We are consistently impressed and often times surprised by the wide variety of products our customers and friends sell and manufacture for the green and health markets and one we have come to know well is Barkwheats Dog Biscuits of Maine. Our mixed beagle, Gateway loves the product and we have enjoyed getting to know Chris Roberts, this co-founder of this unique company.

DS: Chris, it seems every green entrepreneur has a story and I am sure our readers would love to hear yours. Please give us some idea on your background and how you wound up in the dog biscuit business.

CR: My family has always been in the food business, and I was the first to venture outside when I attended Berklee College of Music and went on to work in Nashville in recording studios. I found my way back to Maine, and back to the kitchen with two dogs at my feet, and began baking for them. I found no other products in a $28B industry that took the care in ingredient sourcing that I wanted to have in a dog biscuit, so I made it happen myself!

DS: Let’s talk about the product itself. At first glance your product name might indicate your product is made of grain (wheat) but in fact the opposite is true. Please explain to us the reason you chose to make a grain free product and why that is better for dogs.

CR: We chose to make a grain-free biscuit for dogs because throughout evolution, canine’s weren’t eating grains as a staple of their diet. Not until fairly recently (60 years or so) were dog foods being bulked up with grains to increase the protein and weight of food. This has caused many dogs to become afflicted with grain allergies, so we wanted to make something that was safe for all dogs.

DS: I will admit I had no idea buckwheat is a berry not a grain. Can you give us an idea on how and why you started using that particular ingredient in your product.

CR: We started using buckwheat because we knew it was easy to grow in Maine, easy to grow organically, and was treated as a grain would be, ie; used as a flour. It made perfect sense for us. (more…)

A good customer friend recently recommended us to a customer of his and referred to us as “a great supplier of eco friendly boxes”. Certainly that description is accurate in that we are probably best known for our unique, Globe Guard 100% PCW shipping boxes. However, there is a distinct and real difference between selling eco friendly boxes and selling eco friendly packaging.

Green Shipping Boxes and a Whole Lot More

When a potential customer calls us or visits our Globe Guard Products web store, they usually have a very good idea of what they want and if they find it there, they are able to point, click and the product they need will soon be in their hands. We are indeed a good supplier of green boxes but we also offer a large variety of other eco friendly products on that same site. This includes a large selection of box alternatives and quite frankly, you are not going to get that from your average box maker or seller.

When a box is truly required to ship a product, we also understand the average customer also needs tape to seal the box, void fill to protect the contents and even labels to be able to address the box. Just in the area of void fill alone, we offer one of the widest varieties of loose, molded, paper and eco friendly plastic solutions. Each is in stock and we will gladly and enthusiastically explain the pros and cons of each product for your specific application.

Stock versus Custom Corrugated (more…)

It is a great time to be green, not only because the world circumstances demand it but also because it has never been easier and faster for us to share information with one another. I admit I am not very technical or internet savvy and it still amazes me our blog is read by thousands of people in over eighty countries around the world. It is that same technology that allows me to connect so easily with a green advocate and educator like Dave Arthur, who just happens to operate his popular web site, Green Business Owner, from his base in Palmer, Alaska.

DS: Dave, thank you for the opportunity to introduce you to our readers. We need to talk about your work but probably like most of us living in the “lower 48”, I am interested in knowing how you wound up living in Palmer and what it is like living in Alaska.

DA: Both my wife and I grew up in Alaska. We have lived in other parts of the world since, but came back to the North Country some years ago. At the time I was producing safety and training films and worked for the oil companies doing industrial videos. We’ve always been environmentally aware people and my conscience nagged me each and every day I spent serving the oil giants. It just wasn’t a good fit. Since then I have been an educator, writer, builder, and even a haz-mat technician. Living in Alaska has allowed me to gain experience in a lot of different fields.

Alaska is truly a grand place that everyone should experience for themselves. It is also on the forefront of climate change. We can literally see evidence of global climate shift outside our windows here. For anyone concerned about the effects of the changing climate, it can be an amazing eye-opener to come here and see how quickly conditions are changing and how dramatic those effects are.

That said, I recommend coming up in the summer!

DS: Please provide us with some back ground on you and Firestorm Digital Media, the parent company of GreenBusinessOwner.com and what inspired or motivated you to launch this unique site to help the new breed of green entrepreneur.

DA: Firestorm Digital Media still produces informational video products and training materials, though a lot of our business has migrated to consulting and online media. We have the luxury of being able to select projects and subjects that align with our interests and beliefs. We don’t do oil industry work anymore.

