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Client : La Chocolaterie des Pères Trappistes

In market : 2019

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 regular square box used to package white chocolate, milk and dark chocolate rosettes, as well as dark chocolate-coated cranberries, included a plastic bag and cardboard tray inserted in a boxboard cover (3 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 regular square box by eliminating the internal tray (2 items out of 3 were maintained). In spite of the thicker boxboard used to ensure adequate protection and the necessity of keeping the plastic bag in order to preserve product freshness, the decision helped to reduce the total packaging mass by 38%.

Moreover, made-to-measure shipping boxes help to minimize empty spaces. That way, we can optimize palletizing by stacking more regular square chocolate 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 regular square 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 regular square 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 regular square box by 35%. This improvement is due mainly to a reduced mass of packaging that contains the same quantity of chocolates as before.

By modifying our packaging, we also were able to reduce packaging assembly steps, as the new version of the regular square box only has one cardboard item to fold, in which the bagged product is placed (2 steps), whereas before, the tray had to be assembled, then, the bag of chocolates had to be placed in the tray, then put it into a boxboard cover (3 steps).

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.

Actions of Optimization performed

We have used 100% FSC certified recycled and recyclable cardboard for several years.

We have used 100% FSC certified recycled cardboard for several years.

We have reduced the mass of the regular square box while maintaining the same quantity of chocolates per package.

Our shipping boxes are made-to-measure to minimize empty spaces. The minimum required thickness is used, while maintaining a good protection-quality-conservation-cost ratio.

Direct consultation with suppliers

  • Including the recycled content on the packaging (e.g. Plastic bag made from 30% postconsumer recycled material)
  • Including applicable logos (e.g. Möbius loop)
  • Communicating on the product (environmental certifications or statements)

Results

35% Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

38% Diminution of the packaging/product mass ratio

38% Decrease of the amount of materials used