By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to the booming crowd of eco-friendly consumers worldwide, packaging sure matters if you want them purchasing.

A recent Tandberg survey showed that more than half of global consumers (representing 1.1 billion people) prefer to buy from a company with a strong environmental reputation, which encompasses their various green efforts _ including product packaging.

And boxed wine, flower-sprouting lipstick and box-free toothpastes are the results that spurred from these buyer expectations.

``Companies can no longer go on by selling their goods in the old-fashioned big and bad packages,'' said Lee Hwa-jun, a brand strategist at Cheil Communications. ``This is a new area that calls for innovation.''

Global soft drink giant Coca-Cola simply redesigned its bottles to make them smaller and lighter, which helped to save materials and transportation costs, while its water brand Dasani aims to cut plastic use by 7 percent in five years by adjusting the bottle and cap shape.

Others join the rather ``easy'' way of going green by minor package tweaking.

Proctor & Gamble, the world's leading household product maker, recently introduced toothpaste tubes that can be shipped and shelved without boxes.

And hamburger king McDonald's replaced its plastic foam clamshell burger holders with recyclable, biodegradable cardboard, while beauty products firm Aveda said it will launch a line of men's products packaged in 95 percent recycled materials.

On the more innovative end is the Canadian cosmetics maker that kicked off a new type of lipstick cased in tubes made entirely out of corn. The outer carton, made of flower paper embedded with real flower seeds, can be moistened and planted to grow wild flowers.

``This is an example of a fresh idea that sends challenges to other cosmetics makers,'' said Kim Hyun-jin of marketing firm Brand One. ``What the other industries need is one or two pioneers to vamp out something new and take charge.''

Another idea maker is shoe company Timberland, which began its ``nutritional label'' packaging that provides consumers information on where the shoe was made, how it was made and its effect on the environment.

The shoemaker prints inside the box, ``What kind of footprint will you leave?'' which not only reminds consumers of their environmental responsibility, but works toward image marketing.

``Companies can definitely use eco-friendly packaging to their advantage by making it an opportunity to up their corporate image,'' said Lee.

Aside from consumers pushing the green trend, mega retailers, including Wal-Mart, Costco and Tesco, are increasingly pressuring their suppliers to cut down on excessive wrappers.

Although many of the global products are accessible to consumers here, experts say local makers must speed up in their packaging efforts with those in advanced countries.

``Korea's skills and knowledge in product packaging falls short of the EU and even Japan,'' said Lee Myung-hoon, chairman of the Korea Association of Professional Packaging Engineer (KAPPE), as he insisted that the industry should work together to catch up. ``If we don't, then _ not only will it hurt the environment, but local products won't have a place to stand.''

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr