Better Packaging: The Containers You Never See

Julia Levitt — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:51:07 +0000

Creating the efficient and sustainable product delivery systems that will support bright green retail will require a major overhaul of one element that often gets overlooked: packaging.

Although individual product packaging – the boxes, bottles and more that add (temporary) value to your goods and catch your eye from store shelves -- often gets the bulk of attention from the green crowd, there's a huge amount of packaging that most of us never see: the materials that are stuffed between, wrapped around and stacked beneath shipments of products on their way from factory to store. The endless disposable stream of wooden pallets, cardboard boxes, packing peanuts, plastic wrap and more is not only a huge source of landfill waste; it's also a large cost for manufacturers.

One option for reducing waste is simply using shipping materials that can be easily reused and recycled. Replacing wooden pallets and cardboard boxes with packaging made from sturdy plastic, for example, could offer significant environmental, economic and social advantages. Plastic pallets and boxes can withstand heavy use to last much longer than conventional packaging; companies can recycle them into new containers again and again when damaged; and manufacturers can mold them ergonomically in standard sizes and shapes, which helps minimize injury to the employees who handle them.

Of course, in order to reap the benefits, companies must adjust their standard shipping procedures, since reusable containers must be reclaimed, shipped back to the company that owns them, washed, stacked and transported back to the point where they will be re-filled with goods. The Reusable Packaging Association, based in Arlington, Virgina, has conducted tests to see how RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies could one day make it easy for companies to track and maintain their supply of reusable shipping materials.

Image source: "Reduce Supply Chain Cost With Reusable Packaging" on TriplePundit.com

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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Purchasing Green at 3:51 PM)

Sustainable wool: Baacodes with a backstory

Julia Levitt — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:43:23 +0000

Happy Friday, everyone. We have a quick bit of good news … for sheep, in particular. And also for ethical types who enjoy their warm woolens.

As most of us know, shopping to match your values can be a headache-inducing endeavor. At Worldchanging, we've always been major advocates of the backstory principle. In a sentence: be aware of the story behind your stuff. When companies are transparent about their principles and processes, shoppers can be more confident that they don't need to scrutinize the fine print every time they need shampoo or socks. (If you'd like to read more in-depth on the topic, dive into the Worldchanging archives.)

So we applaud our friends at Icebreaker, an outdoor clothing company based in Wellington, New Zealand, for their new adorably-named "Baacode" program. Each of the merino wool garments they make is tagged with a code, which the customer can enter on the Icebreaker website to check out the product's backstory. According to Icebreaker, "customers will see the living conditions of the sheep, meet the high country farmers who run the sheep stations, and follow through the production process." Icebreaker is confident that its policies for ethical and environmentally sound manufacturing will hold up under inspection.

We hope that Icebreaker, the largest manufacturer of merino wool clothing in the world, raises the industry bar a little higher with its new transparency effort. And we hope that one day, we live in a world where corporate social and environmental responsibility are so common that special tags will be a thing of the past.

Top photo credit: flickr/James@NZ, Creative Commons license.
Bottom photo courtesy of Icebreaker.

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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Purchasing Green at 2:43 PM)

Green Design » Purchasing Green

Better Packaging: The Containers You Never See

Sustainable wool: Baacodes with a backstory