Before the outbreak of the pandemic, if companies were asked about their concerns and the major trends that dominated their decisions, green was prominent. The companies had started a war on plastic, which disappeared from packaging but even from the most basic elements. Plastic bags had become a toxic element for the brand image (in the European Union, something that had to be charged separately) and fast food chains were rushing to find ways to be more sustainable with the environment. The soda straws are gone and the fast food giants even started experimenting with reusable packaging .
The crisis caused by the pandemic put a temporary brake on all this. The obsession with hygiene and cleanliness led to plastic having a moment of respite and reappearing everywhere. If something could be laminated and create a sense of protection, it was. Of course, everything was temporary and the plastic crisis ended up returning . Similarly, concern about the pandemic and its effects made other issues of concern secondary. The companies focused all their efforts on what seemed a priority.
The war on plastic is back
But things have changed again. Pandemic fatigue has been making consumers want to hear other things for months now, and since the beginning of the summer there has been a kind of return to a normalcy more akin to pre-pandemic life than to the new normal of last summer.
The obsession with green is back on the agenda and companies must get back to homework. So it is not surprising that it is just now that Pepsi is launching an ad for plastic. PepsiCo, the owner company, has just announced that it promises to reduce its use of reused plastic, reducing its presence in its food and beverage brands by 50% by 2030.
Your plastic packaging will have to carry a minimum of half recycled plastic. In addition, the giant has promised to focus more on promoting those business models that involve little or no single-use packaging (such as packaging that is refilled over and over again with the product). Coca-Cola, for its part, had already launched bottles made entirely from recycled plastic earlier this year and also has the promise to use half of the recycled source material by 2030.
Being green is profitable Now that the worries of before are resumed, it is time to think again about being green. Green is, in the end, one of the great concerns of consumers, who want to see action and who reward those who do things well. The distribution giants are already betting on a kind of Nutriscore for the carbon footprint , a label that is integrated into the packaging and that shows the footprint associated with the product. Consumers respond to this type of labeling.
At least that is what a study by researchers from the University of Cantabria has just concluded, which has focused on the impact of eco-labels on seafood companies. Their data indicates that “being green is profitable.” The value of companies after being certified and being able to include in their labeling the guarantee of being sustainable rises on average by 2.64% in their prices. After all, talking about being sustainable – and being clear about it – has become one more marketing weapon. Companies are even talking about ODS with their consumers, no matter how expert terminology it may be.