With their business going through a high rate of growth, the founders of an Austrian candle company Looops felt that the brand’s look and feel had reached its limits. A rebranding — including a redesign of the packaging — was the next logical step. The business started small but has since grown into new heights. As production volumes grew, the founders could no longer sustain making the glass containers out of recycled wine bottles themselves. As new types of containers were needed for the candles, rebranding the whole product line became relevant. As the outer packaging is the first thing the consumer sees, it too had to communicate the quality of the product and its brand values: pure, reduced and authentic – just like the fragrances used in the candles themselves. “We wanted the new brand design to be more than just a visual impression. We wanted it to reflect Looops’ journey, the experiences we have gained over the years and how they have improved the quality of our products. The packaging as a whole — from the material, to the visuals and the tactile feel — had to illustrate this as well,” explains one of the co-founders Julia Schliefsteiner.

A decade or so ago, Ben Miyares, a regular contributor to this magazine and President of The Packaging Management Institute, was teaching a module for our on-line Packaging Masters Program Course “The Value of Packaging” at Michigan State University. We had just started PTIS and believed that packaging value was very understated and that there were big opportunities ahead. The Miyares module was about packaging being bigger than an “industry”—he referred to it as an “economy.”

Graphic Packaging Holding Company announced that it has published its 2019 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report. With this report, the Company has provided additional disclosures using the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) reporting framework and has committed to a broader set of environmental, social and governance initiatives. "Our sustainability reporting continues to exhibit transparency on topics that matter most to investors, customers, employees and other stakeholders," said Michael Doss, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Customers, suppliers, investors, employees and the communities where Graphic Packaging conducts business have helped shape the Company's sustainability vision. We are pleased to disclose the significant progress we have made and our resolve for continued improvement on topics that are most impactful and important to these stakeholders." Graphic Packaging is working diligently toward meeting its Vision 2025 sustainability goals, and accomplished early achievement of two goals in 2019: 100 percent of global folding carton/cup manufacturing facilities are now engaged in a waste diversion program; 100 percent of global folding carton/cup manufacturing facilities and paperboard mills comply with Graphic Packaging's forest and fiber certification requirements.