Additional Packaging captures all packaging layers used to ship, transport, or sell your product. Pickler follows the GS1 packaging layer structure, allowing you to model packaging exactly as it is shipped, stored, and handled.
Packaging layers in Pickler
Next to the product, Pickler uses three packaging layers:
Pack: Inner packaging that holds or groups products together, such as a sleeve or inner pack. Example: film around several items for easier handling.
Case: Holds multiple packs or products in a single unit, such as a box or carton. Example: a cardboard box containing several inner packs.
Pallet: Carries multiple products or multiple cases for storage or transport. Example: a wooden pallet stacked with boxes, wrapped for shipping.
How packaging layers for fair comparisons and calculations
Including additional packaging layers, enables:
Fair comparisons — Products are usually sold in cases or even on full pallets, but you often want to compare the impact of single products side by side. By allocating packaging impact by ratio, Pickler makes this possible. For example, you can compare one product shipped 5,000 units per case with another shipped 3,000 units per case — each product automatically receives only its fair share of the additional packaging.
Accurate and complete calculations — All packaging materials that contribute to your product’s footprint are automatically included, resulting in a complete picture of the total environmental impact.
Focus: why additional packaging usually has minimal impact
The impact of additional packaging layers is usually very small compared to the impact of the product (usually max 5% of total impact). This is because their footprint is shared across many products.
For example, a pallet or case may contain thousands of products, so its impact per product becomes minimal. This means it’s not a concern if some data is missing for these layers.
It's also likely that details like materials or processing locations are unavailable, simply enable Fill data gaps and Pickler will apply conservative default values.
Adding your additional packaging data in the form
Step 1: Toggle the layers your want to use
Choose which packaging layer applies by toggling one or more of the options:
Step 2: Specify how the number of products per layer
Enter how many individual products are contained in each layer. For example:
30 products per pack
500 products per case
20.000 products per pallet
This ensures Pickler can allocate the packaging materials and transport burden correctly per product.
Step 3: Adding material and processing data
For each layer you’ve enabled:
Select or add the materials used in that layer (just like in the Materials & Processing section)
Enter the weight of each material in grams.
Choose the processing method (e.g., carton forming, pallet assembly)
Enter the processing location.
Step 4 — Add pallet weight and dimensions
If your product uses pallets, you can enter the dimensions and weight. This is only used to determine weight or volume transport.
Gross pallet weight
Stack height, length, and width
Step 5: Add additional data
Just like in the Materials section, you can add extra data to improve accuracy but is not required. Examples include:
Printing details for outer cartons or pallets
Energy consumption or custom energy mix for pallet preparation