Sustainable Saunders

Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed some of Coca-Cola and Pepsico’s sustainable packaging initiatives becoming more and more prevalent. Aquafina’s Eco-Fina bottles are now made with 50% less plastic than in previous years, eliminating around 75 million pounds of plastic annually. I would like to take this opportunity to look further into these new ingenuities and share some of my thoughts on them.

The new Eco-Fina packaging offers a more sustainable way to consume bottled water. Although it is much more environmentally friendly to use re-usable water bottles, the Eco-Fina bottle offers a greener option for those who can’t resist the convenience of buying disposable water bottles. It would appear that Aquafina is taking these initiatives out of concern for the environment and the goodness of their hearts. I would be very surprised if that was their only motivating factor, if one at all.

I have purchased and drank from Eco-Fina water bottles and found them to feel flimsy and cheap. I actually had one start to leak when I placed it in the messy cup holder of my car.  By using less plastic to make their water bottles, Aquafina is substantially reducing their central cost, packaging. Sustainability seems like the perfect excuse for Aquafina to cut costs and look good while doing it. I also believe Aquafina’s  brand image would have suffered tremendously had they failed to make any visible efforts towards sustainability. Aquafina would potentially seem heartless, indifferent, unfashionable, and uncool compared to Dasani and other competitors who have been taking similar steps to go green. That is not to say that the environment can’t benefit from Pepsico’s selfish motives. In addition to the bottles being made of less plastic, the labels contain “green” cues such as the recycling logo. These cues should help keep sustainability on the minds of the consumers, especially when they are deciding where to dispose of their empty bottles. It would appear that Eco-Fina packaging is a win-win for Pepsico and the environment.

“Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.” – Eric Hoffer