The Conai Ecodesign Competition is underway

The eleventh edition of Ecopack, the project dedicated to enterprises that have revised their packaging from a green perspective, is underway. Applications are open until 30 April, with 600,000 euros of prizes.

A new call to arms (in the name of sustainability) for Italian enterprises: the eleventh edition of Ecopack, the CONAI eco-design competition, is underway. As in every year, the Competition seeks to raise awareness by the Italian business fabric of the importance of issuing onto the market increasingly less impacting packaging, and is open to all companies that have revised their packaging from a green perspective.

To be admitted to the competition, they must have revised their packaging with eco-design approaches, using at least one of the eight prevention strategies: reuse, ease of recycling, use of recycled/recovered material, saving of raw material, optimization of production processes, optimization of logistics, simplification of the packaging system and – new in 2024 – saving of virgin material, introduced to acknowledge measures that limit the use of raw materials.

A total of 600,000 euros up for grabs

50,000 euros will be reserved for five super-awards - incentives for the circular innovation. Three cases that will have stood out in activating reuse strategies, ease of recycling and the use of secondary raw material, will be among these five; the other two cases will have generated environmental benefits promoting new applications and particularly innovative technologies. The other 550,000 euros will be divided between all the cases admitted, proportionately according to the score obtained. A special mention may be assigned to a case that has stood out for having made innovations in the e-commerce sector.

Comment by the CONAI president, Ignazio Capuano

«A great opportunity for promoting good sustainable design practice»
comments Ignazio Capuano, CONAI president.
«The responsible use of resources is certainly one of the paths to take for safeguarding the planet: it’s increasingly important to reward enterprises that design their packaging taking account of the need to recycle it more easily or to reuse it, and that manufacture it using secondary raw material. Their efforts also contribute to a significant saving in water and energy, and represents a virtuous example that we hope other companies will follow».