“TRANSPARENCY WAS VERY IMPORTANT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BOTH THE PROJECT AND THE PRODUCT.”
According to Lehtinen, participation in the project was very memorable for the Ääne- koski R&D team, which currently features 15 professionals. “We got to really utilise our experience, analysing test results, offering recommendations and communicating with the project members every step of the way,” Lehtinen reports. Boyle adds that trying to meet all regula- tory standards was quite naturally a must-win battle. Managing the demands and expec- tations of the supply chain was another high hurdle: “In a large-scale multi-partner undertaking like this, there are always ‘projects within the project’ which need to be carried out to perfection.” SETTING THE TONE While Metsä Board is no stranger to working with top international brands, the Starbucks coffee cup is one of those rare instances where the use of the word “iconic” is actually justified. The professionalism and environmental mindset of Starbucks and its partners left an impression: “Starbucks is serious about being more sustainable. Transparency was very important from the perspective of both the project and the product,” says Lehtinen. The end result: the same familiar Starbucks design, loved by consumers around the world, but the new hot cup is widely recyclable and certified home compostable in most countries. “The cup is a great example of what can be achieved when resources are pooled under a shared vision, and everyone is committed to collaborating with an open mind,” Lehtinen says. Having the Metsä Board sustainability team interact directly with its Starbucks coun- terpart was instrumental in producing great synergies. Boyle agrees: “Without openness, the whole project would never have happened.” Boyle notes that Starbucks clearly embraced its role as an early adaptor, blazing a trail for a more environmental coffee cup – a move that will in all likelihood be followed by other industry players. “The focus on being more sustainable will only grow in importance in the future.”
For three years, the teams from Starbucks, Transcend Packaging, Qwarzo® and Metsä Board iterated dozens of designs, subjecting prototypes to thousands of hours of testing. Unlocking and bringing online new manu- facturing capabilities to upscale production became a major priority as the focus turned to Metsä Board’s mill in Husum in Sweden. “Husum had the expertise required to make the paperboard for the new cup,” Lehti- nen says, explaining that Metsä Board already possessed a suitable paperboard material that was certified compliant with many local laws on home compostability and recyclability. “The material was a near-perfect fit for the project from the get-go, and it required very little modifications to the product specification,” she says. RELYING ON NORDIC WOOD Made from traceable wood fibre sourced from Nordic forests, the paperboard material has been certified as home-compostable by Ger- man certification organisation DIN CERTCO. The material also holds PEFC (PEFC/02-31- 92) and/or FSC® (FSC® -C0o1580) certification for forest origins.
Matt Boyle Sales Director, Food & Retail Europe, Metsä Board
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Hélène Lehtinen Vice President, R&D, Metsä Board
WHEN HI-TECH BOOSTS UX
Duncan Moir , President, Starbucks EMEA, notes that the hot cup solution is the first introduction of brand new technology applied to a coffee cup at scale. “The new Starbucks hot cup in Europe pro- vides a widely recyclable alternative for when customers don’t have a reusable cup,” Moir says, adding that he is really proud of the team that has worked to develop the innovative solution.
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