Go Do Good highlights sustainability at Pune Design Fest 2024

Day one was a combination of speaker sessions, workshops and forums. From a spread of four workshops and two forums, we definitely had to choose the workshop themed “Understanding sustainability through packaging” for our own WhatPackaging? readers.

The session was conducted by Khushboo Gandhi of Go Do Good, a Pune-based start up that innovates materials, inks, coatings, adhesives and ancillary packaging materials.

In this interactive session, more than 60 attendees were given various substrates that cause some harm to the environment. Each one identified and tried rectifying the very own substrate. She made the audience look at the substrate through the material science perspective and not the product perspective.

She also spoke about the products that the company has researched, developed, tested and has been selling and making profit. Some of the interesting sustainable alternatives to existing plastic packaging are mentioned below.

Ink:
The process of making ink, printing it and delamination is not very sustainable. To curtail such issues, Go Do Good has come up with water-based and plant-based inks made out of seaweeds.

These inks have been tested and used in offset and flexo printing processes. Apart from the pantone shades, the company has also come up with a golden printing ink. 

Thermal insulations:
Sustainable bubble wraps and thermal insulations. Since the warm clothes have shifted their focus from wool to synthetic material, a lot of wool, every year is being obtained but not utilised. To maintain the balance, the company has set up a supply chain to source the wool from the shepherds and create thermal insulating wrap that maintains the temperature of the product.

Bubble wraps:
Another issue solved by Gandhi was the problem of excessive bubble wraps used during transporting eCommerce products. They used coconut coir to provide cushioning and the product can be used as ancillary packaging material. The coconut-coir, a sustainable alternative to bubble wrap, has passed the six-edge test for a glass tumbler.

Coatings:
Paper-based stand-up pouches, boxes, trays, or cups are lined with plastic making them unfit for recycling or biodegrade.

This led Go Do Good to source naturally occurring Indian indigenous gums which are available in abundance in the country. Using concepts of green chemistry, the company has formulated The Good Coating, a 100% bio-based coating to replace PE and wax-based coatings.

The coating imparts oil-resistance, grease proofing, water-resistance, moisture resistance, and heat sealability.