A reference model for a sustainable commitment to sustainability in packaging development

Packaging is regarded as a major contributor to the environmental impact of products and supply chains. This is largely infused by the role of packaging in the use and post-use stages of a life cycle, which leads to packaging being regarded as superfluous or excessive. Simultaneously, within the current (product-packaging) development landscape, an erosion of the connotation of ‘sustainable development' is discerned, combatting the inherent complexities of product-packaging development. In addition, there is a mismatch between sustainability desires (the strategic level) and materializations of it (the operational level) in industry, and a lack of academic or legislative solutions to this. These issues lead to product-packaging development processes in which sustainability-related considerations are subordinate to other decision-making criteria, and which therefore yield suboptimal solutions. The main contribution of this article is the proposition of a reference model as an instrument aiming at streamlining the integration of sustainability-related considerations in decision-making in product-packaging development. This model aims for the tenable integration of such considerations by recognizing the complexity of sustainable development and multiple levels of sustainability. With this, the reference model simultaneously aims to address key characteristics of packaging development cycles in daily practice and the intertwinement of life cycles of product and packaging in the design and engineering domain.