This week’s figures cover paper-based packaging, brand purpose, respected professions and the cocoa expansion threatening Cameroon’s forests.
43%. Consumer demand for “more sustainable and recyclable packaging” will produce a surge in paper-based drinks packaging over the next two to three years in the US, according to PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Use of glass (-8%) and rigid plastic (-7%) will fall, while there will be growth in liquid cartons (16%), metal (20%), flexible packaging (30%) and paper-based packaging (43%).
20%. Is there any point in pushing your purpose? Research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science involving consumers in the UK, US and Australia suggests not. Based on conversations around 14 ‘best in-class purpose-led brands’, including Ben & Jerry’s and Tony’s Chocolonely, four out of five people either don’t notice or can’t articulate the purpose. “This research shows that it is extremely difficult to build awareness of a brand’s purpose, let alone using it to drive behaviour change,” the authors of the study wrote.
2. Farmers are ranked the second most respected profession in the UK, according to NFU research. Nurses came in first.
43%. A report by Mighty Earth, “Cameroon on the brink: Cocoa’s New Deforestation Frontier,” shows that Cameroon is becoming the next major hotspot for cocoa-driven deforestation. Cameroon is now the world’s fifth-largest cocoa producer and has set a goal to triple production by 2030 – a move that is increasing pressure on the country’s forests and hugely biodiverse ecosystems. The report highlights that 2024 marked the highest year of forest loss in Cameroon to date, with some districts having lost as much as 43% of their forest coverage since 2020.
