Demand for more sustainable beverage packaging keeps growing. For beverage brands, this creates pressure to act.
A packaging change can affect cost, shelf life, transport, production, recycling, brand trust and market access. So, decisions aren’t too be taken lightly.
Why assumptions are not enough
The tricky part is that environmental impacts of packaging are not always obvious. Glass can look premium, reusable and can be recycled. Paper-based packaging can feel more natural. Compostable packaging can sound like the best answer. Plastic is often judged harshly because it is visible in waste streams. But the option that looks “greener” is not always the one with the lowest impact.
That is where Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA, comes in. LCA is a scientific method for measuring environmental impacts across a product’s life cycle. For packaging, this means looking from raw materials and manufacturing through to filling, transport, use and end-of-life.
Instead of focusing on one issue, such as whether packaging can be recycled, LCA looks at the whole system. It measures inputs such as energy, water, materials and transport, as well as outputs such as greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution.
This matters because packaging does several jobs. It protects the product, keeps beverages safe, supports shelf life and helps products move efficiently through the supply chain. If a packaging change increases product loss, requires more refrigeration or adds weight to transport, the environmental gains may be smaller than expected.
In our experience at thinkstep-anz, LCA is most useful when it cuts through assumptions. It can show where the biggest impacts sit, where design changes will make the greatest difference and gives robust evidence to communicate the true impact.
For New Zealand beverage brands, this is especially important. Many products travel long distances. Packaging weight, shape and durability can affect transport emissions and product damage. End-of-life systems also vary across regions, so a packaging option that works well in one market may not deliver the same result everywhere.
LCA does not give a simple “good” or “bad” answer. What it gives is a clearer view of trade-offs. That makes it easier to make credible packaging decisions and explain them to customers, retailers and regulators.
Read more from Barbara Nebel, CEO thinkstep-anz in the latest issue here
