Is your Point of Sale Sustainable?

Is your Point of Sale sustainable?

By ‘you’, I mean designers, manufacturers, distributors and most importantly … brands and retailers. What we all do, and how we do it, has an impact on the environment but the overriding fact is that consideration of ‘end of life’ is of paramount importance. We can design and produce in a positively sustainable way, but if what we produce ends up in landfill that intent is largely pointless.

In basic terms there are two clear ‘points of effect’, one is based on fact, the other on thought:

Fact – materials, manufacturing processes, packaging and distribution can be optimised for sustainability in a logical way that is measureable.

Thought – happens at the concept stage and consideration of ‘end of life’. It is incumbent on designers to fully consider the construction method, if it can be flat packed, longevity and breakdown of components for re-use or recycling. It should be part of the brand/retailers brief to consider what happens to the POS at the end of its life.

In general, the ‘fact’ element already takes place because the materials available are sustainable, and for the simple reason that it is cost effective.

The ‘thought’ part is where we have work to do. Designers must understand that their thought processes dictate the development of the end product and incorporate a sustainable ethos into their approach. Obviously there are many considerations with a brief, but we need to get into the habit of sustainability being one of them. Brands and retailers need to include ‘end of life’ within the brief so it has to be considered at the outset, and provision made to ensure that there is a defined plan to either re-use or recycle.

Retailers are actually pretty good as they do have guidelines in place, but these can be very simplistic and in some cases stifle sustainable thinking. An example of this is Tesco having a clear policy that any temporary units can only be made of card. Seems pretty environmentally friendly? To a degree yes, but consider a brand that historically has a special offer corrugated card display in store every 2 months – that’s 6 units per year. In contrast, they could have have a display made in Correx (fluted polypropylene) which remains in store all year and has updatable card graphics changed every 2 months. Which one is more sustainable?

If you add together the carbon generated from the energy, material and transport for both options, the Correx unit is far more sustainable than the corrugated unit … and is recyclable, and over a year is about half the cost.

This example is based on fact: 18 months ago this is exactly what we proposed to Tesco and it was rejected. Morrisons however approved the proposal and those Correx displays are still being used in store now.

Members of POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising Institute) “Working Towards Sustainability” are actively exploring ways in which we can evolve the industry to achieve an audit standard – from a design perspective this means training, providing evidence of our ‘mind-set’ and being open to new ideas.

Design is, and should be, about creative freedom, but we already have to work within brand and retail guidelines … so considering sustainability should not stifle those juices, just be part of the challenge. Brand and retailers need to be open to this creativity and not hide behind a policy that, whilst originated from the best intentions, does not necessarily provide the best sustainable solution.

Author: Stuart Becker

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