An EU packaging compliance platform we co-founded. We led discovery, brand, website, platform and go-to-market: our own service, on our own budget and risk.
Internal project records, concept to October 2026. Usage and revenue metrics will be added once they can be published.
The EU's packaging regulation (PPWR) has applied since 12 August 2026. Large groups have consultants; mid-size manufacturers have spreadsheets. We built for them.
Packaging, carbon and ESG reporting all looked related. Building for all of them at once would have meant doing none of them well.
Compliance buyers read the regulation themselves. Any statement the product makes has to point to an article.
Delegated acts and guidance arrive after the main text. A one-time assessment goes out of date as soon as the rules change.
As a self-funded team, every channel had to show results before we put more into it.
Each stage had to earn the next one. The most important decisions were about what to leave out.
From the first concept to early access with a first design partner.
OutcomeA clear view of where the market was crowded.
OutcomePackaging compliance came out as the most urgent need.
OutcomeA scope a small team can build and defend.
Outcomecarbonorm, with a calm and precise voice.
OutcomeOne product, one source of rules behind every screen.
OutcomeA first design partner, and three companies evaluating a proposal.
OutcomeA clear view of where the market was crowded.
OutcomePackaging compliance came out as the most urgent need.
OutcomeA scope a small team can build and defend.
Outcomecarbonorm, with a calm and precise voice.
OutcomeOne product, one source of rules behind every screen.
OutcomeA first design partner, and three companies evaluating a proposal.
Ideas come from the regulation, customers, partners and competitors. None goes straight to the build: each is checked, decided and given an owner first.
The same routine runs for client products: one register, one owner per item, a source for every claim.
In most startups these layers sit with different agencies, and the gaps cost time. Here one team owns them all, so a decision reaches every layer the same week.
The rule engine behind the platform also answers in the AI assistant and the free self-assessment, so all three say the same thing.
The tone rules that shape the website also shape interface text and reports. No separate voice for marketing and product.
Free tools double as lead sources and as research: what visitors ask tells us what to build next.
What we learn running our own product goes into the briefs and roadmaps we write for client products.
| Area | Concept stage | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Several sustainability frameworks at once | One regulation, covered in depth |
| Buyer | Anyone with a reporting duty | Mid-size and large manufacturers, food and beverage first |
| Name | Working titles | carbonorm, tested in five languages |
| Results | Reports written by hand | Rule engine output, each result tied to an article |
| Leads | None | Free checklist and self-assessment, trade fairs, outbound |
| Rule changes | A new consulting project | A rule update with a public change logrolling out |
Now: One regulation, covered in depth
Concept stage: Several sustainability frameworks at once
Now: Mid-size and large manufacturers, food and beverage first
Concept stage: Anyone with a reporting duty
Now: carbonorm, tested in five languages
Concept stage: Working titles
Now: Rule engine output, each result tied to an article
Concept stage: Reports written by hand
Now: Free checklist and self-assessment, trade fairs, outbound
Concept stage: None
Now: A rule update with a public change logrolling out
Concept stage: A new consulting project
Dropping half the original idea felt like a loss. It is the reason a small team could ship a product that holds up under a compliance buyer's questions.
In a regulated market, one unsupported sentence costs more trust than ten good features earn. We hold our copy, our product and our AI to the same rule.
When the budget is our own, we stop recommending things that only look good in a proposal. Clients get the same discipline.
Tell us what you are building and where it is stuck. We'll show you what we would cut, what we would build first and how we would run it.
