Raj Mehta’s sustainable solution is changing the way businesses are looking at responsible packaging.
During one of Raj Mehta’s family’s stays, they briefly relocated to the hills for a charming town called Landour, where they discovered organic cosmetics and preserves. In a far-off village, these products were being manufactured by hand locally. But everything that was taken from nature was wrapped in “plastic.” It just seemed wrong. That is how Raj conceptualised Leaf Packaging, an internal division of Leaf Enterprise. Leaf Packaging was founded in order to meet the needs of the organic consumer market.
“When looking to introduce an organic product for our associate in 2005, we observed that the only packaging option available was plastic. So here we were creating an organic based product for mankind, but with each usage creating a trail of pollution for our planet,” reminisces Raj.
He realised there was a big need and vacuum in the market for responsible alternate packaging for conscientious manufacturers and consumers as well.
Raj and his team started to work on the drawing board and were able to come up with answers for a handful of their earliest projects, thanks to their background in media and design. It was enough to give them more confidence and pay for their research costs.
Next, they needed to add value to the packaging in order to sell the concept to the first group of partners and clients, therefore they had to consider exclusivity in design and brand memory. “It was necessary that each packaging had to be handmade to keep exclusivity in design; it also allowed us to tweak our creations as per individual brand requirements,” Raj adds.
Taking a leaf from Nature
Leaf Packaging’s tagline Nature in Design well defines its product line. The brand devises exclusive concept packaging for all sizes of customised jars and bottles. Each packaging style is exclusively designed for individual brands on a project-to-project basis.
