Colloquia

Summary

The combination of consumer behaviour and sustainability is often not incorporated by companies yet. There is a clear gap to combine these two worlds. The knowledge needs to be on a central place which is easily to find, and the information needs to be more practically formulated to be able to apply the knowledge.

This master thesis is executed on behalf of the Netherlands Institute for Sustainable Packaging (KIDV). KIDV helps and advises companies who are working on the transition towards sustainable packaging. The thesis process focussed on two parts, a theory and design part. First of all, what is already known on sustainable consumer behaviour and what is relevant for companies to know, what are their needs? Secondly, how can we support companies to deal with sustainable consumer behaviour and help them to incorporate this in the packaging design process?

A literature review and a user study with companies in the food packaging industry served as input for the designed tool. The final design is a tool pack consisting of three parts. Firstly, a Cues Cube is a physical tool to spark interest in the topic among colleagues on the work floor and provides basic information about cues one can use on a packaging to communicate its sustainability. Secondly, an interactive infographic on KIDV’s website provides more insights from a consumer perspective. The infographic elaborates on the purchase, use and disposal behaviour and the most important factors found in literature are integrated. Finally, a report has been created to provide companies perspective for more in-depth insights and strategies. In total, the tool pack provides different ways to retrieve insights on a playful, visual, and detailed way. User tests have been conducted to capture the thoughts and feedback of potential users, as a result the tools have been improved mainly on interaction and communication structure levels.

In conclusion, the tool pack can help KIDV in their goal of assisting companies in the transition towards (more) sustainable packaging. Through the tool pack, companies will have the opportunity to find all the relevant sustainable consumer behaviour knowledge in one place, including practical advice and examples.