Salling Group
Packaging principles and guidelines
Outcome
Our work for Salling Group enabled them to convert their executive sustainability strategy into a set of operational guidelines that will ensure 100% recyclability of their Private Label plastic packaging by 2023.
“Kirk, Hatch & Bloom have made a complex issue very tangible and operational. This has added an important building block to Netto’s future work on sustainability.”
Michael Løve, Executive Vice President, Salling Group
Problem
In the midst of accumulating climate changes and with a governmental ambition to lower Danish emissions with 70% by 2030, the implementation of sustainable business models and production is more critical than ever. Salling Group has decided on an ambitious strategy to use only plastic packaging that is fully recyclable after use and made from as much recycled material as possible. With the commitment to deliver fully on this goal by 2023, the organization is left with only 3 years to integrate this new approach and new sourcing standards. But with sustainable business being an unfamiliar territory, where do you start and how do you ensure that organization and suppliers are onboarded on the journey?
Process
Centered around a set of intensive work sessions with the Salling Group project team, Kirk, Hatch & Bloom build a strategic design process aimed to cut through the many misconceptions on plastic and recyclability and uncover the actual needs that one would have to deliver on to ensure a sustainable packaging approach.
Beginning with a simple but tangible overview on all plastic packaging the project team categorized the different packaging into Must-wins, Short-term and Long-term categories. Then sessions with the four sale categories were carried out focusing on the different challenges in each category. Furthermore, sharing knowledge ensured a competence boost within the teams thereby empowering them to engage in discussions with suppliers and
customers.
Working with the packaging categories, Kirk, Hatch & Bloom set out to find sustainable alternatives to the existing applied material as well as defining criteria for product design of the packaging to heighten ease of disassembly and user friendliness.
For the guidelines, it was imperative to design them to be both inclusive and operational to ease engagement among stakeholders during implementation. Therefore, they were thoroughly tested and validated with packaging manufacturers, material experts, and WWF. With continuously involvement of the Salling Group board, the guidelines were approved and are currently being implemented into each new vendor for a step-by-step conversion
to fully sustainable plastic packaging.
Output
Design strategy
User study
Stakeholder management
Prototyping
Inquiries
For further information on the project, please contact:
Director of Sustainable Design // Lotte Lyngsted Jepsen
Mail. lotte@khbstudio.com
Tel. +45 25 10 30 52
Design Thinker // Johanna Guldborg Skotte
johanna@khbstudio.com
Tel. +45 31 50 46 12
