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Client : Chocolaterie des Pères Trappistes

In market : 2019

The objectives of the initiative

At the Chocolaterie des Pères Trappistes, optimizing packaging has always been important, including through the use of FSC certified recycled and recyclable cardboard for several years. Our aim is to offer quality chocolates in boxes that are designed in such a way as to limit waste and packaging. Until now, the box used to package dark chocolate coated blueberries included a cardboard tray with plastic window inserted in a boxboard top covered with a removable covering (4 items).

Every year, we review our packaging before each order in order to assess the efficiency, sturdiness during shipping, the possibility of using the same box for several products and reducing the thickness of packages. In 2019, the Chocolaterie completely overhauled the design of the dark chocolate coated blueberries box by eliminating the plastic window and second covering (2 items out of 4 were maintained). This adjustment helped to reduce the total packaging mass by 28%.

Moreover, made-to-measure shipping boxes help to minimize empty spaces. That way, we can optimize palletizing by stacking more dark chocolate coated blueberries boxes on a single pallet.

Challenges

In order to respond to market demand and our customers’ needs, we have taken into account the marketing impact in order to maintain the appearance, durability and ease of marketing of our products, while reducing the quantity of packaging.

To end up with this new dark chocolate coated blueberries box design, we carried out several tests regarding sturdiness, particularly to provide proper protection for the products and make sure the box was rigid enough to be marketed on shelving.

We also reviewed our communication strategy in order to inform consumers about the ecodesign process specifically regarding our products. Communicating benefits is important in order to ensure that customers accept the change and join us in our commitment to carry out optimization efforts.

Benefits

Mobilizing our team to think about sustainable good practices in order to provide quality chocolates is very important to us. The ecodesign of the dark chocolate coated blueberries box is part of an optimization process that aims to reduce not only the environmental impact, but the cost of our packaging, too.

We have succeeded in reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to the dark chocolate coated blueberries box by 30%. This improvement is due mainly to a reduced mass of packaging that contains the same quantity of chocolates as before.

Additionally, a few years ago, made-to-measure shipping boxes helped us to optimize palletization (by increasing the number of boxes of chocolates per pallet), a measure that also lessens shipping-related impacts.

Finally, this packaging ecodesign process helped us communicate both with our employees and our vendors, in order to mobilize everyone towards the success of our project. Communicating with consumers is also very important, as by displaying the improvements directly on the new package, we were able to boost our market competitiveness and visibility.

Results

30% Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

1% Increase the content of recycled materials

28% Diminution of the packaging/product mass ratio

28% Decrease the amount of materials used