Sustainable is Good | Where design, lifestyle and packaging meet

Method at Select Whole Foods Stores

We noticed a large number of Method SKUs just recently appeared on the shelves of a local Whole Foods store here in Providence, RI.  San-Francisco-based Method was not known to have a retail relationship with Whole Foods Market.

We checked with Method and sure enough they confirmed a new relationship with Whole Foods Market.  Method's Katie Molinari told Sustainable is Good Method products started appearing in late 2007 in a "few local SF Bay Area stores and in 2008 will be appearing in select Whole Foods stores across the country."

The new relationship follows the company's debut airing on the popular home shopping network HSN over Martin Luther King Day weekend.

 

Innocent Switches More Products to 100% rPET Packaging

Popular UK juice brand Innocent has expanded its use of rPET bottles to its entire line of fruit smoothies.  The move follows Innocent's transformation of its juice line to bottles made from 100% rPET back in September. 

To celebrate the new smoothie packaging Innocent will be releasing a limited edition label on which their logo will be changing color and shape to resemble the well known green recycling symbol.  Innocent products with the limited edition label will be appearing on retailer's shelves in the UK for the last two weeks of February.

According to the company, its new bottles are fully recyclable at end of life and use 20% less plastic overall than their original packaging.  In addition to using no virgin materials at all the move to the new packaging will see a 55% reduction in the carbon footprint of the company's packaging.

Innocent became the first beverage company to use 100% rPET packaging for its bottles when it converted its juice blends to rPET bottles in September.

Wal-Mart Buying Illegal Russian Wood to Make Products for US Market Report Alleges

We've been following an interesting story involving retail giant Wal-Mart.  The environmental watchdog group the Environmental Investigation Agency released a report earlier this month providing a detailed account of Wal-Mart's acquisition of wood and the Chinese manufacturing of its wood products for sale in the US market.  The report includes detailed accounts from numerous undercover investigations the agency conducted with manufacturers and timber buyers in China.

The EIA's twenty-six page report documents product manufacturers in China making products for Wal-Mart including the popular Simplicity baby crib using questionably or illegally harvested wood from Russia. 

Download the full EIA Report

The report is significant because a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter store in the US carries around 900 wood products.  The company has made a number of important environmental or eco-friendly advances in the last year including pledge to eliminate all non-concentrated liquid laundry detergents from its stores by this May. 

The EIA report is a major setback for the retail giant and offers a glimpse into the large scale problem of procuring wood for inexpensive US retail products. 

EIA investigators found a complex timber trade industry in China focused on selling wood from trees in Russia.  Large amounts of corruption were present in all aspects of the timber supply chain.  Manufacturers repeatedly told undercover EIA investigators they had to turn to Russian wood because it was the only way to get wood of the necessary hardness at prices that fit Wal-Mart's established pricing structure.  In order to meet the pricing demands of Wal-Mart, buying Russian timber is essential.

The report said much of the Russian timber comes from protected habitats where logging is illegal.  Many of the manufacturers covered in the report said or implied Wal-Mart was aware of the source of the wood.  According to the EIA report, Wal-Mart does not ask its suppliers where their wood comes from, and the retailer's 'don't ask' policy" is having particularly dangerous consequences for the high conservation value forest of the Russian Far East and the endangered species dependent on them, including the world's largest cat, the Siberian tiger.

EIA PHOTO - Chinese Timber Yard Processing Russian Wood

act 2 GreenSmart

Its always good to a see a company innovating and making products out of rPET plastic.  With PET being the packaging material of choice for every major bottled water and soft drink company in the United States, the plastic material is pouring into recycling centers and landfills at incredible rates.  Companies who can figure out clever and innovative uses for rPET can make truly eco-friendly products and enjoy a growing market.

California-based Shoreline, makers of laptop cases and protective sleeves launched a new line within their brand called act 2-GreenSmart.  The new act 2-GreenSmart line features laptop cases and sleeves made from 100% rPET fabric.  With the motto "Bottles 2 Bags" the line is committed to using rPET fabrics for its products.

The products are designed to be comparable in quality and design to their conventional cases and sleeves.  They represent the first items transformed to meet Shoreline’s self-imposed commitment to make all products it sells green by the end of 2008.

Each rPET 15" laptop case saves roughly sixteen 16oz PET bottles from being landfilled according the company. 

Sustainable is Good had the opportunity to test one of the company's rPET laptop sleeves.  We found both the design and quality to be high.  The company says its sleeves keep about eight 16oz PET bottles from being landfilled. 

All of our writers are heavy laptop users and travelers and this laptop sleeve was clearly designed with laptop users in mind.  The sleeve provides excellent protection for your laptop and serves as an easy access padded zippered compartment within a larger bag or it can work as a standalone. 

