Seven-Eleven Japan (hereinafter “Seven-Eleven”) started rolling out to 7-Eleven stores across Japan an initiative to switch the packages of lunch boxes and side dishes to environmentally-friendly containers made with less petroleum-derived ink and coloring from late May 2023.
These environmentally-friendly containers won the Good Design Award* on October 5, 2023.
We spoke with Mr. Yagita, who is the Raw Material and Equipment Support Chief Merchandiser in the Daily Department of the Seven-Eleven Japan Merchandising Division, about this. We asked him about why we have set out to introduce environmentally-friendly containers across Japan and his thoughts on this initiative.

*The only comprehensive design evaluation and promotion mechanism in Japan. Together with G Mark, it has been recognized by a wide range of people for more than 60 years and has continued its activities to make people’s lives and society better through design.
Click here for detailshttps://www.g-mark.org/en

*Photograph of a sales area

Seven & i Holdings has set switching to environmentally-friendly materials as one of the themes in our GREEN CHALLENGE 2050 environmental declaration shared across our group. Our aim in this theme is to increase the ratio of environmentally-friendly materials used in the containers and packaging of our original products including Seven Premium to 50% by 2030 and then 100% by 2050.
Mr. Yagita says Seven-Eleven is also “making every effort to reduce our environmental impact relating to containers and packaging” to achieve those targets.
“We had previously been expanding the range of products which use environmentally-friendly containers. We have now cut down on the ink and coloring used in the containers to reduce our environmental impact one step further.”
We have adopted containers made with less petroleum-derived ink and coloring in this initiative. That is leading to a reduction in the CO₂ emitted from the containers themselves and their manufacturing process. If we calculate the effect of this on a Japan-wide basis, we estimate we will be able to reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 800 tons a year through this initiative. We have also designed these containers to be easy to recycle by reducing the coloring process. Furthermore, we have increased the number of products which can be loaded per delivery truck by standardizing the containers to shapes which are efficient to transport. Improving logistics efficiency reduces the number of vehicles needed to deliver products. That also leads to a reduction in the CO₂ emitted at the time of delivery.

Mr. Yagita had one concern when engaging in this initiative: “What will be the impact on sales from changing the appearance of the containers?”
“Cutting down on the coloring used in the containers may make them look strange or unnatural when seen by customers. We needed to verify that point in advance to dispel such uneasiness and to resolutely expand the new containers across Japan.”
My. Yagita and his colleagues began selling products using the new containers in 7-Eleven stores in Hokkaido from December 2022 in advance of their Japan-wide introduction. We conducted verification from various angles and improved the containers. We received comments of support like the following from the owners of franchise stores who cooperated with the advance verification: “I want you to proactively engage in such efforts for the environment.” “It is meaningful to engage in this initiative as we are Seven-Eleven.” We were then able to take the step to roll out the introduction of these containers across Japan.

Mr. Yagita describes this initiative as “just one small step toward the future.”
“Adopting these containers made with less petroleum-derived ink and coloring has led to an expansion in the range of applications at the time of recycling. However, this is just the first step to making our containers easier to recycle. We will use this initiative as the impetus to continue taking on challenges with cooperation from manufacturers and franchise stores to be able to make even more environmentally-friendly containers in the future.”
Mr. Yagita also talked as follows about the change in values toward containers.
“Containers were adorned with various patterns and coloring in the past. The emphasis was on how to make the product inside look tasty at the point of sale. However, I feel that these values are changing with the times. We will develop as many products as possible which can satisfy our customers by using containers which are more environmentally-friendly than easy on the eye. We would like to make environmentally-friendly containers standard in society by building up these small efforts one by one.”
Seven-Eleven will continue to promote initiatives to reduce our environmental impact across our Japan-wide network of stores and our entire supply chain to leave a rich global environment to future generations.