Packaging design competition ‘Better with Less’ challenges designers to create more environmentally friendly solutions
Billions of packages are consumed globally on a daily basis, and the amount is growing. The Better with Less Design Challenge is inspiring packaging designers to create more environmentally friendly, functional packaging solutions for everyday goods.
The Better with Less Design Challenge starts November 6, 2017. The international packaging design competition, organised by Metsä Board, aims to find new packaging solutions for some of the world’s most frequently used and fastest growing types of consumer packages.
The amount of plastic used in packaging is an international concern, particularly as almost nine million tonnes of waste enters the world’s oceans every year. Packaging will continue to have an important role in protecting and promoting products in the future, but as consumption grows, it’s becoming ever more important to develop solutions that enable the use of renewable, non-fossil based materials. Metsä Board recognises that packaging designers play a decisive role in this and that environmental impact can be reduced by making packaging lighter, using renewable materials and making recycling easier.
“Packaging design can have a big impact on the environment. We need to come up with new solutions and consider future generations. With this competition, we aim to help advance innovative and sustainable packaging design in the world,” said Cyril Drouet, the competition jury chairman and design and innovation director at Metsä Board.
An international jury, which includes a number of renowned packaging design experts, will judge the competition: Terri Goldstein, branding and packaging design professional; Peter Désilets, strategist and specialist in packaging sustainability aspects; Marianne Rosner Klimchuk, packaging design expert and chair at Communication Design Pathways Department of Fashion Institute of Technology; Lars G. Wallentin, packaging designer; and John B. Mahaffie, futurist with primary expertise in future packaging solutions.
Registration is open from November 6, 2017 to March 31 2018, and can be completed here. New packaging solutions can be designed for consumer packages in the takeaway meals, e-commerce, wellness, cosmetics and dry food sectors, for example. The competition can be followed on social media with the hashtag #betterwithless.
The main prize for the Better with Less Design Challenge is €10,000. The competition is also open to students, and Metsä Board will offer as an additional prize — the opportunity to intern with its packaging services team in Shanghai. The finalists and the winners will be announced during Spring 2018.