World Design Challenge Sustainable Packaging

The World Design Organization (WDO) and World Packaging Organisation (WPO) are pleased to announce today their first joint initiative following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last year.

The two organisations will host a two-week virtual World Design Challenge on Sustainable Packaging that will aim to identify sustainable solutions in packaging design from 24 May to 4 June 2021.

This initiative will work in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, to address internationally relevant topics, including food waste and safety, sustainable packaging, circularity and education to help spur meaningful change at both the individual and industry level.

“The WPO is thrilled to be involved in this first ever joint venture with WDO,” stated WPO President Prof. Pierre Pienaar. “Design, and even more so sustainable design, is such a key element to the future development of packaging that at this critical time, we must ensure the impact on our global natural resources and our environment is minimally affected. We therefore enthusiastically approach this opportunity and anticipate innovative outcomes to the benefit of multiple communities and generations.”

“Since its inception in 2020, WDO’s World Design Challenge concept has empowered hundreds of designers who all volunteer their expertise to examine issues and validate ideas towards quick and tangible resolutions on a number of significant social problems. “What our international design community can accomplish remotely within this two-week period without ever even meeting in-person, is nothing short of amazing,” stated WDO President Srini Srinivasan. “Under the guidance of subject matter experts, we collectively map out the problem, generate ideas, make quick decisions and develop tangible prototypes that are then ready to be tested prior to implementation.”

The World Design Challenge on Sustainable Packaging aims to bring together professionals and researchers in the fields of sustainability and packaging design across different industries.

Seven international teams will be appointed to develop creative solutions that best address the following seven key challenge statements:

How can we design sustainable packaging solutions for e-commerce?
How can we redesign packaging that reduces consumer food waste?
How can we develop sustainable solutions to food service delivery packages to reduce packaging waste in particular with online food ordering and delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, as well as meal kit providers such as Hello Fresh?
How do we design sustainable packaging for healthy and on-the-go lifestyles?
How can we improve packaging sustainability in communities where no collection systems are in place?
How can we develop packaging that is child-proof but easy to open for the elderly and those with physical vulnerabilities?
How can we change/engage consumer behaviour to help increase sustainable habits such as recycling, reusing, upcycling, composting and reducing food waste?

“Packaging is an indispensable part of everyday life, which is why its design is so important. Designers can play a critical role not only in furthering the development of innovative, sustainable packaging but also in fostering important conversations around the value and impact that packaging has on society,” stated WDO President Srini Srinivasan. “We are looking forward to this collaboration with WPO and hope to leverage this opportunity to rethink standards around packaging.”

Expected outcomes of this initiative include shareable design-led solutions that can be extended to both packaging industries and other sectors as a way to encourage waste prevention, engage and educate consumers and foster more sustainable business models.

Designers and other professionals with experience and/or interest in sustainable packaging design are invited to apply as participants and facilitators on or before 30 April 2021, 11:59 EDT.

APPLY HERE

Vale His Royal Highness Prince Philip 1921–2021

Good Design Australia pays tribute to His Royal Highness Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh.

His passion for supporting Australian design and engineering will always be remembered through the Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design which was introduced in 1967 in the early days of the Industrial Design Council of Australia (IDCA) and the Australian Design Council.

The aim of the Award was to promote a greater awareness of good design in Australian design and engineering. The Award recognised an Australian designed product that had the potential to make a substantial contribution to Australia’s economic progress and was closely associated with our Australian way of life.

The inaugural Prince Philip Prize is awarded in 1968, during Prince Philip’s visit to Australia in May. Criteria included standard of manufacture and construction, inventiveness of design, originality, aesthetic appeal, ease of operation and marketability.

Good Design Labels (1964) and His Royal Highness Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh presenting the Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design (1967).

Much like the Good Design Labels, which appeared on products as visible indicators of quality design and manufacturing in 1964, and the IDCA-led Australian Design Index, the Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design served to raise awareness of the importance of design in Australian manufacturing.

Together, these initiatives represented the formal start of design assessment and promotion in Australia, stimulating competition, debate, high standards of quality and industry growth.

More than 90 Australian designed products were considered for the Award with the inaugural Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design awarded to a self-propelled grain header, designed by Kenneth Gibson.

The Awards Presentation hosted by popular Australian TV celebrity, Ita Buttrose.

In July 1978 and September 1979, His Royal Highness presented the Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design during an ABC national telecast.

The ABC estimated the audience for these two major programs to have been at least three and four million viewers on the respective occasions. These programs, both running for more than an hour in prime television time, had a marked effect on public awareness of design in Australia.

Australian manufacturers and designers strongly supported the program and consumer perception of design was at an all-time high.

Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design, GE Polypropylene Electric Kettle, 1978.

“I hope this whole exercise will provoke a great deal of discussion and argument on the subject of Industrial Design. I don’t mind in the least if people disagree violently with our choice because it will mean that this is a subject worth attention and worthy of well-informed criticism.” His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh.

The Industrial Design Council of Australia (IDCA) was originally established in 1958. More than 60 years on, Good Design Australia continues to proudly promote and recognise excellence in design, creativity and innovation in Australia and abroad.

Read our full history here.

Main picture above: To mark the inauguration of the Australian Design Award in March 1977, His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh was presented with Award Certificate No. 1. With His Royal Highness on the Royal Yacht Britannia is Minister for Productivity, Mr. I.M. Macphee (left) and IDCA Chairman, Mr. R.A Rosenfeldt.