Dundee Brewing Company Changes Packaging in Support of Honey Bees

New York based Dundee Brewing Company makers of the popular Dundee Honey Brown beer have created a "Save the Honey Bee" program. 

The program is designed to raise awareness to the plight of honey bees and support ongoing research efforts to the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). 

In 2008 a portion of every Dundee beer sold in the U.S. will be donated to the Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees. 

As part of Dundee's new program the company has updated the name and packaging of its flagship beer their Honey Brown Larger.  Dundee Honey Brown's new packaging has been updated to include a prominently displayed honey bee on both the bottle labels and their six and twelve packs. 

“The new name and new packaging for Dundee Ales and Lagers symbolizes the renewed energy and innovation we’re putting behind our brands,” said Patrick Magallanes, vice president of marketing, High Falls Brewing Company. “We’re very proud of our brewery, people, and products. Now, more than ever, the Dundee brand will reflect our rich craft tradition, proud heritage, and award-winning quality.”

The company has also launched a new web site, dundeeforthebees.com to promote its focus on the honey bee and related products and marketing.

Mystery Surrounds New Whole Foods Reusable Bag

Whole Foods A Better Bag (photo: www.made-in-china.com)

When I started this story last month, I never expected a standard interview request with a designer to turn into a bureaucratic two-step that took us to China and back.

Austin-based Whole Foods Market officially phased out the use of plastic shopping bags on Earth Day last week. 

In December Whole Foods announced their intention to eliminate plastic bags and unveiled their new reusable bag called “A Better Bag.”  Following that announcement we reached out to the bag’s designer to learn more about the design and concept behind this colorful new bag. 

The response we received may be an indication of just how important reusable bags are becoming for Whole Foods. 

The colorful bags are quickly becoming the primary reusable bag the company sells, and their customers are embracing them thanks to their bright fun design, durability, low price and unique look and feel.

Perhaps an indicator of their popularity is the fact they are even selling on eBay.

A Better Bag was designed internally by Whole Foods staff who work on the company’s branded products.  The bag’s graphic design depicts blues and greens and a fresh cut apple.  Sustainable is Good attempted to obtain information on the bag’s artwork for this story.  However the bag’s designer was unable to answer any questions, citing a strict non-disclosure policy Whole Foods maintains with its employees.

Sustainable is Good contacted the Whole Foods corporate office in March for information on the bag for our story.  Initially we were turned down, being told the company doesn’t speak to “trade publications.”  After some follow up we were then informed a “rare exception” was made at the approval of the director of PR for Whole Foods – the company would participate in our story.

We submitted several questions to the company on the design and concept of the bag and also sought information on consumer reactions. 

Then began a back and forth process that in the PR world can only be described as odd.  Weeks passed with no information, then “availability” issues cropped up and more time passed; finally the company’s participation in the story came to an end last week over supply concerns. 

In an email a Whole Foods spokeswoman told Sustainable is Good, “We won’t be able to help on this story due to the reasons that I described earlier. As we had discussed, we were making an exception with your website as we know you do great work.  However, since we don’t know when our supply issues will be resolved, our team has opted to not go through with the story.”

Throughout the more than one month process to obtain basic information on the new bag, it was never clear exactly what any of the issues raised had to do with the design and concept of the bag.   It is also not known why the director agreed to participate in the story with these apparently severe supply issues looming.

Following this angle, Sustainable is Good spoke to regional sources who indicated they were unaware of any supply issues affecting the availability of the bags in their regions.

Where is the bag made and what makes it unique?

We were also able to establish where the bags are made and obtain information on what makes these bags unique within the reusable bag world.

The bags are made in the busy city of Shenzhen in China’s Guangdong province.  The city is booming with companies making reusable bags and nearly everything else imaginable for the U.S. market.  We also learned the reusable bag industry in China is riddled with misinformation over environmental claims and there is intense competition over U.S contracts.   

Based on publicly available trade information we were able to establish Charrmy Industries Co., Limited appears to be involved in the production of the Whole Foods bags.  In fact, the company’s web site proudly displays images of the bag.

What makes the Whole Foods bag different is the original artwork, design and high quality materials. 

Most of the Whole Foods bag is made from 100% post-consumer rPET (plastic bottles) material.  The tag that comes with the bag states 80% of the bag is made from rPET.   rPET material is quickly becoming the choice for high quality reusable bags destined for the U.S. market, because of its post-consumer recycled properties and its durability.