The entire laptop sleeve is made from recycled materials and is available in three different color combinations.

We'll continue to follow the greening of Shoreline with great interest.  Perhaps more companies will follow in their footsteps.

Whole Foods Market to Eliminate Plastic Bags by Earth Day

Whole Foods Market announced this week it plans on eliminating all plastic grocery bags from its US, UK and Canadian stores with the goal to be plastic bag free by April 22, 2008 (Earth Day).

The leading natural and organic foods supermarket chain has been conducting tests eliminating plastic bags in its San Francisco, Austin and Toronto markets.  The tests were well received by customers and paved the way for their chain wide plan to remove plastic shopping bags from their stores.

In order to help facilitate the plan the company is aggressively pushing reusable bags including their new "Better Bag"  The Better Bag is made from 80% rPET fabric and is designed to be shopper friendly by being larger and easier to use than other reusable bags.

Whole Foods is the first US supermarket chain to commit to completely eliminating disposable plastic grocery bags.  The company estimates the impact of its plan will be felt immediately keeping 100 million bags out of landfills in 2008 alone. 

Park City IceWater Flexible Pouch Packaging

Utah-based Park City IceWater Company (formerly Wasatch IceWater Company) was recently mentioned by Plenty magazine for its "eco-friendly" packaging known as the "GlacierPak."  The proprietary packaging the company uses is a flexible pouch made by Ampac Packaging.  Park City claims its packaging is the answer to the "environmental issues of PET water bottles."

Ampac and Park City refer to the packaging as "recyclable" and environmentally friendly saying both its reduction of waste and of resources used in production are its primary benefits.  Citing statistics that show 77% of PET water bottles in the US (22 billion) end up in landfills annually the company says its packaging is better and because of its shape if landfilled it would occupy 96% less space compared to the traditional PET bottle.   

However, like other complex packaging solutions such as Tetra Pak it is unclear exactly how easily recyclable the GlacierPak packaging truly is here in the US where most municipal recycling facilities accept only blow molded PET and HDPE plastics.  In an ideal world or perhaps through the manufacturer the packaging may be recyclable however reality is far different.  Most communities still aren't accepting injection molded PET or HDPE or #5 PP for that matter.  Trying to recycle a GlacierPak made from PET, nylon and other materials with a polyethylene and silicone spout/closure is going to be next to impossible.

In a recent press release Park City said, "Park City IceWater is packed in flexible GlacierPak pouches rather than plastic bottles.  This environmentally friendly package consumes 96% less waste and requires 75% less energy to produce.  This revolutionary and innovative product is the 'Green' solution to the bottled water industry." 

Target Reusable Shopping Bag

Target's reusable shopping bag, originally developed to comply with new laws in California is gradually making its way across the country.  The reusable shopping bags have just begun to appear in Target stores on the east coast. 

The bags in typical Target fashion are a step up from similar offerings by competitors like Wal-Mart.  The bags are made by Green Bags from recyclable polypropylene fabric and are traditional Target red in color.  Available in two sizes the bags self zip into a small pouch for convenient storage.  Selling for $1.49 for the larger size and $.99 for the smaller bag the new bags offer Target shoppers an eco-friendly way to reduce the use of disposable plastic bags.

The Target reusable shopping bags feature some original and interesting graphic design.  The design on the bag features the Target tree bullseye illustration done by Minneapolis-based Wink.  Wink's Scott Thares told Sustainable is Good, "Target approached us to design and develop conceptual ideas and campaign elements...The recycled tree illustration was something that Target loved right away."  Thares said the design also appears on recycled bag containers in Target stores. 

"I do know that because of the great response, it (the bags) has been slowly rolling out to all Target Stores across the country," said Thares.

Secondary Packaging – The Silent Killer of the Environment

While direct contact/retail/primary packaging has been receiving all of the attention and well deserved scrutiny of the world, secondary packaging, without much attention at all, been has been quietly filling our landfills.

Trouble by the Pallet

It is estimated that the stretch film market - that nearly invisible product used to wrap pallets - is over 1.5 billion pounds annually. Stretch film is used for load retention and containment to get a product from one place to another. But after the product is received and the stretch wrap removed, it may well be re-palletized and then, of course, re-wrapped in more stretch film. If it sounds silly and wasteful, understand that scenario is probably played out tens of thousands of times each day between manufacturers, distribution centers and retailers. Guess where most of these 1.5 billion pounds wind up?

I admit my company sells stretch film and I suspect many may categorize it as a necessary evil because it is an excellent way to unitize and protect a load during shipment. For most loads, it can also help to avoid plastic or metal strapping, Strapping may not result is as much secondary packaging waste, but disposal is difficult, can be dangerous (ask anyone who has ever worked with it) and without costly, inflexible automation, the strapping process is labor intensive.

