Avery Dennison releases The New Transparency report

Avery Dennison has released The New Transparency trend report underlining the importance of transparency to give businesses control over their supply chains and environmental footprint, while offering consumers increased visibility, safety and education.

Avery Dennison releases transparency report to guide businesses to offer consumers a higher level of trust

The report, commissioned in partnership with forecasting consultancy The Future Laboratory, is the first of a content series to be released over the upcoming twelve months.

According to Avery Dennison, transparency, a concept already gaining ground before the global pandemic, has been galvanized by the rapid spread of the coronavirus, showing how quickly change can be implemented if the need arises. Consumers are also increasingly demanding transparency, with 70 percent of people feeling that trust in a brand is more important now than in the past.

The New Transparency report outlines recommendations such as digital identities, tracing and sustainable materials within four category-specific micro-trends – blockchain and analytical technologies, labelling, packaging, and secondary waste:

  • In the beauty sector - blockchain technology can encrypt epigenetic data to generate consumer-specific cosmetic profiles - providing hyper-personalized service. While digital identities can be used to trace raw ingredients and materials, further equipping consumers with details on how their products are made and sourced. 
  • In the food and beverage sector, profound issues exist with the complexity of how supply chains work. Applying physical items with a unique digital identity enables traceability and transparency, empowering brands and consumers to reduce food waste. Additionally, with material innovations such as pH-sensitive dyes, oxygen barrier labels and second skins, aim to preserve and monitor food freshness while reducing traditional packaging.
  • In retail, smart packaging and logistics can be a new touchpoint for transparency and sustainable practices. By assigning digital identities to physical products brands are enabled to bring more visibility into their supply chains and to better monitor global sourcing processes.
  • In materials, conscious consumers want to know and understand where products came from and what their environmental footprint is. They are becoming increasingly aware of a product’s journey - from sourcing to the overall lifespan of a product. Designing materials for longevity or using waste to create by-products, should be taken into account. This should be considered for all components of a product to encourage circularity, recycling and ultimately future-proof supply chains.

‘First and foremost, consumers are demanding this information – they want to understand the environmental footprint and be able to trace the provenance and the journey, in detail, of the products they buy,’ said Renae Kezar, global senior director and head of sustainability at Avery Dennison. ‘But embedding transparency also serves to unlock more effective decision-making for businesses, increasing their resilience.’

The New Transparency report can be downloaded from Avery Dennioson’s website.