The importance of the multidisciplinary approach in sustainable food packaging design

Sustainability is increasingly regarded in the design of packaging for food, posing new challenges to packaging designers that are asked to consider not only the life-cycle of the packaging, but also the message it conveys and the behaviours it promotes. What methodological tools designers can use and the best way to address this challenge are still open questions. The paper argues that the creation of a multidisciplinary design team is one of the most effective way to face the issue, since the complexity of this multi-faceted topic requires a complex approach to properly tackle it. This hypothesis is supported by the analysis of different case studies carried out according to the methodology of the OEP - Observatory of Eco-Packaging at Politecnico di Torino. The results outline that designers cooperated with experts from different fields in order to make the selected packaging a means of sustainability.