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Client : SENS

In market : 2021

Objectives of the initiative

In addition to making life easier for parents thanks to its multi-use concept, SENS bar shampoo is made exclusively with natural ingredients, such as sunflower oil, cocoa butter and shea butter. At SENS, our raison d’être is providing you with a product that’s all about your well-being, without compromise. So naturally, we selected and designed packaging to protect and distribute our product safely, while leaving the smallest possible carbon footprint.

To achieve that, we carried out a multiple-criteria evaluation and received guidance from Maillon Vert’s consulting team.

Challenges

On average, shampoo bars comparable to SENS’ product require three packaging elements for marketing: A label/individual box, an in-store display and a shipping package for online purchases.

The main challenge was to combine a reasonable cost (which is reflected in the retail sale price) with good product performance, an efficient customer experience and an attractive image. We performed market studies, consulted with stakeholders (shops and consumers) and carried out environmental assessments.

Additionally, several other challenges arose from our decision to not use an individual label/box, including the placement of bars in displays, enabling in-store scanning of bars at the cash and the acceptability of selling “naked” bars.

Benefits

Compared to traditional displays, our display offers a differentiated image on shelving. Its design includes a space to accommodate the bars, which ensures that they are protected during shipping to stores.

Our willingness to reduce individual single-use packaging at the source for our SENS shampoo bar is completely aligned with our raison d’être and helps us raise customer awareness regarding the impacts of packaging.

With the help of Maillon Vert, we estimate that for each lot of 10,000 shampoo bars sold, the environmental costs avoided are as follows:

  • No label means ± 70 kilos less paper used compared to a small standard box of our competitors’ product.
  • The shipping envelope avoids using ± 620 kilos of virgin paper fibre, i.e. the equivalent of 15 trees, 71,000 litres of water, 1,074 kg of waste and 2.8 tonnes of GHGs spared!

Optimization actions taken

The display is made of corrugated cardboard and boxboard, both made of 69.3% recycled post-consumer fibre from a local recycler.

The envelope for mail orders is made of 100% recycled paper.

The bars are sold without labels or individual packaging.

The in-store display includes the ingredient list for consumers and is shipped to retailers in the same box as the shampoo bars, ensuring that they are protected. This principle eliminates the use of additional protective packaging in the shipping box.

The mail-order envelope was selected to maximize the quantity of products it may hold (up to 4 bars), while being as small as possible.

The decision not to use individual labels/packaging means we avoid using the extra energy required for these components.

The display’s production process minimizes energy use, avoids using water and chemicals, and applies optimized cutting to minimize post-production waste.

The mail-order envelope was selected to optimize shipping based on the shampoo bar’s dimensions. This means that the product is better protected, movement during shipping is minimized, as is the space taken up in trucks, and the quantity of materials used is optimized.

The various suppliers involved in producing the display case are located within a 30-km radius of the assembly site.

The shipping envelopes are purchased jointly with another buyer in order to take advantage of joint distribution.

Improvement of the product's handling: form and size

The display case can be repeatedly refilled with shampoo bars.

In order to extend the life of display cases, a new print-out can be superimposed on the front when the graphic element needs to be refreshed. This reduces the need to replace displays over time.

  • Reduction in the number of components
  • Reduction in the number of materials used
  • Selection of recyclable materials
  • Adequate marking of materials
  • Employee meetings
  • Direct consultation with our suppliers
  • With a consultant
  • Display recycled content (envelope)
  • Indicate end-of-life management options (envelope)
  • Communicate on the organization’s website