O-I’s Lean+Green wine bottles win design award

O-I’s Lean+Green lightweight wine bottle range secured its fifth national award after taking out a prestigious Australian International Design Award in Sydney.  The company earned the title in the wide-ranging consumer category, which included products from global brands such as LG, Rado, Samsung, Miele, Bosch, Siemens and Jura.

Lean+Green was also one of only nine nominees for the overall Design Award of the Year.

Launched in Australia and the United Kingdom last year, Lean+Green wine bottles are between 18 and 28% lighter than their predecessors. O-I’s investment in narrow neck press and blow (NNPB) technology at its Adelaide plant delivered substantially lighter-weight and more environmentally friendly bottles that immediately save almost 20,000 tonnes of glass packaging a year and deliver large savings in water, energy and emissions.

Judges praised Lean+Green for significantly challenging environmental standards while maintaining all the hallmarks of a traditional wine bottle. O-I’s entry was the only example of packaging in the list of 124 finalists and the award was Lean+Green’s first recognition outside the packaging industry.

“This award really shows how O-I’s Lean+Green lightweight wine bottles break through the traditional realms of the packaging industry. Elements of their design, manufacture and environmental benefits cut across many industry and community sectors,” O-I Asia Pacific Marketing and Sales General Manager Jacqueline Moth said.

“Lean+Green triumphed in a category featuring flat screen TVs, coffee machines, watches and MP3 players,” she said.

In addition to less glass packaging, the production process for the bottles provides further environmental benefits such as:

• A 20% reduction in energy use to produce the same number of bottles;
• A saving of more than 11,130 tonnes of CO₂ per annum;
• An average 12% drop in water usage per container;
• Overall water savings of 4720 kL or the equivalent of 6.3 Olympic swimming pools a year; and
• Around 840 more bottles packed into a 20 ft shipping container (an increase of 6.25%).

O-I anticipates that the packaging, emissions, energy and water savings could treble inside two years as the Australian wine industry embraces the product and O-I adds more NNPB capability to its facilities.