Interview With The Designers Of Sony’s Sustainable Package

Making sure that packaging is easy to recycle has been a facet of environmental initiatives at Sony for some time. With the consumer perspective firmly in mind, designers committed to sustainable packaging are now expanding these activities. How can packaging be easier to manage after use? How can unboxing a new Sony product excite and satisfy people more than ever? Here, contributors to the Sustainable Package creation process (courtesy of Sony Design) take the lid off some of these efforts.

Nagasaka: What can we do for people and society through design? For the environment? Environmental considerations and principles of universal design guide us in development at Sony, and we hope our work makes a positive impact and raises awareness inside and outside the company. In these activities, one thing we focus on is sustainable packaging design.

Packaging is a direct, initial point of contact with people after their purchase. At this stage manufacturers’ intentions and messages must be very clear to consumers. Yet people only interact with packaging briefly, and it’s generally discarded immediately after removing products. This act of disposal is something we have studied. Inevitably, disposal may be a little inconvenient, but in areas with sorting regulations, it’s a source of materials for recycling. That’s why we approached user-friendly, eco-friendly packaging from the stage of disposal. And certainly, the packaging solutions we adopt are a reflection of Sony’s commitment to CSR. These considerations motivated us to propose sustainable packaging guidelines some time ago.

Nagasaka: We began by verifying packaging life cycles, including how packaging is used and disposed of after purchases. Research in Japan confirmed that people more often keep the easy-to-manage packaging for portable audio players, cameras, and similar products. This also applies to products with several included accessories. But what surprised us was how people tend to dispose of computer packaging immediately. We thought the boxes would generally be retained in case people sell the computer later or need repair. In fact, more people than we expected get rid of them immediately.

Optimal design development accounting for packaging life cycles is critical. Most packaging is designed to look attractive in stores, for example. But in reality, our customers’ involvement with packaging continues until it leaves their hands. For this reason, packaging that’s easy to sort and helps our customers identify what to recycle is better for them and the environment. That’s good design. Conventional packaging has often failed to meet these criteria, but we consider this an opportunity to design new relationships with our customers, so to speak.

We can summarize goals in packaging design by four keywords. The first is materials. We avoid using plastics and other materials derived from petrochemicals as much as possible, and we incorporate recycled materials. It’s a matter of reduce, reuse, recycle, and replace. Next comes usability. Packaging must be easy to open, for one thing. To encourage sorting, it must also be easy to take apart. Toward the end of providing useful information, boxes must be appropriately labeled. And finally, we seek a positive out-of-box experience (OOBE). In other words, when you unpack a Sony product, you should get the impression that both you and the environment matter to us.

Hata: After substantial research and discussion, it was time to start designing with our guidelines in mind. I was in charge of VAIO notebook packaging. In view of our findings—that most people usually recycle these boxes immediately—we wanted packaging that left the product easily accessible and could be recycled right away. Additionally, I suggested that we make the boxes flatter. This is doubly useful, because it’s convenient when bringing your new notebook home and it emphasizes the sleek body of VAIO notebooks. Most importantly, we can load more notebooks on a delivery truck at one time, which lowers costs and CO2 emissions in distribution. What would be the best box design and structure, toward this end? My work involved cutting corrugated cardboard and folding it, in a series of attempts to find out.

Hata: The finished design prototype resembled a briefcase. The front flap opens wide, revealing the notebook squarely in view—a nice gesture for those who just purchased the notebook. Showing the contents at a glance demonstrates clarity in design. Structurally, it’s more accurate to say the notebook is wrapped in corrugated cardboard than encased in a box. After you take the notebook out, you’re left with a single ply of cardboard. Just wrap the unneeded protective material in this and fold it up, and it’s ready for recycling.

The difficult part was deciding how to store the included accessories. Cables and other parts crammed into narrow spaces would certainly look cluttered. That would make a disappointing first impression. Packing the accessories in a box inside is simple enough, but it does increase the overall volume. After repeated attempts to deal with the accessories, we realized we could organize them in a box that also cushions the notebook. This way, we could minimize the size and volume of material while clearly identifying what parts to recycle and what parts to keep.

