October 2020

The Retail Institute’s Future of Packaging Report

The Retail Institute, part of Leeds Business School at Leeds Beckett University, is one of the UK's key academic research centres that leads consumer experiences of the future in retail, food & packaging.

Global plastic pollution is a problem that fundamentally brings into question the role of packaging in society. The Retail Institute's report on the Future of Packaging tackles that question by presenting the findings its Collaborative Industry Group. The group, consisting of businesses and trade organisations from the retail packaging supply chain, came together to discuss the environmental impact of packaging, following increased scrutiny of the industry as a result of greater public awareness of global plastic pollution.

Six collaborative sessions were led by Professor Jeff Gold using a ‘Futures and Foresight' approach to explore strategies for responding to anticipated opportunities and challenges. The process helped the group to jointly generate new knowledge and supported each group member in preparing their own organisations for developing resilience and capacity for possible and preferable future scenarios. The report represents the collective views of the group and contains analysis and calls for action under themes including consumer behaviour, environmental measures and waste infrastructure.

The Retail Institute and the Collaborative Group members have set out in the report the need for collective action to tackle issues that are too big for individual organisations to manage alone. Overall, the report demonstrates the continuing need for knowledge and understanding to inform collective strategies.