2025 Sustainable Design Gold Winners: Could you be next?
We take a look back at our 2025 Gold Sustainable Design winners to see those leading the way in sustainability within the packaging design industry. Could your design be the next one to take centre stage?
We take a look back at our 2025 Gold Sustainable Design winners to see those leading the way in sustainability within the packaging design industry. Could your design be the next one to take centre stage?
Each year, we see even more entries placing sustainability at the forefront - not only within this category, but across the entire competition.
Through our competition, we want to showcase both those helping to bring sustainable behaviours into consumer's everyday lives as well as those pushing the boundaries in sustainable packaging with the next big thing. From your basic products like refillable water bottles to sustainable luxury packaging and the latest innovations in bio-materials, we want to hear from you!
Take a look at some of last year's top winners in our Sustainable Design category:
2025 Sustainable Design Beverages Gold: Roam SodaTop™ by Roam
SodaTop™ by Roam is a next-generation hydration system that redefines how we enjoy sparkling water—sustainably, stylishly, and on the go. Designed to challenge the wasteful norms of bottled beverages, Roam empowers people to carbonate the water they already have—anytime, anywhere.
By replacing single-use bottles and eliminating the need for globally shipped beverages, SodaTop™ by Roam directly addresses the 500+ billion plastic bottles discarded each year and helps cut the carbon footprint of water transportation.
Design, sustainability, innovation, and convenience are at the heart of Roam’s mission. The reusable bottle—crafted with recycled stainless steel —retains carbonation longer and features a streamlined silhouette in a refined tonal palette. The compact carbonator delivers sparkling water in seconds using 100% recyclable stainless steel CO₂ chargers, eliminating the need for return shipping.
Roam’s packaging reflects the same thoughtful approach. Modular boxes interlock like Tetris to fit multiple products, while each locally produced sleeve supports and celebrates small businesses and shares Roam’s story. SodaTop™ by Roam isn’t just about better hydration—it’s about creating a smarter, cleaner, more connected future, one bottle at a time.
2025 Sustainable Design Food Gold: Olio Centonze Blue Ice by Atiu
The Blue Ice project was developed for a Sicilian brand renowned for its premium olive oil and distinctive ceramic bottle editions. While their ceramic packaging reflects Sicily’s artisanal heritage, the brand sought to create a more sustainable and scalable alternative for a special edition, maintaining the beauty and cultural richness of their ceramic designs.
The final product is a glass bottle featuring a design inspired by 19th-century Caltagirone maiolica. Starting with a high-definition photograph of their ceramic pattern, the design was carefully adapted digitally to fit the unique shape of the bottle. The result is an industrially decorated bottle that mimics the appearance of hand-painted ceramics, preserving the artisanal charm while leveraging the practicality of glass.
The advanced decoration techniques used brought the design to life, ensuring the vibrant colours and intricate details of the original ceramics were perfectly translated to glass. This approach offers the beauty of handcrafted aesthetics combined with the benefits of industrial production, including durability and sustainability.
The Blue Ice project beautifully captures the essence of Sicily’s rich heritage while meeting modern production and environmental needs, showcasing the brand commitment to tradition and innovation.
2025 Sustainable Design Body, Health & Beauty Gold: Hatice Schmidt by Established
A unique, ultra-sustainable lipstick for German makeup influencer Hatice Schmidt. Growing up in the tough Berlin neighbourhood of Neukolln , and then becoming a glamorous influencer, everything about Hatice’s world is a clash of gritty reality on the one hand, and sophisticated elegance on the other. The chain design of the case evokes the harsh, punky street life of her childhood, whilst the mirrored gold makes it thoroughly luxurious and glamorous.
This concurrence of mismatching styles is also used on the secondary packaging which uses a mixture of fonts, one ornate and one more industrial. Using an ultra-innovative manufacturing process in Italy, the lipstick case is made of solid metal with the idea that the consumer buys it once and keeps this beautiful object for life, replacing the bullet within it with a sustainable refill system. Should the case need to be replaced, it can be recycled infinitely as it’s 100% aluminum with no plastic parts.
2025 Sustainable Design Home, Leisure & Other Markets Gold: BOTITO by Tridimage
BOTITO emerges as an Eco-Guardian, teaching children that waste can initiate something new and valuable.
Inspired by a waste bin, its innovative retail packaging embodies BOTITO's circular philosophy by utilising 100% post-consumer recycled paper pulp. This transformation of discarded materials creates a fully recyclable and compostable solution. The uncoated paper pulp finish showcases raw materiality, demonstrating that sustainability can be both conscious and playful. Designed for seamless integration into circular systems,
BOTITO packaging can be recycled, composted or creatively reused, leaving only inspiration to rethink waste. Since 2010, the project has recovered 12.5 tonnes of plastic, diverting it from landfills. We estimate that over 100 tonnes of plastic waste have been prevented through educational workshops and toy-making initiatives, transforming children's perception of waste materials and creating environmental guardians for the future.
2025 Sustainable Design Brand identity & connected packaging Gold: WOOGIE by Shanghai Version Design Group
WOOGIE’s packaging utilizes recycled grayboard pulp and a print-free design to reduce pollution and ensure an eco-friendly, low-impact approach. The grid semi-transparent die-cutting molds allow for flexible adjustments, minimizing material waste.
The modular cutting system enables easy resizing, adapting to the diverse shapes and sizes of objects, eliminating excess space and unnecessary production steps. The raw material finish enhances the authentic texture, showcasing the natural beauty of the material and embodying the fusion of sustainability and artistry.
WOOGIE focuses on the evolving relationship between “people and objects” across different eras and cultural contexts. By curating rare artifacts, sculptures, and ornaments from the past century to today, the brand explores the coexistence of art and nature, functionality and artistry. The rarity of selected objects naturally opposes mass production, requiring packaging that accommodates diverse styles and sizes, while aligning with practical logistics needs.
Echoing WOOGIE’s commitment to authenticity, individuality, and mindful consumption, Shanghai Version Design Group embrace simplicity, sustainability, and functionality. The design restores packaging to its essence—honestly and thoughtfully showcasing the beauty of each object.
2025 Sustainable Design Luxury goods Gold: Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra by Johnnie Walker
Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra is the world’s lightest 70cl glass whisky bottle, a major technical breakthrough in lower-carbon glass packaging.
Designed to challenge perceptions of luxury spirits, the project reimagines “heavy” as refined and responsible. Taking a concept-car approach, the team designed without limitation, fundamentally rethinking how a bottle can be shaped, produced and transported.
Weighing just 180g - half the weight of the brand’s previous lightest bottle - the hand-blown, teardrop form required a redesign of the iconic square silhouette, softening corners into a rounded base. The result is housed in a protective bamboo structure.
Reducing glass weight directly lowers energy use and carbon emissions, and the innovation is already influencing light weighting across the wider Diageo portfolio. The patented technology has been offered royalty-free to the industry, encouraging collective progress toward lower-carbon packaging.