Posts Tagged ‘green packaging’
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
I came across a great ad campaign designed by Brunner for Zippo Manufacturing Co. This collection of print ads brings perspective to the eco-conscious consumer. It reminds people that for lighters, a refillable Zippo is the greener choice. One lighter may not seem like much waste, but when you see these pictures, you can really see that it adds up in our landfills.
Their tagline, “Disposable. Just another word for garbage.” can really get people thinking. This was a very clever way to show how Zippo stands out from the competition of disposable lighters, and it reminds people to be more environmentally-friendly.
Zippo lighters are refillable and durable, making them guaranteed for life. Just like that, we have our Dura Series of CD/DVD albums. These long-lasting albums with extra reinforced spine hinges are made to withstand frequent opening and closing. And since they are so durable, they happen to be our most popular library packaging product. With the clear overlay and nickel-plated ring metals, these albums can be used over and over again.
Did you give up smoking and no longer have a need for your favorite Zippo lighter? Reuse that lighter to make your own stylish USB drive. Or if you have a few old BIC lighters laying around, you can turn those into USB drives, as well! These designs make your USB drives more creative and fun, but don’t forget about USB flash drive cases to help store and protect your devices!
Tags:BIC lighters, disposable, eco-conscious, Eco-Friendly, environmentally-conscious, environmentally-friendly, garbage, green packaging, landfill, recycle, recycling, reduce waste, refillable, reusable, smoking, USB flash drive cases, USB flash drives, USB jump drives, Zippo lighters
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Media Packaging | No Comments »
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Both Jackie and I are taking vacations soon, so Jackie found a list of ways to travel Green.
Want to reduce your carbon footprint and help the environment while you travel, but think it is much too expensive to pay carbon offset fees or buy expensive, recycled suitcases: Think again. Sarah Schlichter provided “Eight ways green travel can save you money“.
Pack light.The more bags you pack and the heavier that they are, will increase the amount of fuel needed, whether you are driving or flying. By packing less, you will reduce the amount of carbon emissions and save money on gas if you are driving. The fewer bags you pack while flying will reduce your baggage fees. Don’t forget to use eco-friendly bag tags.- Borrow guidebooks.Not only will borrowing guidebooks/maps from a friend or the library save you money on purchasing them, but you are reducing waste and reusing resources.
- Buy reusable travel-size bottles.Instead of buying new travel-sized bottles of all your toiletries each time you go on a trip, buy one set of travel-sized bottles that you can reuse and refill with your own shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, etc. Not only are you saving money by buying your items in bulk, but you are reducing the amount of travel-sized bottles that will be thrown in a landfill.
- Don’t rent a car. Not only are they expensive to rent, but they release carbon emissions. Try walking, biking, or using public transportation instead. It’s cheaper, healthier, and better for the environment.
- If you must, rent a small car or a hybrid. Smaller cars are more fuel-efficient, which means less money spent on gas and less carbon emissions released.
Prepare your car. If you are taking a road trip, make sure that your car is prepared, so that you are as fuel-efficient as you can be. Take all the extra things you don’t need out of your trunk, check your tires, and make sure your engine is tuned up.- Buy local. Wherever you are, buy local food and goods. Visit farmer’s markets and buy souvenirs from local artisans. By not having to be shipped in, they could be cheaper and have a smaller carbon footprint.
Bring your own reusable water bottle. According to the Sierra Club, billions of plastic water bottles end up in the landfills every year. From there, they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. You can reduce waste tremendously by using a water bottle that you can simply just wash and reuse. Plus, it’s free to fill your bottle with water! If you are in an area with bad water, buy a large jug of purified water to keep in your room. It is cheaper to buy in bulk, and it uses less packaging.
Whether you are going on a business trip or a vacation like Jackie and me, these are some helpful tips to save money and be environmentally-friendly at the same time. For business trips, give your company an added touch with matching
Tags:Eco-Friendly, eco-friendly nametags, eco-friendly traveling; environmentally friendly busine, Going Green, green, green packaging, green practices, green products, green traveling, reduce carbon emissions, reduce waste
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Product Information | No Comments »
Friday, May 1st, 2009
May is Green Packaging Month at Sunrise. In May, we focus on communicating ways to create packaging that is unique, helps you stand out from the crowd, and is also environmentally responsible… yes, you can have all three. Check out our Green Packaging Pages for more information.
To get us started, since Mother’s day is next weekend, we found a web site that will help you turn an unused CD case into a beautiful card for Mom!
Here’s a picture of the completed project. check out the craftylife blog for complete instructions.
Be sure to let us know how your card turned out. In fact, send us a picture and we’ll highlight it in a post! (We’ll wait until after Mother’s Day to keep the surprise)
The next time you need a binder, CD/DVD/USB case, box or sales kit, give your favorite Account Manager a call and we’ll help you create a work of art that will be environmentally friendly too.
Tags:CD cases, Eco-Friendly, eco-friendly packaging, eco-friendly products, environment, environmentally-friendly, environmentally-friendly packaging, Going Green, green packaging, green practices, green products, recycle, recycling, reduce, reduce waste, reusable, reuse, Reuse Packaging
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Media Packaging | No Comments »
Friday, April 24th, 2009
We decided to continue on our “green” theme, since today is Arbor Day. This time, with reasons to go green. The environmental, social and political reasons to go green are very real and valid. By making environmentally friendly choices you can reduce carbon emissions, reduce energy waste, make more efficient use of resources and reduce
the amount of waste and pollution that is damaging our environment. This is the most important reason to go green and this is the information that proliferates in the media landscape. With all the focus on the environmental reasons to go green, you may have missed the business-savvy reasons to go green, a complimentary perk to environmentally-savvy intentions. The following are the top three reasons for small businesses (or any business for that matter) to go green:
- “Save on costs”: Through buying fewer materials, creating lighter products and utilizing other green business methods you retain more savings for you and your business by cutting down on purchasing, energy, and transportation costs.
- “Establish a reputation for ethical business practices”: Going green is good PR. Polishing your image through green business practices can improve your reputation in the eyes of stakeholders, including current and potential customers.
- “Take advantage of green marketing benefits”: If you haven’t noticed, “green” has been a marketing buzzword and a powerful message and trend that your business can capitalize on if you are truly participating in “green” business practices. Going green can help you to truly grow your business.*
Going green may be intimidating at first,
but there are a lot of small things that you can do to get started and changing the way that products are packaged can be a great first step because results can easily be seen and measured.
Lighter packaging reduces the amount of space that is necessary for transportation and also reduced weight, creating fewer emissions, and less money spent on gas and shipping. Packaging can also be created with biodegradable, recyclable or recycled materials, making it easy to go green without changing your packaging too dramatically.
*These top three reasons for businesses to go green were inspired by http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/11070_3753086_2
Tags:Arbor Day, biodegradable packaging, business practices, eco binders, environmentally-friendly, Going Green, green marketing, green packaging, natural resources, recyclable packaging, recycled materials, reduce carbon emissions, reduce energy waste
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, March 27th, 2009
Having green packaging allows you to help the environment, but is it worth it financially for your company? We have been hearing a lot more about being green and environmentally-friendly the past few years from numerous companies and industries. Is it just a bunch of talk, or do people really care about the environment? How significant is sustainable packaging to consumers?
- (Picture from The Pohly Company)
Scott Young and Perception Research Services studied packaging and the environment with extensive research over two years. What they discovered is that most important to shoppers making purchasing decisions is the overall package appearance and functional concerns. Once these needs are met, they will factor in the environmental considerations. This makes green packaging the deciding factor for shoppers trying to pick between two products with equal appearance and functionality. Similarly, shoppers do not want to buy an eco-friendly item that looks and feels “cheap”. Therefore, it is important companies to offer both eye-appealing and functional packaging, as well as packaging that is good for the environment.
One more thing that Young discovered was that only 11% of shoppers thought that they knew what “sustainable packaging” was, and only about half of those actually knew what it meant. It is important for companies to educate consumers about what being environmentally-friendly means and use terms that they will understand.
A.T Kearney also performed a study and came to the conclusion that environmentally-friendly companies performed much better than their competition over a three-month and six-month period and did not have “value erosion”. Even in our struggling economy, green companies are performing above-average in the financial markets.
The eco-friendly trend does not seem to be disappearing anytime soon. Environmentally-friendly packaging does play a vital role in purchasing decisions and is helping companies beat out their competition.
Tags:competition, consumers, Eco-Friendly, eco-friendly packaging, economy, environment, environmentally-friendly, environmentally-friendly packaging, eye-appealing, functional packaging, green, green packaging, purchasing decisions, shopping, sustainable packaging
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Marketing | No Comments »
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
Ever wonder what to do with all of your old DVD cases when you switch to storing your discs in multi-disc DVD cases
or DVD albums? They are not curbside recyclable, but there are still other options to get rid of your old cases without having to throw them in a landfill.
