Packaging redesign as a strategic tool for CO 2 emissions reduction: a sustainability-oriented algorithmic approach

This study investigates how environmental performance considerations can be integrated at the earliest stages of packaging design, with a focus on Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions across the supply chain. Although prior research has shown that packaging redesign influences logistics efficiency and downstream emissions, designers often lack practical decision-support tools during concept development, even though this is the stage where structural choices are most flexible and hardest to reverse later. To address this limitation, the paper proposes a parametric mathematical model for estimating CO2 emissions per unit based on a limited set of design and logistics parameters, including packaging geometry, pallet volume utilisation, transport mode, shipping distance, and packaging mass. The model does not aim to calculate precise absolute emission values. Instead, it emphasises relative differences between alternative packaging configurations, allowing environmental trade-offs to be explored early, even when detailed industrial data are unavailable. Design alternatives are evaluated using an integrated AHP-TOPSIS framework that considers carbon emissions, material consumption, and logistics efficiency. The resulting framework enables rapid, scenario-based comparison of packaging concepts without reliance on proprietary datasets. An illustrative application shows how variations in packaging geometry and pallet efficiency affect emissions intensity under representative transport conditions.