Boosting the next generation of sustainable packaging
Plastic challenges in the packaging industry are steadily growing. But the innovation process for sustainable alternatives still lacks the necessary acceleration and capital. one • fıve offers companies a fully integrated research and development approach to create market-ready packaging solutions in record time — and we’re here for it.
Plastic is still on the rise
Before explaining why we invested in one • fıve, it is vital to understand why we believe investing in plastic alternatives is crucial to building an economy within the planetary boundaries. We all are aware of fossil-based plastics’ downsides, especially when it comes to waste prevention and biodiversity protection. Plastic doesn’t just clog our oceans, it is burdening municipal recycling systems around the globe. Even though the science is clear, there is not much improvement in sight yet, as plastic production is expected to double in the next 15 years.
Plastic packaging makes up 40% of total plastic waste, with 22% of that waste evading waste management systems altogether, leaking into and harming both land and marine environments. Even though manufacturers are increasingly facing new regulations and fees to bear some of the responsibility for the afterlife of their products, new solutions are still being developed too slowly. Companies are often not equipped to produce sustainable alternatives and lack the ability to deploy them at full market scale.
The next generation of packaging materials
one • fıve is on a mission to change exactly that. They provide customized, cleaner, and circular packaging solutions, designed to drop into existing consumer packaging value chains to create measurable, positive environmental impact. The innovations range from developing a bio-based, yet cost-effective alternative for highly disposable condiment packets and redefining liquid paperboard packaging as a mono-material, to optimizing the recyclability of rigid cosmetics bottles.
“We believe the right material solution already exists; the problem is, it’s not ready for the market. Our machine learning platform discovers and assesses biomaterial innovations slumbering in research institutions. The team then transforms the most attractive solutions into market-ready products the industry will accept,” says co-founder Claire Hae-Min Gusko.
As always, we calculated an exemplary simplified LCA for our own Planet A evaluation. The result: the assessment proved that alternative packaging solutions currently being developed by one • fıve show substantial impact reduction potential compared to conventional solutions. The one • fıve alternative shows a 75% reduction in total GHG supply chain emissions produced, compared with the PET-based counterpart, when assessing packaging production and raw material extraction with regards to abiotic resource demand, climate mitigation, water consumption as well as fossil energy demand (excluding end of life scenario). More details here.
“Our Life Cycle Assessment shows that one.fıve has the potential to lead to a significant, quantifiable reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the existing petro-based packaging,” says Lena Thiede, Co-Founding Partner at Planet A Ventures.
Scalable, market-ready, fast solutions. Why we partnered with one.five:
With their fast multiple-shot approach, one • fıve addresses several pain points of the currently overwhelmed packaging industry at once. They are the first to offer a fully-integrated augmented research and development approach for companies, with their own team of top-tier material scientists. They also tackle the problem of scalability by transforming existing academic lab-scale material science inventions into market-ready products in record time. Combined, we believe this approach will be able to create a significant positive impact and address the urgent crisis of single-use plastics pollution.
We are very proud to partner with this exceptional one • fıve team around the founders of Martin Weber, former CFO of leading vertical indoor farming unicorn Infarm, and Claire Hae-Min Gusko, previously Head of Business Strategy at Infarm. We have no doubt that this strong team will develop industry-leading results. Planet A partnered alongside Speedinvest, Green Generation Fund, Climentum Capital, Revent and WEPA Ventures, and others on one • fıve’s journey to transform the packaging industry.
