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B. de Koeijer et al.
participants of the game resemble a development team existing of different stakeholders. During the game itself, participants are asked to develop a product, in sequential development steps. This involves interpreting a client’s design brief, designing
product concepts, and production and assembly steps (de Koeijer et al. 2016). Key
within this serious gaming concept (currently addressed as ‘design game’) is the
ability to address the combined multidisciplinarity of stakeholders in one session, the
decision-making processes within and beyond development teams, and the proposed
and realized inclusion of sustainability-related considerations.
4.4 Discussion and Conclusions
With a significant part of a product-packaging combination’s impact determined
during the design and development phase—as environmental lock-in (de Koeijer
et al. 2017b)—and that phase being the shared responsibility of various stakeholders,
the dynamics within those teams are highly influential to the achieved sustainability
of a product-packaging combination. However, with the currently identified limited
alignment of a company’s strategic aims with the operational results (perceived and
achieved sustainability), further efforts are required to target this in a more structured way. By means of this research effort, we aim to provide the industry with
interventions targeting stakeholder interrelations and decision-making processes,
with development team dynamics and role divisions as key points of focus. With
the aid of the visualization tool and design game, we can provide the packaging
industry with more solid insights into their own development processes, and determine the adjustments required to further structurally implement sustainability- and
circularity-related aspects. We explicitly do not aim to prescribe ‘what must be done’
in the realm of packaging sustainability, but rather aim to assist in aligning strategic
targets and aims with operational development efforts.
This article not only acts as a vision on our exploration approach in this field,
but it is also a call for action. We hope that this vision paper calls out to academic
partners willing to further explore this field and its options for interventions, together
with us (CRiSP, the Center for Research in Sustainable Packaging), to accelerate the
structured integration of sustainability-and circularity-related considerations in the
development processes of a key element of nowadays society: product-packaging
combinations.
Acknowledgements This research was conducted through the Center for Research in Sustainable
Packaging (CRiSP), a consortium of the University of Twente, Utrecht University, Wageningen Food
& Biobased Research and the Netherlands Institute for Sustainable Packaging (KIDV), aiming at
developing and disseminating knowledge on sustainable packaging for industry and society.
B. de Koeijer et al.
participants of the game resemble a development team existing of different stakeholders. During the game itself, participants are asked to develop a product, in sequential development steps. This involves interpreting a client’s design brief, designing
product concepts, and production and assembly steps (de Koeijer et al. 2016). Key
within this serious gaming concept (currently addressed as ‘design game’) is the
ability to address the combined multidisciplinarity of stakeholders in one session, the
decision-making processes within and beyond development teams, and the proposed
and realized inclusion of sustainability-related considerations.
4.4 Discussion and Conclusions
With a significant part of a product-packaging combination’s impact determined
during the design and development phase—as environmental lock-in (de Koeijer
et al. 2017b)—and that phase being the shared responsibility of various stakeholders,
the dynamics within those teams are highly influential to the achieved sustainability
of a product-packaging combination. However, with the currently identified limited
alignment of a company’s strategic aims with the operational results (perceived and
achieved sustainability), further efforts are required to target this in a more structured way. By means of this research effort, we aim to provide the industry with
interventions targeting stakeholder interrelations and decision-making processes,
with development team dynamics and role divisions as key points of focus. With
the aid of the visualization tool and design game, we can provide the packaging
industry with more solid insights into their own development processes, and determine the adjustments required to further structurally implement sustainability- and
circularity-related aspects. We explicitly do not aim to prescribe ‘what must be done’
in the realm of packaging sustainability, but rather aim to assist in aligning strategic
targets and aims with operational development efforts.
This article not only acts as a vision on our exploration approach in this field,
but it is also a call for action. We hope that this vision paper calls out to academic
partners willing to further explore this field and its options for interventions, together
with us (CRiSP, the Center for Research in Sustainable Packaging), to accelerate the
structured integration of sustainability-and circularity-related considerations in the
development processes of a key element of nowadays society: product-packaging
combinations.
Acknowledgements This research was conducted through the Center for Research in Sustainable
Packaging (CRiSP), a consortium of the University of Twente, Utrecht University, Wageningen Food
& Biobased Research and the Netherlands Institute for Sustainable Packaging (KIDV), aiming at
developing and disseminating knowledge on sustainable packaging for industry and society.