Reuse
First, a good idea is to see if anyone else can reuse your old DVD cases. A number of places would love to take them off of your hands:
- libraries,
- schools, and
- churches
These types of organizations always need replacement DVD cases for their media collections. Some schools have classes where students create videos on DVD and they could use cases to display and protect their projects.
Donate
Another place to donate would be Goodwill or another thrift store. They receive donations of discs without cases or with broken cases, and it would be much easier to sell a DVD with a case. They could also just sell the empty cases. Video rental stores or any store that sells used DVDs would also gladly take your used cases as replacements.
Or there are websites like Freecycle where you can post items that you would rather give away than create waste by throwing them in the garbage.
Recycle
If the cases are broken or they cannot be reused for some reason, there are still other alternatives to throwing them away. You can’t put DVD cases in your curbside recycling bin, but you can check with your local recycling center to see if they will take them. Earth911.com can help you find a local recycling center for certain types of materials.
There are other centers that we found where you can send in your old DVD cases. There is not charge, but they may ask for a small donation to help cover costs:
Plastic Recycling, Inc.
2015 S. Pennsylvania St.
Indianapolis, IN 46225
CD Recycling Center
68H Stiles Road
Salem, NH 03079
There are plenty of options available to reduce waste by having your DVD cases reused or recycled, rather than just throwing them in the garbage. Just another way you can be more environmentally-friendly.
Tags:church, donate, DVD cases, Eco-Friendly, environmentally-friendly, green, green packaging, library, media collection, packaging, recyclable packaging, recycle, recycling, reduce, reuse, schools
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Media Packaging | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 20th, 2009
Sure biodegradable Eco-Binders sound like a great idea for the environment, but I bet you’re wondering if they will actually last or if they will simply just fall apart on you. You should not have to give up durability in order to be environmentally-friendly, so we decided to put our Eco-Binders to the test.
One of our Client Relations Representatives, Kelly Jo, took one of each of our paperboard Eco-Binders home for her kids to use for the school. Day after day, all semester long, these binders were thrown around and squished in backpacks–we all know how kids treat their homework.
With this kind of handling, would our Eco-Binders be able to compare to plastic binders and last the semester?
So how did they turn out? As you can see, the Eco-Binders, with some added artwork, went through plenty of wear and tear. Some of the edges were starting to tear after so much use, but they were able to last strong through the whole semester.
We were happy to hear that our Eco-Binders lasted through the handling of Kelly Jo’s middle school kids, but we wondered how they could be even stronger.
A new idea was to make binders from heavy-duty corrugated cardboard. These would be even harder to destroy, while still being good to the environment.
It just goes to show that you don’t have to give up durability in order to be environmentally friendly.
Tags:3-ring binders, Eco-Friendly, environmentally-friendly, Going Green, green, green packaging, green products, Lightweight Eco-Binders, New Products
Posted in Binders, Eco-Friendly, New Products, Product Information | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 6th, 2009
Even though many forms of plastic packaging are now recyclable, hardly any are actually being recycled. According to a study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, in 2003, out of the 11.9 million tons of plastic packaging in the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream, only 1.06 million tons were actually recycled. That comes to about 8.9 percent that is recycled.
Earthcycle wanted to come up with a form of packaging that did not require recycling, but was biodegradable. They made their packaging alternative from a renewable resource called palm fiber, which is a waste product that is disposed of when the palm fruit is harvested throughout the year for its oil. Palm 
fiber used to be incinerated or landfilled, which brought negative impacts. Now Earthcycle’s natural packaging alternative can biodegrade into a healthy addition for the soil in a compost pile.
Earthcycle came up 
with a line of sturdy packages for fresh produce to protect your fruits and vegetables. The packaging is biodegradable, but you do not have to worry about it falling apart on you. The packaging is strong and water resistant. Among some of the cover options are a compostable NatureFlex film, recyclable plastic lid, or a reusable netting.
There are many options available for green packaging. Whether using recyclable paper/plastics or biodegradable materials, you can know that you are doing your part for the environment with sustainable living.
Tags:biodegradable, Earthcycle, eco packaging, Eco-Friendly, environmentally-friendly, green packaging, natural packaging, palm fiber, renewable resource, reusable
Posted in Eco-Friendly | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 12th, 2008
Imagine Christmas morning. If you are like many families, there will be mounds of gift-wrap and packaging taking over your living room. There are countless amounts of decorations and unused gifts. Then think about the meal. Some resort to prepackaged food or paper products if there are not enough dishes or to make cleaning easier. It is an eco-friendly nightmare. The holidays can increase waste by 25 percent. Amazon.com provided a few ideas to make your holidays a little “greener” this year:
- Gift Selection. Try to pick out a gift that you know the recipient will use. Handmade gifts are always thoughtful, as well as spending time with the person or performing a service for them. Amazon allows you to search for eco-friendly gifts, as well as has the option of “Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging”, which features recyclable boxes that are easy to open and free of excess materials such as hard plastic clamshell cases, plastic bindings, and wire ties. If you don’t know what to get, try a gift certificate. Then the recipient can get a gift they know they will use, and it uses less packaging.
- Gift Wrapping. Gift wrapping makes up a large portion of the waste during the holidays. Much of it is not recycled or is not recyclable. Reuse gift wrapping or consider buying or making reusable cloth gift bags. You can use materials from around the house for gift wrapping, or even try wrapping the gift in another gift, such as a t-shirt, pillowcase, or towels.
- Decorating. Some people do go overboard with their holiday decorations, but you do not have to give up festivity for eco-friendly. Find decorations that you will reuse for years to come. Think of things around your home that remind you of the holidays. You could even create a collage of photos or string photos on yarn in place of streamers.
- Preparing the Meal. Prepackaged food may be more convenient, but think of the benefits of a home-made meal. Not only would it use less packaging, but home-cooked foods are generally more healthy and flavorful. Also, try to stay away from disposable dinnerware. If you do not have enough dishes, you could ask guests to bring extras, or you could purchase reusable dinnerware for special occasions. Cloth napkins are also an eco-friendly option. These options bring a little extra work of washing, but it is worth it to know you are helping the environment.
The holidays do not have to be an environmental disaster. You can still be eco-friendly without giving up your traditions and festivities. Try some of these helpful tips to make your holidays a little “greener” this year.
Tags:Eco-Friendly, green event planning, green holiday, green packaging
Posted in Eco-Friendly | No Comments »
Friday, November 7th, 2008
Imagine a brand new customer walking down the aisle of a typical retail store, this potential customer has never purchased your product before and just wants to get in and out. A quick glance of the shelves and in a split second picks up the product next yours and walks away.
It is in this split second that customers either choose your product – or they don’t. As choices increase and it becomes harder to be competitive, packaging is one way to catch the eyes of potential customers and increase sales.
Who wouldn’t want to increase sales? The great thing about creating attractive packaging is you can do it with out busting the bank. Simple and efficient is all you need.
Take the less is more approach. When designing packaging you want to create a unique package that will grab the customers’ attention, not suffocate them. To do this, create packaging with sleek lines and cohesiveness.
One way to give your packaging a professional look is to use the turned edge technique. Turned Edge is a sturdy construction that produces an extremely durable, finished product. Take a look at this YouTube video to better understand how turned-edge covers are made.
Choose a color palette and stick with it. To pick the color palette that will best represent your product, know your audience and what colors appeal to them the most. Then use those colors with the colors that represent your company to make packaging relatable to the customer.
Using metal, foil, or hot stamping is another great way to give your product an elegant look. Using these techniques creates extremely sophisticated packaging.
Another way to create eye-catching packaging is through, giving back to charitable causes. Consumers are more willing to buy products from companies that are interested in the same issues as they are. In fact, sales can increase upwards between 14 to 18 pct when companies use their packaging to support a special cause.
Along with the issue of cause packaging, be sure your company is staying in tune with hot button issues regarding packaging. For instance Going Green, reducing packaging waste, the economy, ease of use and convenience, to name a few. When customers can see you’re aware of what’s going on in the world, they are more drawn to your product.
It truly is all about a split second decisions when trying to reach customers. Packaging can help you make your brand the one that stands out; the one that is taken off the shelf; the one that is purchased; the one that makes money.
Tags:branding, cause packaging, custom packaging, green packaging, turned-edge packaging
Posted in Custom Packaging Products, Eco-Friendly, Marketing | No Comments »
Zippo lighters are refillable and durable, making them guaranteed for life. Just like that, we have our Dura Series of CD/DVD albums. These long-lasting albums with extra reinforced spine hinges are made to withstand frequent opening and closing. And since they are so durable, they happen to be our most popular library packaging product. With the clear overlay and nickel-plated ring metals, these albums can be used over and over again.
