The role of design practice in packaging sustainability in Australia

Governments and organisations around the world have increasingly embraced the view that design has a key role to play in sustainability. Organisations associated with the food and beverage packaging industry have largely been scrutinised, particularly for their perceived overuse of packaging materials. Increasingly, such an industry has attempted to address issues of sustainability associated with their activities through various design approaches. While progress has been made, these approaches seldom consider the intrinsic complexities of the influence of the interactions of those involved in design decisions, or the contexts in which design is practised. Existing views of design within organisations are misunderstood as limited to ‘improving’ one or more aspects of the life cycle of packaging materials. Design theorists point out that such an understanding of design is what limits its significance in sustainability. It has been suggested that before appropriately articulating its role for sustainability, a fundamental revision of the current notions and practice of design in actual contexts is indispensable. <br><br>This Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) investigation explores the current setting and character of the practice of design in the organisational context of the Australian Food and Beverage Packaging Industry (AF&BPI). A Grounded Theory (GT) approach is taken for the study, since it allows the researcher to enter the situation without preconceptions, permitting the emergence of theory implicit in the data, and positioning this as the outcome of the research. Thirty-six interviews were carried out with practitioners involved in design decisions across a range of organisations of the packaging industry. Topics addressed in interviews included issues related to interviewees’ perceptions on their roles; their involvement in design decisions; the current role of packaging and issues influencing its configuration; and notions of packaging sustainability. Through an inductive model consisting of an iterative process of systematically gathering and analysing empirical qualitative data, concepts grounded in the research data were drawn out. Correlations were made between interviewees’ interpretations and how such interpretations influence their actions and decisions, to explain how they continually resolve their main concerns. <br><br>The research outcome takes the form of a framework named Frames of Reference, since they portray in a conceptual sense the set of elements of design practices within the organisational context. According to these elements, three variations of the Frames of Reference are distinguished: fixed, flexible and versatile. The Frames of reference are conceived with respect to the beliefs of interviewees regarding the nature of their roles, the ways of approaching them and the paths of action for performing these roles. The thesis concludes with directions on the essential transformations required in design practices in order that design plays a role in packaging sustainability. The framework offers a new vision through which to approach design practices: one where awareness and intentionality, either conscious or unconscious, are fundamental aspects of the ontology of design practices; and one that challenges basic elements underpinning its existence, and often in conflict with or in contradiction to notions of sustainability.