为什么Sprint转向生物化用于包装设计

You can learn a lot from an armadillo. That’s what we found, despite watching new products and packaging launch every day, some with thousands of hours invested in research and development, many with significant sustainability improvements.

We wanted to go further, so we turned to bio-inspiration to help solve our packaging challenges. Studying nature helped us think out of the box about packaging and took us down a path -- without fully understanding where it might lead.

At Sprint, we’ve invested considerable time and resources into creating格林包装解决方案. For the millions of customers who purchase wireless devices each year, the packaging that encases mobile phones is a material issue in our industry. It’s also an area where small changes can make a big impact -- from brand recognition to environmental footprint to the bottom line.

To truly understand the improvements we’ve made over the last few years, we conducted anLCAwhere we learned we’d reduced our environmental impact by 55 percent (between 2009 and 2012). And while we made good progress, we wanted to think beyond unbleached kraft paper, soy inks and eco-friendly adhesives. We believe the science behind our packaging needs to be more than just protecting the device and making more sustainable packaging choices.

该concept of bio-inspiration or biomimicry is actually a simple concept: To use biological systems and processes to draw analogies that imitate nature’s design for the purpose of developing creative solutions to human challenges. That’s a mouthful but still fairly simple to grasp when you think about corn stalks that can withstand thunderstorms, porcupine quills or tortoise shells as a “built-in” defense. These examples are but a few best understood by theSan Diego Zoo at its renowned Centre for Bioinspiration-- and why Sprint approached the center in November 2012.

在那里，Sprint开始与支持Sprint可持续包装创新目标的中心和合作者合作。正是在那里，Sprint团队，我们的设计和包装合作伙伴以及中心的专家，​​共享从乌龟中收集的灵感，以及动物园的其他第一手观察植物，动物和文物。在激烈的头脑风暴会议之后，团队 - 武装了新的仿生学学习，科学和自然 - 正在进行突破项目，旨在推动下一代可持续包装。

使用Biomimicry来激发创新的公司，并以自身的研发实验室为自然，但很少，但迅速增长。Sprint加入了耐克和宝洁等领导者，因为它们看起来对自然来创新。该Fast Company article该Booming Business Of Biomimicry“......一种研究以来，从2000年以来，研究管道中的生物化学发生率增加了11倍。”

通过与中心合作，Sprint团队通过跨越三个主要阶段的一系列研讨会学会了如何将生物成像嵌入设计过程中：机会识别和研究，观念和发展。作为该过程的一部分，定义了项目挑战声明：确定印刷和包装材料的解决方案，这些材料是零售和消费渠道的创新，可持续和性价比的创新，可持续和成本效益。该团队还考虑了对产品包装（如热，冷水和耐湿性）以及与Sprint的可持续发展目标相关的特定功能，以及用于包装的可持续性目标（可回收性，当地来源和基于植物的可生物降解）。竞彩足球app怎么下载

As the team delved deeper into the development phase, several categories were identified to brainstorm against including structural color, natural dyes, materials, manufacturing processes and thematic design. Two of these categories proved to be the most robust for further exploration: materials and thematic design. These categories became the foundation of a two-day development workshop led by the Centre for Bioinspiration's director of corporate programs, Claire Wathen, and Dr. Gabriel Miller, director of research and development.

该workshop sessions were both invigorating and critical, as the team’s collective inspiration and translation of bioinspired opportunities were identified as "pathways" to guide the development of sustainable packaging concepts for Sprint. It was at those sessions where the team’s diverse backgrounds and expertise -- and true collaboration -- came into play.

Admittedly, I enjoyed watching these unexpected pairings of talent and passions for sustainability and biomimicry play out. Watching Ken Gilliam, sustainability strategist at Deutch Design Works, and the center’s horticultural manager, Dan Simpson, was like watching two adult men let loose in a zoo -- oh, wait, we were in a zoo. Ken shared this with me: “Driven by a wildly curious mind, Dan’s passion for teaching the naturally inspired wisdom behind biomimicry made it easy for me to draw more meaningful connections for what is possible by blending science and design.”

由此产生的“通路”were plentiful, bio-inspired and more important, mapped back to Sprint's business opportunity outlined in the original project statement: innovation, cost-effectiveness and sustainability. Tortoise shells, birds’ nests and twine were enough material for on-the-spot prototyping for one path, illustrating the benefits of a hard outer surface with proper cushioning. Strategic weakness, a pattern found in many natural plants and animals, inspired another new solution. Leaves and the hexagonal shapes found on the shell of a happy tortoise led to an idea that provided potential long-term cost efficiencies.

With these pathways -- and "seeds" of inspiration -- Sprint and our design partners are well positioned to continue to innovate our sustainable packaging, and are happy as a well-fed tortoise to tell the story next week inAustin at the 2013 SXSW Eco Conferencein the session “Telecom & the Armadillo: A Biomimicry Story.”

犰狳通过flickr的图像