GreenBusinessOwner.com is a project born out of research that I was doing in planning the launch of a new green business in the Pacific Northwest. As we gathered research on green business trends, information on marketing to green consumers, and various green business opportunities, it became obvious that others were interested in the same information. We also discovered that a lot of other business people had great information that they were willing to share, but there were few platforms for them to offer their expertise. We built GreenBusinessOwner.com to serve as a free repository for ideas, trends, and advice for people who want to increase the sustainability of their existing businesses or launch a new green business. It’s taken on a journalism model, becoming a collaborative effort to the benefit of people searching for ways to clean up and grow their small businesses.

DS: Since launching GreenBusinessOwner.com, you have changed the focus of your own business quite a bit haven’t you? (more…)

Special Offer: Please use promo code “CANDLE” for a 10% discount on all Globe Guard stock products until October 31, 2009.

Green Packaging for Candle Manufacturers and Resellers

Candles have gone green with the recent popularity of soy based and pure bees wax candles as well as other, more natural ingredients. With that comes a need to make the packaging for those products more eco friendly as well. We are uniquely designed, equipped and qualified to serve candle manufacturers and their packaging requirements.

Whether you are shipping one candle to a new internet customer or ten dozen to a large retailer, we have all the green packaging products and solutions you need to get your candles to their destination safely, and at minimal cost.

Here are just a few of the eco friendly packaging products we offer:

Globe Guard 100% PCW boxes – there is no greener box available and Globe Guard is quickly becoming a recognizable and trusted name in the green packaging market. You can check out our green packaging web store for a long list of stock shipping boxes and we will gladly make custom grade boxes, custom size boxes and even custom printed boxes for you.

Partitions – candle makers are discovering that partitions are not just for liquor bottles. As retailers ask for more “display ready” packaging, primary packaging can be eliminated with the proper partition design. Partitions not only separate the products and prevent “product to product” damage; they also increase the stacking strength of the box.

Void Fill – a quick visit to the “void fill/cushioning” page of our store will show you one of the widest varieties of eco friendly packaging products available anywhere. Everything from “Eco-Nest” loose void fill, to “Eco-Flex” our incredibly versatile molded pulp product and of course, a wide selection of packaging papers including Kraft, indented and tissue. We even offer biodegradable, inflatable void fill for large volume pick and pack operations.

Molded Pulp – Finally- molded pulp for candle multi-packs and no tooling costs! We have recently added the following molded pulp trays to our product line:

• 2” round – 12 pack
• 3” round – 6 pack
• 3.5” square – 6 pack
• 4” round – 6 pack
• 4” round – 12 pack
• 4” square – 6 pack

Candles range from tapered to pillar, votive to jar, and many other shapes and sizes so the packaging has to be equally flexible. There are plenty of places online and elsewhere to buy boxes but very few operations where you can speak with an experienced secondary packaging designer at no cost.

Regardless of the volume, type or size, we can help solve your packaging problems, quickly and inexpensively. Call us today for a free consultation.

Special Offer: Please use promo code “CANDLE” for a 10% discount on all Globe Guard stock products until October 31, 2009.

One of the most unique forms of interior/protective packaging we offer is an incredibly green molded pulp product, rightly named “Eco-Flex”. What is truly exciting is our ability to utilize it for multiple uses within a single application, saving our customers space, money and costs resulting from shipment damage.

Glass Is Green but Vulnerable in Shipment

A number of companies have re-discovered glass as an excellent container for organic and other health industry products. This leads to some interesting packaging challenges, especially when the product is shipped via UPS, FedEx and/or USPS. The potential damage problem is compounded when the product is valuable, heavy and it is shipped in less than full case quantities. You can see the problem in the photo when this client ships 6 ounce jars in the same box as their 20 ounce jars.

One Green Packaging Product – Three Great Uses

On applications like this, there are three possible applications: (more…)

Tomorrow marks the eighth anniversary of the day none of us will ever forget but for the most part has left us unchanged. I was brought up believing that from evil will come good and perhaps there were some immediate positive effects, but those wore off long ago and I am sorry to say we are probably no better off than we were eight years and one day ago.

Where Were You on 9-11?

That day is likely permanently etched in all our minds forever. My wife and I were attending the Pack Expo show in Las Vegas and were scheduled to fly back, early that morning. As we left our hotel and climbed in a cab headed for the airport, the driver casually mentioned that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers in NYC. We all of course assumed it was a terrible accident because how else could something like that possibly happen? The tension at the airport was palpable and before we even got to our gate, we heard the announcement over the loud speakers that all flights were cancelled. We soon found out about the second plane and the second World Trade Center tower and suddenly we all knew this was no freak accident.

