Episode 296 - Sustainable Packaging at Speed: How Esko Is Building the Digital Backbone for a Low-Waste Future
In this episode, FuturePrint’s Elena Knight speaks with Geert De Proost, Director of Market Intelligence & Product Partnerships at Esko, about the accelerating drive toward digital, data-led and low-waste packaging workflows — and why sustainability is now a compliance essential rather than a voluntary goal.
Geert explains Esko’s role across the packaging value chain, supporting brands, pre-media and converters with tools for structural design, colour, pre-press, palletisation, workflow automation and business process management. Their mission: drastically accelerate packaging development while reducing waste, carbon impact and complexity.
A major theme of the discussion is the regulatory shift reshaping packaging. With EPR, the EU’s PPWR and emerging global sustainability rules, brands now face direct financial consequences if packaging isn’t designed and documented correctly. That pressure is driving a need for accurate, structured digital data — something Esko’s cloud platform is built to enable.
Geert also breaks down the three Manifesto principles most aligned with Esko’s work: optimised design for purpose, improved print efficiency, and leading with data and transparency. He reveals how combining structural and palletisation intelligence avoids “shipping air”; how colour and planning tools reduce makeready waste; and why digital data is the industry’s most urgent blind spot.
The episode also explores cultural change, the evolution of the packaging ecosystem, and where the biggest sustainability wins can be achieved today — especially in conventional printing, where simple workflow improvements can significantly lower waste.
Esko joined the Sustainable Print Manifesto to help drive cross-industry collaboration, and Geert shares his vision of a future where Esko acts as the data backbone connecting brands, converters, printers and recyclers.
A must-listen for anyone involved in packaging, print workflows, sustainability or supply chain transformation.
FuturePrint Events:
FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany