We are green, but definitely not inexperienced.
In early 2007 while others were beginning to talk about eco-friendly packaging, we were already creating the first green packaging brand – Globe Guard®. We realized customers needed a trustworthy place and way to find these new green packaging products we were making available so we launched the very first on line packaging store focused on sustainable packaging – www.GlobeGuardProducts.com.
The market changes quickly as do products that meet our standards, so it seems our store is always in flux and in redesign which it is once again at the time of this writing. Today it offers a few key, genuinely green products such as our Globe Guard ® die cut mailer boxes for e-commerce, rigid paperboard mailer envelopes and our Globe Guard 100% recycled content paper mailers, ideal for apparel and other soft goods. In addition, our Globe Guard Products store also offers some terrific process and production aids such as our Globe Guard® Reusable Box Sealer and our manual box former that saves precious and costly time when you are trying to get rush orders out the door.
In presentation and in writing, we have also been thought leaders introducing terms like the importance of being “eco- consistent” – if you are selling a green product to a green consumer, your packaging must be consistent with your marketing. We also helped people understand the importance of being “eco-obvious” which essentially means that consumers will quickly and immediately grade your packaging on being green or not. Sometimes their perception is accurate and other times it is not, so using obviously green products such paper based packaging solutions will always fare well compared to plastics, regardless of variables and claims such as recycled content, recyclability, etc.
Common sense sustainability
Of all the terms and catch phrases we have created, perhaps none is more important than or as simple as the concept of common-sense sustainability. While others debate and argue over definitions, products and approaches, we advise our customers to adhere to the basic idea of “The Three R’s”. This is to reduce, recycle and reuse.
Few companies in the same period have accomplished as much to help companies dramatically reduce their cost, as well as their carbon and water footprints. We have not done it with trendy materials that tend to come and go, or major changes requiring substantial upfront investments and costs. Rather, our approach has been through material conscious package design.
In other words: minimize and use less (reduce), use as much recycled content as possible and make sure the result is also recyclable (recycle), and whenever possible, create packaging with extended life cycles (reuse).
