Fighting climate change through sustainable solutions

Several reports from the UN’s environment agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as commitments made at the annual Conference of the Parties conferences leave no room for doubt that organizations must take urgent steps to reduce the impact of their operations on the environment.

Environmental measures and reducing the organization’s carbon footprint (OCF) are now mandated in every enterprise’s ESG reporting and even investment considerations. At the same time, growing public awareness means corporate reputations are on the line, pushing manufacturers and raw material suppliers to measure and mitigate the environmental impact of every step of their processes, especially packaging and shipping.

The shipping industry is responsible for around 940 million tonnes of CO2 annually, approximately 2.5% of the world's total CO2 emissions today. Packaging used for international transport is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. For some products, the packaging has a greater impact on climate change than the fuel used to ship it to market.

Traditional packaging like wooden or plastic pallets, cardboard or wooden crates and metal drums are typically discarded after one journey, as they offer limited payload protection during shipment. This results in additional waste. Manufacturing them is also problematic – wooden pallets come from trees, this process typically has a significant impact on land use and water consumption, while plastic packaging is made from fossil fuels.

One immediate solution to this global supply chain challenge is Goodpack’s reusable metal containers, which are provided on a pay-per-use basis to companies moving bulk raw material and component payloads around the world by road, rail or sea.

A Goodpack-commissioned Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) independently researched and verified key dimensions of the decarbonization value from using reusable intermediate bulk containers (IBC) in comparison to traditional packaging. For example, the study found that Goodpack IBCs enable an 89% reduction in CO2 emissions translating into 69.2 kg in CO2 savings per tonne of payload when compared to single-use metal boxes.

Similarly, Goodpack’s reusable IBCs delivered an 81% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in comparison to metal drums, when transporting bulk food products via intercontinental trade lanes.

Available in several different models, these intermediate-sized, bulk steel containers are rugged enough to protect payloads, have a decades-long lifecycle and fit nicely into standard sea containers. This means not paying to ship air, which in turn results in fewer sea containers required to deliver a given payload.

Circular supply chains

Goodpack aims to help customers decarbonize through circular supply chains which are measurably better for the environment. Our pay-per-use model means we deliver containers as needed for packing, collect emptied ones after unloading, and conduct inspection and cleaning before re-entering them into the supply chain, at any one of our 5,000 delivery and collection points worldwide.

As sustainability becomes an increasingly influential factor in the shipping industry, businesses are expected to put environmental impact high on their operations agenda and provide exceptional service responsibly.    

At Goodpack, we firmly believe in sustainability, and like other responsible companies, we will continue our commitment to the environment.

For more information about Goodpack’s view on sustainability, please visit our website.