The Whole Foods Better Bag goes a step further by adding an outer layer of Oriented Polypropylene (OPP) film.  This material provides its unique look and texture as well as the ability to print high quality colorful artwork.  OPP is an excellent material for printing – for example the popular book Cradle to Cradle by the MBDC co-founders is made of OPP as are ReProduct greeting cards.   

By adding the outer OPP layer Whole Foods was able to take a reusable bag and make it fun and exciting for customers.

Aren't reusable bags for the greater good?

All of these points are interesting, innovative and exciting.  So why then did Whole Foods agree to participate in the story, and then over a month later back out?  Wouldn’t the company want to share its creative design work and innovative bag with its customers?   

The piece that Whole Foods is missing here is consumer interest; people are actually quite concerned with things like this.  People see these fun new bags in the stores, they see the store aggressively pushing them it’s not hard to see how interest is generated. Plus it’s a known fact eco-conscious consumers value design and innovation.

Reusable bags are designed to reduce waste and better the planet for everyone.  With that idea in mind you would think Whole Foods would be open about their new bag design and do anything they could to promote it and encourage others to follow in their footsteps and create their own. 

After all if more people embrace and use reusable bags and have access to bags that are fun and fashionable, then it stands to reason an increasingly significant dent can be made in the reduction of plastic bag waste, right? 

Is this more about protecting the design of a reusable bag than encouraging more people to use them?  That’s a fair question.

Method Hand Soap Refill

San Francisco-based Method is coming out with a new design for its liquid hand soap refill packaging.  The new packaging also marks the release of the much awaited refill for their popular foaming hand soap.

Sustainable is Good reported back in January, the new soap packaging design was coming.  Method decided to change the design of its liquid hand soap refills due to concerns over readability of its earlier clear design.

The new design features the same pouch from Winpack International and a white base color with colorful photos depicting the relevant soap bottle the refill is for.

According to a Method spokeswoman the new packaging is currently making its way onto store shelves.  She said the transition to the new packaging will be gradual implying existing stock will be used up and then replaced with the new design.

Weleda Packaging

German natural personal care products brand Weleda's motto is "In harmony with nature and the human being."  This philosophy is carried out in the company's brand identity and packaging.

The bright colorful packaging of Weleda's products stand out on store shelves.  The brand's use of vibrant colors corresponds with key ingredients in each product.  The colors of the packaging represent the natural color of ingredients used to make the product.  "Nature is vibrant, nature is beautiful thats what you see in the products," said Jennifer Barckley Director of Communications for Weleda USA.

Sea Buckthorn Berries

The company's new Sea Buckthorn body cream and hand cream come in packaging with warm yellow's and oranges representing the color of the sea buckthorn berry.  The packaging of Weleda's Sea Buckthorn Body Lotion is particularly well done.  The company used a warm orange/yellow label with a creamy blue apothecary style glass bottle.  The Sea Buckthorn Body Lotion packaging is a good example of Weleda packaging.  The company uses mostly glass and aluminum tubes for its products instead of plastics.  Plastics are only used as closures or caps in most of their packaging.

Barckley said the packaging design is all done by Weleda's European office.  She said its not uncommon for the company to work with outside creative agencies on occasion for specific projects but that product packaging design is done in house. 

Target Reusable Shopping Bag

Target's reusable shopping bag, originally developed to comply with new laws in California is gradually making its way across the country.  The reusable shopping bags have just begun to appear in Target stores on the east coast. 

The bags in typical Target fashion are a step up from similar offerings by competitors like Wal-Mart.  The bags are made by Green Bags from recyclable polypropylene fabric and are traditional Target red in color.  Available in two sizes the bags self zip into a small pouch for convenient storage.  Selling for $1.49 for the larger size and $.99 for the smaller bag the new bags offer Target shoppers an eco-friendly way to reduce the use of disposable plastic bags.

The Target reusable shopping bags feature some original and interesting graphic design.  The design on the bag features the Target tree bullseye illustration done by Minneapolis-based Wink.  Wink's Scott Thares told Sustainable is Good, "Target approached us to design and develop conceptual ideas and campaign elements...The recycled tree illustration was something that Target loved right away."  Thares said the design also appears on recycled bag containers in Target stores. 

"I do know that because of the great response, it (the bags) has been slowly rolling out to all Target Stores across the country," said Thares.