Prof Pierre Pienaar, education director for the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) and president of the World Packaging Organisation (WPO), has been recognised by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) in the US with a Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame award.
The Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame recognises career packaging and processing professionals for their significant contributions to the industry and education. The honour, which PMMI coordinates, has been awarded since 1971.
Past inductees are packaging leaders who have dedicated themselves to the industry through expanding knowledge and volunteer leadership, and have personally advanced the field of packaging.
Pienaar’s interest in packaging started in 1984 after having studied pharmacy. Soon after joining a large pharmaceutical company, Pienaar became concerned about a number of packaging-related issues in the pharmaceutical world. This combined field has taken him to the far corners of the world, always involving one or other aspects of research in packaging.
Outside of his role as the AIP education director, where he is responsible for the education and training portfolio of the AIP, which includes the Diploma in Packaging Technology, the Certificate in Packaging, the Fundamentals in Packaging Technology, the Certified Packaging Professional program, and the Master of Food & Packaging Innovation, he also is a lecturer and trainer in the WPO.
Pienaar lectures in the technology and science of packaging at 11 universities and institutions around the world for the past 28 years. He is regularly called to be an expert witness in court cases, due to his extensive experience in packaging science, packaging engineering, and the technology thereof.
Pienaar has a Master of Science Degree (Packaging Engineering/Technology) from Brunel University, UK. He also has a Master of Manufacturing and Production Degree from University of Hertfordshire, UK. He is a registered Certified Packaging Professional, a Past President of the AIP and a Founders Award winner in the Australasian Region.
The AIP invited Pienaar to share career highlights.
1. Tell us a little bit about the Hall of Fame award and what it means to you?
The Packaging Hall of Fame recognises career packaging and processing professionals for their significant contributions to the industry and education.
It is a humbling, but also a proud moment to be honoured by one’s international peers. What I value most from this accolade is that it gives me more opportunities to persuade the global packaging industry that we must become more sustainable, as there is no Plan B.
2. How long have you been in Australia? What made you want to come and join the AIP?
I have been living in Australia 24 years, having emigrated from South Africa, where I was very involved in their local packaging institute, a member for 15 years, and was made an honorary member of the Institute of Packaging South Africa (IPSA). I had also been national president and education director of IPSA. I implemented the Diploma of Packaging for IPSA in 1989.
When I moved to Australia with my wife and three young children, I wanted to continue with my passion by being involved in the local AIP, and especially be involved in packaging education. My desire was, and still is, to teach more people about the relevance and importance of packaging. Focusing on better use of the resources, recycling of packaging and the packaging sustainability.
I have been the president of the AIP and have been the education director for over 12 years now, taking over from the late and great Emeritus. Prof. Harry Lovell.
I am especially proud that I have been an education director and a president in two of the largest peak professional bodies in the world for packaging training and education.
3. When you were handed the reigns from the late Prof. Harry Lovell to become the AIP Education Director what did that mean to you?
I look back at those years prior to assuming my current AIP role where the late Prof Lovell was so intentional, and education focused. I soon realised that we shared the same passion about ensuring more were educated in packaging technology. I would say that Harry saw in me someone who would be equally passionate, and so began the friendship and years of understudy prior to 2008 when he resigned from his AIP role, and I was appointed to replace him. It meant an enormous amount to me that I could live out my desire in a role that could make a difference.
4. How important is it for a packaging technologist to undertake the Diploma/ Certificate and or Masters degrees through the AIP?
Whatever packaging course you follow, packaging education is where our future lies. The more that become knowledgeable in packaging, will produce better decisions in packaging technology, which leads to more innovation and better quality of life, through better packaging for more people around the world.
5. What are three things that you are most proud of in your years in the industry, for example, within the WPO and also within the AIP?
Increasing awareness of the importance of packaging across the world; implementing packaging training and bringing it to countries that need it most; and through my various roles within AIP and WPO, being able to ensure that the message remains focussed and clear, that we need to make better use of the resources, ensure more recycling of packaging, and ensure packaging sustainability across the globe.
6. What advice would you offer packaging designers and technologists?
Ensure that every packaging decision that you make, be that at home, with your children and/or friends, as well as in your work, is always intentional and the same, and that is “to do the right thing with packaging”. Most of us know what is right, but we need to ensure that those we come in contact with packaging also come to understand that there is no plan B, and that we need to use our natural resources well, to ensure a sustainable life for all those that follow us on planet Earth.
Prof. Pierre Pienaar FAIP, CPP, alongside the other 2022 inductees, will be honoured at a ceremony on Monday, 24 October at PACK EXPO International 2022.
The AIP extended its congratulations to Prof Pienaar on this recognition for the significant and long-standing contributions that he has made and continues to make to further packaging training and education across the world.
