Green packaging is becoming more important every day, as we become more aware of how fragile our environment is. Rider Thompson, whose Sustainable is Good blog focuses on sustainable packaging, is a leader in identifying sustainable packaging products and trends. This should be of interest to all of us, since the choices we make as consumers drive much of what packagers do with regard to the type and amount of packaging they use.

I’ve begun contributing to his blog, and now Rider is here with answers to my questions about sustainable packaging and how he’s marketing his blog.
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Rider, how did you become interested in sustainable packaging? Sustainable packaging is of interest to me because packaging in general is one area where there is a tremendous amount of waste in our society and around the world. The issue of excessive packaging is a serious one and is an area where manufacturers and product designers can make significant environmental improvements that also can be part of their overall marketing plan - it’s like a win win. So on one hand packaging is an area of significant waste and on the other its an area of significant opportunity for manufacturers, packaging designers and others. The development of sustainable packaging options is something that grows and changes on a weekly basis. New innovative materials, processes and applications are being developed and designers and manufacturers are actually asking themselves though questions like what is the purpose of the packaging, how can we reduce it, how can we turn this into a positive for us and our product or client. There is so much opportunity in sustainable packaging from the design angle, branding perspective, materials development and marketing angle its something I am just fascinated by.

Why did you start your blog, and what audience are you trying to reach? I decided to start Sustainable is Good because there isn’t any other source focused specifically on the development of green products and packaging. I wanted to create a resource where I could look at new an innovative products and packaging with a green focus. My vision for the site was to go beyond what a lot of other “green” blogs are doing. Many just take press releases and rework them slightly and post the news. My goal is to go far beyond that. I interview manufacturers and designers and provide the details people are looking for. As a result Sustainable is Good is read by a wide range of people including consumers, business/pr/marketing people, designers both industrial and graphic and people interested in green products and developments and trends in packaging. When see a new product or example of packaging I always wonder how was it made? Who was involved? What materials were used? So those are the questions I ask - many people don’t realize that often times a product’s packaging spends many months in development between the design folks, branding people and functional testing not to mention production of the packaging.

Sustainable is Good is growing popular. What are you doing to attract readers? We have been growing readership since the blog started. To grow readers the number one most important thing is to report something unique offer a product that is different than other green blogs or web sites. When a story of interest breaks - before I cover it I make sure Sustainable is Good is either offering more information or new information than other media sources. Otherwise in most cases I won’t run the story. So after we have a solid product to offer readers I’ve focused on expanding the reach of the site. Each week we send out a email newsletter re-capping the stories from the previous week in one short document. I know many of my readers are very busy people who get many many emails every day and probably subscribe to numerous RSS feeds of blogs and web sites. So the newsletter serves as a way they can follow the stories in one document. Our numbers on the newsletter are really quite strong its been well received. Another way I’ve worked on growing readership is to add contributors with industry experience. We’ve added Dennis Salazar, president of Salazar Packaging outside of Chicago and sales and marketing consultant Brad Shorr. Both Dennis and Brad offer unique insights drawing on a wealth of personal and professional experience.

Thanks. On the whole, how do you think the packaging industry is doing in regard to sustainable packaging? I think the packaging industry in general is slowly adapting to this whole idea of sustainable packaging. Often times I find business owners and product manufacturers to be really pushing the drive for sustainable packaging options and packaging suppliers are trying to keep up. This creates a situation where many manufacturers/business owners feel packaging companies try to steer them into packaging options that aren’t exactly what they want. Also many of the smaller green products that are being developed and becoming increasingly popular don’t have large production cycles when they start out. I’ve heard a common complaint from green product producers that packaging companies don’t want to “deal with them” until they reach a production/packaging quantity that works for the packaging company. I guess my point is the packaging industry needs to adapt to this new market that is developing to be able to offer flexible options to companies - the packaging companies/distributors who can make this adaptation will be extremely successful. Then on the other side of things with large companies - these companies are going to help set the trends for the entire industry in terms of packaging. For example look at Wal-Mart’s decision to stop carrying non-concentrated liquid laundry detergents by May 2008. This is a huge change for the industry - and has significant implications to the packaging industry. Smaller concentrated liquid laundry detergents will replace the traditional versions just by Wal-Mart’s action.

If you had three sustainable packaging wishes, what would they be? Sustainable packaging wishes - well I subscribe to the theory we need to look beyond the “less bad” and simply is packaging recyclable etc. I do believe the Cradle to Cradle idea is going to be a major influence on sustainable packaging. I’d like to see more packaging made from post-consumer materials and I’d also like to see less packaging. I am working on a piece now on the excessive packaging of the popular Gillette Fusion razors - which was just last week named the most environmentally destructive packaging by a government environmental agency in Australia. Excessive packaging is a major problem when packaging goes beyond protecting the product and offering branding options its excessive. I think sustainable packaging is going to mean better design and innovative uses of materials. But in the end its our single serving culture that really makes sustainable packaging difficult. I think working on better more effective bulk packaging options is something we as a society will need to do. But we’ll also have to change our ways as in the end its the consumer that drives the market.