Over the past two decades, sustainability assessment using rigorous scientific methodology, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), has transformed from a niche, reactive exercise into a core component of packaging design and corporate sustainability strategies.
Once used primarily in response to binary questions of one material versus another, or recycled versus not, LCA now plays a proactive role: informing supplier selection, driving innovative packaging product design, validating advanced new end-of-life pathways and meeting needs of customers and regulators on systemic improvement across packaging portfolios.
This shift reflects a broader trend: environmental considerations are no longer an afterthought but a driver of innovation, compliance, and competitive advantage. The journey of LCA’s adoption mirrors the Gartner Hype Cycle, illustrating how emerging tools move from initial excitement, through disillusionment, to realistic, valuable application.
From trigger to trough: Two decades of changes
In the early 2000s, innovation triggers were driven by rising environmental expectations and the need for credible, science-based sustainability data. Our rapid LCA packaging tool, PIQET (Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool) was developed during this period, by RMIT University in collaboration with industry leaders including Cadbury Schweppes, Lion Nathan, Masterfoods, Nestlé Australia, and Simplot Australia. The goal: a streamlined LCA tool that non-specialists could use for quick evaluation during early design stages.
Around 2010, LCA reached what the Hype Cycle calls the Peak of Inflated Expectations. Some organisations, such as Marks & Spencer, aspired to apply LCA to every product in their portfolio. Ambitions were high, but practical challenges soon emerged – high cost of studies, contradictory results, difficulty comparing studies, and recognition that product impacts often outweighed packaging impacts.
Between 2010 and the early 2020s, enthusiasm waned. This was the Trough of Disillusionment, where voluntary measures struggled to deliver on bold sustainability promises. Many companies limited their LCA work to isolated projects rather than integrating it into broader processes.
The slope of enlightenment: LCA in 2025 and beyond
Today, we are climbing the Slope of Enlightenment. Several trends mark this shift:
Mandatory scope 3 reporting: Supply chains are increasingly requiring life cycle carbon footprints and other LCA indicators, embedding them into procurement and compliance processes. Companies are moving from assessing individual packs to evaluating entire packaging portfolios. This enables them to track footprint reductions over time, support carbon reporting, and align with net-zero strategies.
Circularity in focus: New targets and regulations are driving circular economy strategies, moving beyond voluntary commitments.
Realistic expectations: Businesses now understand that no single metric can guide all design choices - trade-offs between climate impact, water use, material efficiency, and recyclability are inevitable.
Better tools and data: Advances in LCA tools, like PIQET’s automated ISO 14044 compliant report builder, empower companies to make credible, peer-reviewed on-pack environmental claims and combat greenwashing.
The role of PIQET in the next phase
As LCA moves from specialist use to mainstream practice, tools like PIQET are essential. They provide an accessible yet rigorous way to model impacts early in the design process, compare alternatives, and meet compliance requirements such as ISO 14044 reporting, and organisation-wide sustainability assessments. PIQET’s evolution mirrors the broader journey of sustainability assessment – from an innovation for early adopters to a mature, widely applied decision-making tool.
In 2025 and beyond, the companies leading in sustainability will be those embracing the complexity of LCA, integrating environmental goals with circular economy goals, and using it not just to respond to regulations, but to innovate in product and packaging design. We have left behind the era of inflated expectations, and the tools, data, and mindset now exist to deliver measurable, credible environmental improvements. The challenge, and the opportunity, is to use them well.
