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Veuve Clicquot Switches to Virgin Tree-Free Paper

Luxury champagne producer engineers a gift box made from hemp and recycled wood fiber that reduces its eco-footprint while supporting NGO Canopy Planet’s initiative to protect ancient and endangered forests.

Following two years of R&D, in summer 2022, Veuve Clicquot replaced its existing 100% virgin fiber paper and paperboard gift box with one made from 50% recycled paper and 50% hemp.
Following two years of R&D, in summer 2022, Veuve Clicquot replaced its existing 100% virgin fiber paper and paperboard gift box with one made from 50% recycled paper and 50% hemp.

For many brands today, transitioning from plastic to paper packaging has helped them move closer to achieving corporate sustainable packaging goals that center on decreasing their use of plastic and reducing the carbon footprint of their packaging. But what if your packaging is already made from paper? How can you make this renewable and recyclable material even more eco-friendly? For France-based luxury champagne brand Veuve Clicquot, the answer lay in switching to a virgin forest-free gift box, with half of the materials sourced from the local Champagne region.

Veuve Clicquot is no stranger to packaging innovation. In 2011, the brand introduced a gift box made of potato starch, and in 2014, it launched one made from its own post-harvest grape waste. Says Carole Bildé, chief marketing and communications officer of Maison Veuve Clicquot, innovation is embedded in the brand’s DNA and has become an even more important part of its packaging strategy in recent years.


   Read this related article, “From potato starch to grape skins: Veuve Clicquot’s eco-friendly packaging.”


“In 2019, we launched our EcoYellow internal program, leveraging our leadership in innovative packaging to identify and scale-up next-generation solutions,” Bildé says.

Following two years of R&D, in summer 2022, Veuve Clicquot replaced its existing 100% virgin fiber paper and paperboard gift box with one made from 50% recycled paper and 50% hemp—a virgin tree-free solution that is also 12% lighter than the previous packaging.

A solution for saving forests

The new Veuve Clicquot EcoYellow champagne gift box is said by the company to not only be a step forward in the brand’s work to spur packaging innovation, but is also the latest advance in parent company LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton SE’s work with Canopy Planet. Vancouver, B.C.-based Canopy is a non-profit organization that partners with global brands and innovators to address the massive and growing forest footprint of paper packaging.

According to Canopy, 3 billion trees, many of which are from the world’s oldest, most carbon- and biodiversity-rich forests, are cut down every year to meet the global demand for paper packaging. “If those three billion trees were stacked end to end in a line, they would wrap around the Earth roughly 891 times,” says the NGO. “Forests that once made up vibrant and rich ecosystems, brimming with life, become mountains of takeout containers and shipping boxes.”

According to Canopy, 3 billion trees, many of which are from the world’s oldest, most carbon- and biodiversity-rich forests, are cut down every year to meet the global demand for paper packaging. Credit: TJ Watt, Caycuse Watershed, April 2021According to Canopy, 3 billion trees, many of which are from the world’s oldest, most carbon- and biodiversity-rich forests, are cut down every year to meet the global demand for paper packaging. Credit: TJ Watt, Caycuse Watershed, April 2021In 2019, Canopy invited industry leaders to “think outside the box,” launching the Pack4Good initiative. The solutions-driven program was developed to help the world’s largest fashion, food and beverage, and beauty and personal care brands eliminate ancient and endangered forests from their packaging supply chains on the way to building a stable supply of low-carbon and circular alternatives. Pack4Good now has 389 members representing more than $199 billion in annual revenue.

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