We were told to go back to our hotels and check with our airlines to reschedule our flights but of course no one believed what was unfolding before our very eyes. Soon we were back in our hotel watching the big screen televisions in a crowded sports book room that were all playing non-stop news accounts of what was happening on the other end of the country. We stared in disbelief and soon found ourselves marooned in the party capital of the world, at a time when it was impossible to enjoy it.

The Long Way Home

We wound up staying in Las Vegas until that following Friday when out of sheer frustration, lack of definitive answers from the airlines, and no rental cars available, we purchased a car and drove it home. (more…)

We are very glad to announce that as on this month, our cartoon series “Eco Ed” will be appearing in Packaging Digest’s digital and print versions.

Is Sustainability Funny?

Over a year ago, Eco Ed co-creator Brad Shorr and I agreed there was way too much humor in the green world to let it go to waste. We talked about how often we both felt confused by the volume of often conflicting information that is out there regarding sustainability.

That led to the creation of our character, Eco Ed, a regular guy who is sincerely interested in doing the right thing, but is rarely sure what that might be. Or perhaps at other times, Ed grabs a good, green idea and takes it way too far to be practical. In any case, we can probably all relate to Ed to some degree or we may even know someone that is much like Ed.

Packaging Digest and Eco Ed

The good people at PD agreed sustainability could often use a laugh or at least a chuckle so Eco Ed will be appearing monthly. On the print magazine version, look for it on the page opposite the inside back cover and on the website as well.

We hope you will enjoy it!

Due to popular demand, during the month of September, special order, 100% PCW Globe Guard shipping boxes are now available to you, custom printed with your name, logo, website, etc. at no additional cost when compared to the same box size, unprinted and the same quantity! (Please see details below)

A Great Advertising Opportunity and Value

Your shipping boxes are typically the first tangible thing your customer receives from you and printing makes them very eye catching. As we all seek to find new ways to set ourselves apart and above the competition, branding has become more important than ever before and your boxes are a great way to make a positive, lasting impression.

These days there are few “no cost” advertising opportunities available but this is one of them. Your name and eco message will be highly visible when the box is used and hopefully reused. It also is a great way to send a promotional or seasonal message, once again creating a distinct difference between you and the rest of the world.

“The Details Below”

• Offer is good for one color printed on two panels
• There may be additional cost for printing on other panels or multiple colors
• Offer does not include onetime printing plate charges ( to be quoted after artwork is provided for review)
• Globe Guard Store pricing does not apply to this promotion
• Prior quotes for non-stock, unprinted custom boxes dated 1/1/09 or later will be honored for this promotion

Printing boxes is very affordable, especially at our prices. Only the very first order of printed boxes seems complicated but we will make it as easy as possible for you. Future re-orders are sure to be no more effort for you than ordering plain boxes

Please contact us if you have any questions at all and of course, we still offer a large selection of unprinted 100% PCW stock boxes. If printed boxes are not for you, keep in mind our water activated, custom printed, paper box sealing tape.
_________________

The internet is well populated by websites offering green products. Sometimes they are products they manufacture, other times it is items that they simply distribute. Jay Kilby’s site, “We Buy It Green” is rather unique in that they sell nothing directly and serve primarily as a product guide for the eco minded shopper. With the holidays closer than we would all like to admit, I had the opportunity to interview Jay about his part-time project and full time passion.

DS: Jay I know your profession is being a school teacher so please tell us little about how, when and why you started your excellent website, www.webuyitgreen.com.

JK: I teach a course called Contemporary World Affairs, and as I prepared for this course, I learned more about the significance of climate change and the growing green movement. At around the same time, I read an Atlantic Monthly article about how former President Bill Clinton was coming up with new ideas for creating private markets to promote public goods (like a clean environment) as a more effective strategy than simply relying on charity or government. I began to get ideas for a website that could do the same kind of thing by bringing eco-friendly merchants and shoppers together and providing the kind of information shoppers need in order to identify genuinely eco-friendly choices.

DS: Your Green and Fair Trade Directory is an excellent resource. Please tell us about how products and companies qualify to be listed at no cost.

JK: All products on our site must have some distinctive feature that makes them eco-friendly, or they must be certified fair trade products, or they must be sold by a merchant that practices fair trade. For eco-friendly products listed on our site, we check third-party resources, such as the Green America Responsible Shopper guide, to see whether merchants have a poor report card on fair labor practices; if so, their products are excluded from our site even if they are “green.” (more…)