Fill Voids, Not Landfills

For the purpose of this discussion let’s acknowledge the difference between interior packaging and void fill products. Interior packaging is typically used in cushioning applications and can be constructed of a wide variety of flexible and rigid foams or of corrugated design. We usually see this around electronics and other high cost products that are susceptible to damage in shipment, especially from overseas. The volume of this waste is probably greater than anyone would suspect and the shame of it is that most of the foam products can be eliminated with good corrugated designs. That would make a great subject for an article but for now let’s focus on void fill materials.

Void fill packaging materials are used to protect the product(s) being shipped when the outer, shipping case is larger than the products. This is most common in pick and pack operations where orders tend to each be different in size, shape and weight. Most cases you receive are usually filled with some form of paper product (newsprint, indented, bogus, Kraft, etc.), bubble sheets, with one of many commercially available inflatable products, or loose fill materials including the much maligned (deservedly I believe) foam peanuts and shells.

With so many options and manufacturers involved in the void fill industry, it is impossible to determine or accurately estimate the amount of waste being generated. However, I think we can all agree the total volume is substantial. Just check the local landfill and you’ll see that voids in boxes is not all these products are filling.

Farmaesthetics

Portsmouth, RI -based Farmaesthetics is a company focused on producing personal care beauty products of exceptionally high quality.  The company's use of traditional old school type packaging options along with a commitment to natural ingredients yield a truly sustainable product.

Farmaesthetics is the creation of Brenda Brock and began as line of products sold at a local organic farm stand in Rhode Island.  Now the products are sold in Estee Lauder's Origins stores across the country and online through Farmaesthetics directly.

Using glass bottles and tins which are increasingly uncommon forms of packaging these days the company is able to both preserve and protect their product withstanding the rigors of a national retail supply chain.    

Farmaesthetics packaging is unique as well has highly functional.  Using easily recyclable glass apothecary type bottles and tins the packaging is also sustainable.  Brock uses no plastic in her packaging except for the caps and pump mechanisms on some of the products.

As her company grew from a one person operation into one that needed to meet national supply chain requirements her packaging requirements changed dramatically.  She told Cosmetic/Personal Care Packaging that initially she encountered many challenges when she needed to expand her packaging options. 

Her story is an interesting one and underscores a problem in the sustainable packaging industry many smaller companies encounter.  Most manufacturers and distributors want to handle the entire packaging operation or want a certain volume in order to have a profitable arrangement with a company.  As a result distributors and manufacturers often try to steer companies into packaging options that they can offer regardless of sustainability.  This often leaves the business owner with a difficult choice, either compromise on sustainability or risk having a very difficult time securing packaging options.

Brock made very few compromises in her packaging choices.  Because of the relationship with Origins she had to be sure her packaging met their strict requirements.  Brock established relationships with O.Berk Co., Cape Bottle Co. and J.L. Clark to secure the various packaging configurations she felt her line needed.

Using glass bottles as her primary packaging Brock encountered a challenge finding pumps and sprayers that would consistently fit.  Due to the slight differences in each glass bottle most pump/sprayer mechanisms would not work.  She was able to benefit from her relationship with Origins to help secure the proper fittings that worked with glass bottles. 

Production has also changed as the line has grown.  Originally Brock made her products herself in her own kitchen.  "The core skincare line was successfully translated from our "kitchen" in RI to dermatologic lab in New England so that we could get FDA approval and testing for shelf life etc..., so that we could distribute professionally and internationally," said Tabitha Cooney Farmaesthetics Sales & Marketing Coordinator.

Farmaesthetics currently has 46 SKUs in their product line with more coming in the spring/summer of this year.  The company also makes additional items for their professional/salon line.  Origins carries 15 SKUs from Farmaesthetics in its stores across the country.

Method Detox Your Home to Appear on HSN

San Francisco -based Method will appear in a feature this Saturday and Monday on the popular home shopping channel HSN (Home Shopping Network).  HSN will premiere on Saturday at 7am and 11pm and then will feature Method products on Monday in a program called "Healthy Home Featuring Method" at 4 and 9 am.

The network will feature Method's popular "Detox your Home" kits in four configurations, lavender, go naked, pink grapefruit and variety.  Each kit will sell for $19.98 nearly $10 less than from Method directly.  As part of their new relationship with HSN, Method is also launching a co-branded reusable shopping bag with HSN.  The bag is available for $14.99 individually and is also part of the exclusive "Detox your Home" kits being offered.

The fact HSN is featuring Method products is an interesting gauge of the all important mainstream acceptance of greener more eco-friendly products. 

Method has built its business on offering consumers greener more eco-friendly products with a focus on design and innovation.  The idea behind Method's strategy is consumers are more likely to accept these types of products if they are presented in a higher end more visually appealing fashion.  As a result the company has placed a premium on the design and packaging of its products.