Food and Beverage Packaging March 2011 : Page 6

Editor’s Note HOW FAR OUT FRONT DO YOU NEED TO BE? hen it comes to doing good, how far ahead of consumers should a company be? As food and beverage companies try to make their packaging more sustainable, that question becomes crucial. Frito-Lay got a hard lesson in that last year with its SunChips bag ﬁ asco. Made from polylactic acid, the bags made so much noise when handled that consum-ers devoted Facebook pages to complaining about it, and the bags were mostly pulled off the market after a few months. It was an object lesson in how convenience trumps sustain-ability. (At press time, Frito-Lay had announced plans for a new, quieter version of the SunChips bag.) Other sustainable packaging applications aren’t quite as high-pro-ﬁ le, but they run into consumer problems, too. One of the biggest success stories in terms of materials savings has been the reduction in the plastic walls of water bottles. Nestlé Waters North America has reduced the weight of its half-liter bottle by 60% since the mid-1990s. The bottles are now so thin they’re more like water balloons. Con-sumers don’t always like that, especially when they’re combined with an extra-short cap (which Nestlé is in the process of redesigning). It’s a vexing question for the wa-ter companies, because they’ve been taking a beating for a long time on ecological grounds. Critics question the very idea of bottled water, calling it inherently wasteful. Talk about a dilemma; they try to alleviate ecological concerns only to fall short on convenience. One of the paradoxes of sustainability is that source reduction, while often the best option for saving money, may have a hard time attracting positive consumer attention. “I just haven’t seen a lot of consumers dance around the table and say, ‘Wow, you guys got rid of half the packaging. I love the product now,’” says Stuart Leslie, president of the package design ﬁ rm 4Sight. Can a company really lead consumers into sustainability? Often, it doesn’t pay to get too far out front. On the other hand, packagers and their suppliers have access to technology, in both materials and machinery, that most consumers have no idea about. It often happens that consumers don’t know they want a new product, or package, until it appears before them. So by all means, packagers should continue to innovate whenever they see a possibility for making their packaging more sustainable. But they should watch and listen to make sure they’re not leaving their consumers behind. F&BP EDITORIAL PAN DEMETRAKAKES Editor pand@bnpmedia.com RICK LINGLE Executive Editor lingler@bnpmedia.com SCOTT HILLING Senior Art Director FRANK MAYERAN Art Director W ADVERTISING MIKE BARR Group Publisher (630) 499-7392 barrm@bnpmedia.com RANDY GREEN Publisher/Midwest Sales Manager (248) 244-6498 greenr@bnpmedia.com STEVE LIPUT East Coast/Southeast Sales Manager (847) 405-4112 liputs@bnpmedia.com CRAIG ZEHNTNER West Coast Sales Manager ( 818) 403-6379 wnjla@aol.com KRISTINA LORIO Inside Sales (249) 786-1579 loriok@bnpmedia.com ERHARDT EISENACHER International Sales +49-228-2499860 info@eisenacher-medien.de CATHERINE WYNN Senior Classiﬁ ed Sales Manager (847) 405-4010 wynnc@bnpmedia.com VINCE MICONI Advertising/Production Manager miconiv@bnpmedia.com AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT KOURTNEY BELL Audience Development Manager STACEY NOOCHA Multimedia Coordinator CAROLYN M. ALEXANDER Audience Audit Coordinator For subscription information or service, please contact Customer Service at: Phone: (847) 763-9534 or Fax: (847) 763-9538 E-mail: FBP@halldata.com Web: www.foodandbeveragepackaging.com Can a company really lead consumers into sustainability? LIST RENTAL Postal contact: ROB LISKA at 800-223-2194 x.726 or robert.liska@edithroman.com Email contact: SHAWN KINGSTON at 800-409-4443 x.828 or shawn.kingston@epostdirect.com CORPORATE DIRECTORS TIMOTHY A. FAUSCH Publishing JOHN R. SCHREI Publishing RITA M. FOUMIA Corporate Strategy SCOTT KESLER Information Technology ARIANE CLAIRE Marketing VINCENT M. MICONI Production LISA L. PAULUS Finance MICHAEL T. POWELL Creative NIKKI SMITH Directories MARLENE J. WITTHOFT Human Resources EMILY PATTEN Conferences & Events BETH A. SUROWIEC Clear Seas Research BNP MEDIA HELPS PEOPLE SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITH SUPERIOR INFORMATION For Volume Reprints Contact JILL L. DEVRIES Corporate Reprint Manager Phone: 248-224-1726 Fax: 248-244-3934 E-mail: devriesj@bnpmedia.com How to contact FOOD & BEVERAGE PACKAGING PAN DEMETRAKAKES Editor pand@bnpmedia.com Mail: 155 Pﬁ ngsten Rd., Suite 205 Deerﬁ eld IL 60015 Phone: (847) 405-4000 Fax: (847) 405-4100 Web: www.foodandbeveragepackaging.com 6 FOOD & BEVERA GE P A CKA GING MARCH 2011 WWW . FOOD ANDBEVERA GEP A CKA GING . COM

Editor's Note

How Far Out Front Do You Need To Be? When it comes to doing good, how far ahead of consumers should a company be? As food and beverage companies try to make their packaging more sustainable, that question becomes crucial. Frito-Lay got a hard lesson in that last year with its Sun Chips bag fiasco. Made from polylactic acid, the bags made so much noise when handled that consumers devoted Facebook pages to complaining about it, and the bags were mostly pulled off the market after a few months. It was an object lesson in how convenience trumps sustainability.(At press time, Frito-Lay had announced plans for a new, quieter version of the Sun Chips bag.) Other sustainable packaging applications aren’t quite as high-profile, but they run into consumer problems, too. One of the biggest success stories in terms of materials savings has been the reduction in the plastic walls of water bottles. Nestlé Waters North America has reduced the weight of its half-liter bottle by 60% since the mid-1990s. The bottles are now so thin they’re more like water balloons. Consumers don’t always like that, especially when they’re combined with an extra-short cap (which Nestlé is in the process of redesigning). It’s a vexing question for the water companies, because they’ve been taking a beating for a long time on ecological grounds. Critics question the very idea of bottled water, calling it inherently wasteful. Talk about a dilemma; they try to alleviate ecological concerns only to fall short on convenience. One of the paradoxes of sustainability is that source reduction, while often the best option for saving money, may have a hard time attracting positive consumer attention. “I just haven’t seen a lot of consumers dance around the table and say, ‘Wow, you guys got rid of half the packaging. I love the product now,’” says Stuart Leslie, president of the package design firm 4Sight. Can a company really lead consumers into sustainability? Often, it doesn’t pay to get too far out front. On the other hand, packagers and their suppliers have access to technology, in both materials and machinery, that most consumers have no idea about. It often happens that consumers don’t know they want a new product, or package, until it appears before them. So by all means, packagers should continue to innovate whenever they see a possibility for making their packaging more sustainable. But they should watch and listen to make sure they’re not leaving their consumers behind.

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