When I presented the concept to product planners and packaging engineers in the VAIO Business Division, their response was very positive. This division has always taken a stand for the environment. They sought to use the concept right away.

Ichimura: To apply Masayuki’s prototype in production, we needed to conduct an in-depth study of the design from several practical standpoints: ease of assembly, ease of storage, protection of products, and so on. It was critical to get support from packaging engineers who were experts in production and distribution.

We appreciated how the engineers anticipated every detail in manufacturing and product delivery. Meanwhile, those of us on the design team tried to see things from the consumer perspective. Our different viewpoints emerged when we discussed how the lid fastens, for example. The engineers advised to make the lid fasten securely, because different temperature in transport and storage might warp the cardboard and cause the lid to pop open. We reminded them that people would expect the lid to open easily, with no need to focus on unfastening it. Our engineers knew exactly what we had in mind. Throughout development, we gained insight from each other and took advantage of this opportunity to create optimal packaging, down to the last fastener.

Here you see the final notebook packaging. Open the box, and you’ll see a cardboard box (containing the user manual, among other things) sitting on top like a tray. Lift it out, and there’s the notebook. This tray-like box organizes documentation you should keep while also reinforcing the packaging and protecting the LCD screen of the VAIO notebook. Supporting the notebook on the side is the accessory box, just as Masayuki envisioned.

Kanada: Packaging for S-Frame digital photo frames was designed knowing that many people will buy the frames as gifts for others. I’ll talk a little about the original packaging. What sets digital photo frames apart from other products is that two recipients are involved. For every person who purchases a frame, there may be another person who receives it as a gift.

In this case, it’s a perfect opportunity to add digital photos of great memories before giving the frame to your friends or relatives. After you open the box, you’ll notice that we thought of providing an inner box you can use when giving the frame to someone. That’s the purpose of the white box inside— a thoughtful touch for the recipient. Also, we needed a straightforward design for this inner box, so it’s essentially ready for people to use for repackaging right away. But with this kind of product, measures to protect the frame might make the packaging too complex and hard to reassemble.

After discussing ways to solve this problem with our packaging engineers, we created easily removable and reinsertable pieces to protect the LCD panel. These pieces reinforce the package and cushion the frame. There’s a little design ingenuity here, too: the protective piece embellished with an S-Frame logo is also a thoughtful gesture for recipients. In fact, it takes just two steps to open the inner box, which you can even do with one hand.

Ichimura: Packaging is ultimately thrown away, but despite this, it should satisfy people and be environmentally sound, besides being easy to dispose of. Meeting all of these needs at a high level is what we do through sustainable packaging practices at Sony. What’s critical toward this end is a workplace environment where designers and packaging engineers can work together closely. Designers look to the engineers as experts in packaging structure and distribution. Once we apply our respective insight together, we can put our ideals of sustainability into practice.

Hata: That’s a distinct advantage of designing in-house. Innovative packaging doesn’t come from the power of design alone. From conceptual design to anticipating issues in distribution, a range of activities are involved. Knowledge gained from these projects was applied to existing sustainable design objectives, developed with our packaging engineers, which we pursue in routine design and packaging engineering.

Nagasaka: We have successfully practiced principles of sustainable design for some product packaging, but development along these lines has just begun. Looking ahead, we will continue to add to our repertoire of packaging that embodies these ideals as we extend these efforts to all Sony products.

These initiatives also respond to practical concerns. We see greater environmental awareness all around us. It’s a sign of the times, and regulations around the world reflect this. Even without the current interest in eco-friendliness, however, Sony would still work toward sustainable design as an obviously desirable goal. One day, we will suddenly realize that all Sony products and packaging embody these worthy ideals. That’s the goal we seek. Until then, we will continue doing our best.

In gifts, the packaging is really an extension of the product. All of our planners, designers, and packaging engineers shared the same vision for this product. That’s why we can offer the S-Frame in a box so ideal for gift-giving.