I have been running seminars and workshops at #RennesSchoolofBusiness this semester to students studying for an MSc in International Luxury and Brand Management. My courses are entitled Sustainable Design and Brand Identity in the Luxury Industry and as such I spend many hours dedicated to the different specialisms in design such as brand and Corporate Identity, Communications, Packaging Design, Interior Design and Architecture, Product Design and Sensory Design and make them relevant to sustainability and in particular circularity.

I prefer to put students in the position of a designer in certain classes to understand how a designer thinks, or practices their work.

This year, I developed a new tool to analyse packaging from a position of Circular Design. It uses the 7Rs (you will find them below).

It is based on some of the solutions from Ellen McCarthur’s Butterfly diagram on the right hand side.

And also looks at a more systemic approach inspired by the work of Delft University and developed further by la Grande Boucle Circulaire. This example shows the work of Elvis and Kresse as they upcycle fire hoses into premium bags and accessories, and the impact they have from collecting the materials to potential societal problems arising from their work.

The exercise takes place over the course of 1 hour. Each group of students has to choose a piece of luxury packaging bought into class. This is the pack they will focus on, analyse and create new sketch ideas for as well as re-naming the range with micro-storytelling.

The First R is RATE the pack with the criteria given in the check-list to see where it scores well and where it scores poorly. This can then help them in their analysis in the following sections.

The second R is RE-DEFINE the function of the product?
Could we buy it in another format? – solid shampoo versus liquid?
Could we make it more eco friendly/healthy for us by changing ingredients?

The third R is REDUCE. How can they imagine reducing the pack in terms of its impact in materials, carbon footprint, transport, graphic information. Could we make the pack smaller?
Reduce the carbon footprint. Transport?
The text, the descriptions, the information?

The Fourth R is REUSE. How can they re-use waste streams generated by the company? Or how could they re-design the pack to make it more re-usable so that we don’t throw it away?

On the 2nd page, they have to get more creative with their ideas through the use of sketches, storytelling, motivating the customer.

The Fifth R is RE-DESIGN the pack or develop a system/service. Here, they have to sketch some ideas… thoughts… Does the format of the product change?

Does the format of the packaging change? Size? Materials? Aesthetics? (luxury accents). Does it become a system (collect, refill…) or a service.

The sixth R is REALIGN the brand identity?
Here, we looked in class at examples of how brands like Veuvre Cliquot changed their name for its new upcycled pack made from grape skins to Naturally Cliquot
Here, I wanted the students to perhaps change one of the existing brand values in alignment with the new pack and think of a new name.

The Seventh R is REWARD motivation.
Why would someone buy this new pack? What would motivate them.
Could climate benefits be enough to be a fitting reward? Could it be seen as green-washing? Or could other elements be thought about – price? Ease of service/system? Interesting re-use element.

This exercise worked pretty well, although timing was tight, and there were some re-adjustments to be made to give more elements some more time. There were also perhaps some misunderstandings in the elements demanded under each section. It’s a learning process. I’ll update it and improve it for next year.

“A step further in the approach of eco-responsibility, from the house of Veuve Clicquot. With our wonderful grapes we create our unique champagne. Then, we transform the grape’s skin into a bio-based material in order to create our new innovative packaging.” Veuvre Cliquot.

Here are some of the students thoughts and ideas around the subject… too many to show here, but there were some interesting reflections around prolonging use and using packaging in a different way.

Idea for using neck of packaging as a travel roller.

Idea for using waste textiles as a secondary protection for perfume bottle.

Ideas for re-using waste streams from various aspects of the perfume production process.

If you would like to know more about the process or the courses I run in this area, please get in touch.