PIQET

Development of a web based tool for rapid evaluation of the whole life cycle impact of packaging. This is for specific use by Australian food and beverage packaging supply chain companies and enables compliance with the relevant Code of Practice.

Objective

The Centre for Design at RMIT University, through association with the Sustainable Packaging Alliance (SPA), has developed a Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool (PIQET) to provide a life cycle assessment of the environmental impacts of packaging. The tool is of great value to the food and beverage sector in the design of sustainable packaging.

The original PIQET prototype was funded by sponsors including Cadbury Schweppes, Nestle Australia and Masterfoods Australia New Zealand. WSP were commissioned to develop the tool from Excel into a user friendly web based platform to enable it to be marketed more widely and accommodate future developments.

Action

Working with SPA, we helped develop a long term plan for the product roadmap, reflecting this in our design of the web based platform.

Throughout the process we attended and contributed to SPA’s Steering Committee, which included representatives from the sponsor organisations. This enabled us to have ongoing dialogue and feedback with target users in respect of the development of PIQET online.

Development was complete within 6 months and our process included:

• Design of easy to use interface, keeping the product accessible and simple.
• Initial virtual walkthrough of proposed site to help shape scoping and design decisions with SPA.
• Innovative online ‘wizard’ to guide the user through the data gathering aspects of PIQET.
• Customized reporting interface, delivering reports both online and as PDF downloads.
• Online content administration system to manage accounts and data, with secure password accounts for users.

Outcome

PIQET enables users to benchmark different packaging formats, assessing environmental impacts and recycling capability. Through our understanding of the sustainability agenda and its affect on the food and beverage sector, we took the concept and designed a flexible, user friendly online tool that enables SPA to market this subscription based product to a wider audience. PIQET provides a system to ensure compliance with the Environmental Code of Practice for Packaging, which is a statement of general principles for the design of environmentally responsible packaging