The Path to Sustainability: Creating a Learning Ecosystem in Your Company
Sustainability has become a crucial factor for companies, legislation, and the public’s opinion. The issue of sustainable packaging development has gained attention in recent years due to its role in facilitating product chains and the innovations related to material use and waste reduction. Packaging is an integral part of products, and after use, it becomes waste, which creates a constant flow of materials and poses significant social dilemmas such as plastic pollution. To tackle these complex sustainability issues in packaging, companies need to establish a sustainable learning ecosystem that can provide designers with the knowledge and skills required to create sustainable product-packaging combinations.
The current approach to cross-disciplinary collaboration is insufficient in addressing the complexities of sustainable packaging. While the transfer of knowledge is successful, it quickly becomes obsolete as industry and legislation continue to change rapidly. Moreover, stakeholders tend to focus only on solving sustainability issues within their own boundaries, which limits progress. To overcome these challenges, companies need to collaborate with stakeholders from various disciplines and establish a transdisciplinary approach that considers possible solutions at a systemic level.
Transdisciplinary collaboration involves stakeholders within and beyond academia, working together to solve complex problems in an integrated system. Unlike multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches, transdisciplinarity focuses on emerging knowledge from the integration of disciplinary knowledge to solve complex problems on a societal level. Establishing a sustainable learning ecosystem requires a transdisciplinary approach, where designers of the future can move across boundaries and frame problems at a systemic level, enabling new strategies and solution approaches to emerge.
The University of Twente launched Pinkalicious, a research initiative aiming for high-intensity transdisciplinary collaboration, to establish a learning community and a platform that builds bridges between packaging industry partners, education and research, and governmental stakeholders. Pinkalicious sets out to establish a sustainable ecosystem where stakeholders can learn with each other, rather than just from each other.
Takeaway
In today’s world, sustainability is more than just a buzzword. It has become a critical factor in shaping the public perception of companies and their products. In light of this, it is essential for companies to build a sustainable learning ecosystem that enables them to tackle complex sustainability issues and stay ahead of the competition.
As we have seen, packaging development is a prime example of an area where sustainability-related issues are at the forefront. Packaging plays a crucial role in product chains and is a key driver of innovation in material use and waste reduction. However, it also contributes to major social dilemmas such as plastic waste and litter.
To address these challenges, companies must adopt a transdisciplinary approach that involves stakeholders from different disciplines working together to develop solutions at a systemic level. By blurring the boundaries between disciplines and collaborating with stakeholders, companies can create a learning ecosystem that enables them to stay ahead of the curve and develop sustainable packaging solutions that meet the needs of today’s consumers.
Ultimately, the success of any sustainable learning ecosystem hinges on the ability of companies to stay committed to their goals and work together towards a common vision of sustainability. By prioritizing sustainability and investing in a transdisciplinary approach to learning, companies can create a sustainable future for themselves and the communities they serve.
