is looking particularly hard at ways to reduce the amount of plastic that goes into producing a bottle of bottled water.

Towards the end of Scott's talk he gave a clearer idea as to what he meant by his "We (Wal-Mart) are not green" statement. He told the conference attendees the primary motivation behind all of the retailer's environmental initiatives "isn't just to please environmentalists, but more to save money."

"It really is about how you take cost out, which is waste. The (cost) savings by taking out wasted material helps keep prices low for Wal-Mart customers, many who live paycheck to paycheck," Scott added.

He said contrary to what some people might think, the current economic downturn in the United States is actually serving as an incentive which is prodding Wal-Mart to accelerate its waste reduction program and similar environmental initiatives designed to cut waste and thus take costs out of the system.

Some conference participants and journalists were surprised by Scott's candid statement that We are not green," along with his flatly-stated premise that the bottom line is the bottom line.

We aren't surprised however. We have suggested all along in piece after piece here at Natural~Specialty Foods Memo that Scott's, and thus Wal-Mart's, bottom line in terms of its green retailing initiatives and policies has been just that: the company's bottom line. That's what public companies in a free-market economy do; they try to maximize profit and attempt to keep all of their stakeholders as happy as they can.

We have further argued we would much rather have Wal-Mart aggressively pursuing positive environmental initiatives as part of its corporate bottom line than not. Further, we argue the retailer has a major responsibility to do so as the world's (and United States') largest corporation and retailer. And, if you do a search on the blog, you will see we have been extremely critical of Wal-Mart at times.

We've also been positive in the main about the retailer's environmental initiatives, although we have called for (and continue to do so) Wal-Mart to lead more, which they started doing last year. We've also suggested strongly there is no going back in terms of green issues for the retailer.

We believe it's imperative though that Wal-Mart better figure out a way to reduce its carbon footprint as it continues to grow. CEO Scott knows very well achieving both goals are not mutually exclusive, despite eluding a bit to such a false dichotomy in one of his answers this morning at the environment and economics conference.

So, Lee Scott's "We are not green" and corporate bottom line primacy statements neither surprise us nor do they make us think the retailer is merely engaging in greenwashing. We do strongly suggest though that a failure to keep walking the green walk after having come this far--and rather relying on public relations to carry the day from here on out--will likely result in a serious backlash against Wal-Mart from many of its stakeholders.

Not only would that be sad from an environmental perspective--it also would have a negative impact on the mega-retailer's corporate bottom line. Being green is now a line item on every corporate CEO's P&L statement, which is something Lee Scott knows. Right Mr. Scott?

Packaging Memo: Innovative UK Grocer Waitrose to Start Selling Fresh Milk Packaged in Bags That Require 75% Less Plastic to Produce Than Plastic Jugs

British Supermarket chain Waitrose plans to soon begin selling fresh milk in bags in many of its stores in the United Kingdom (UK).

Milk, in bags, you ask? Yes indeed. The plastic sacks, which use 75% less plastic than plastic milk bottles or jugs which Waitrose will continue to sell, were tested by the innovative British grocer in a number of its stores last year. Waitrose tells us the test went well, and that it soon will start offering the plastic milk bags, called Eco Paks, in about 50 of its stores in the nation.

The Eco Pak milk-in-a-bag was created by Calon Wen, a Welsh dairy and fresh fruit and vegetable cooperative owned by about 20 farm families. The Calon Wen branded sacks of fresh milk will also have a bold "Ethical Trade" label on them, along with the words, "75% less packaging" to indicate that it takes 75% less plastic to produce one Eco Pak milk bag than it does to make a plastic milk jug that can hold the equivelent amount of fresh milk. Source-reduction is green.

Waitrose will continue to offer fresh milk in traditional plastic containers as well as tetra-type packaging. The retailer says it hopes to create an eco-friendly choice by offering the organic milk in the Eco-Paks. Although the traditional plastic milk bottles and jugs in the UK--and most elsewhere in the west--are 100% recyclable, they aren't recycled by consumers at very high rates. In fact, according to studies in the UK, of the 9 billion plastic bottles sold in the country annually, only about 7% of that total is recycled.

The benefit of the Eco Pak milk bags is that they use 75% less plastic in their creation than the traditional milk bottles do. As such, even with low plastic container recycling rates, they require far less petroleum and energy to produce, and thus are much greener overall than regular plastic milk jugs. Such source-reduction is increasingly becoming the key to creating more sustainable packaging. Waitrose also told us they're going to sell a reusable milk jug that consumers can pour the bagged milk into once they get it home.

Calon Wen Cooperative says other major UK food retailers are interested in selling the Eco Pak bagged milk as well. Richard Tomlinson, chairman of Calon Wen, says the dairy cooperative is the first milk producer and marketer in the country to recieve the UK Soil Association's Ethical Trade Symbol, which will soon begin showing up on the bags of organic milk in Waitrose stores throughout Britain.

We suggest Calon Wen try to license this technology to dairy cooperatives or processors in the United States. Retailers like Wal-Mart, Whole Foods Market and others are currently looking for packaging innovations that focus on source reduction, especially when it comes to plastics. In fact, Wal-Mart buyers have just started using a packaging scorecard with suppliers. One of the key criteria of the packaging scorecard is the environmental sustainability of a supplier's product packaging, including the amount of energy inputs used in packaging production. Since the Eco Pak bag requires 75% less plastic per package to produce vs. plastic milk jugs, the source-reduction should be right up Wal-Mart's sustainability alley.

Since Wal-Mart sells its own private-label fresh milk in the U.S., and has a major packaging source-reduction program in process, it would be logical--and smart--for the mega-retailer to offer fresh milk for sale in the Eco Paks as well as in traditional cartons and plastic jugs in its U.S. stores. In fact, we expect Wal-Mart's Asda chain in Britain to follow Waitrose's lead and begin selling milk in the Eco Pak bags soon.