Perrier has launched The Next Packaging Movement, an innovation program designed to broaden thinking and deliver actions on the topic of sustainability. The idea behind the initiative was to go beyond the development of 100% recycled and recyclable packaging and to challenge the programme’s participants to develop solutions that reimagined packaging from source to end of life.
In developing the programme, Perrier, who will act as a business incubator, brought together experts from all over the world to create a diverse network, facilitating a unique and multi-disciplinary sharing of knowledge, skills and expertise to collaborate around packaging solutions. Perrier also partnered with SoScience, a European-based organization focused on responsible research and innovation, on the programme and has created a dedicated 'Task Force' made up of external leaders in materials sciences, environmentalists, entrepreneurs and changemakers to identify the most promising projects and to mentor the winners.
In response to the call for papers that went out in April 2019, Perrier received some 90 submissions from NGOs, start-ups and researchers from all over the world. The entries were evaluated in the light of such key aspects as the breakthrough dimension of the proposed solution, the potential environmental and social benefit and its ability to scale across the sparkling water market and the broader beverage industry.
The winners were announced at the recent 2020 ChangeNOW summit in Paris, a three-day event about celebrating innovation and positive impact attended by some 20,000 ‘changemakers’ : inspiring individuals inventing new solutions, rethinking the way we do business, challenging the status quo. The winning projects, said Perrier, address different aspects of the packaging challenge, ranging from source materials, alternative solutions beyond the bottle and packaging end-of-life. They will each receive technical, operational and financial support, with a minimum of €100.000 per project up to 1 million euros in total.
The winning projects were Biotic: a bio-based and biodegradable plastic, produced from agricultural waste while also creating well-paying jobs for women in Africa where the project is based; Flexikeg & Perrier: an "ecollaboration" to deliver beverages among which water, in an innovative and re-usable flexible keg with the aim of reducing plastic waste and carbon emissions; and PlastiSkul: Micro factories for waste transformation, an integrated-approach model mixing low and high tech solutions, from waste collection to transformation, that can be implemented in developing countries, with a strong social impact, including an education / training program for local entrepreneurs.
These winners will bring their innovative solutions to market by 2025.
“We are proud to invest in these three exciting ideas to accelerate their development,” said Philippe Gallard, International Business Unit Director Perrier. “We hope that with The Next Packaging Movement by Perrier we can contribute to a more sustainable future, leading through bold actions and bringing to market innovative projects."