Over the years I have been fortunate to meet many interesting people in packaging and sustainability but few are as unique as Rich Cohen and his company, Distant Village Packaging. Rich’s passion and commitment are infectious and we had no trouble convincing Rich to share his extraordinary story with our readers.

DS: Rich, for the benefit of our readers can you give us a brief overview of what Distant Village Packaging does.

RC: We create Handmade Packaging using sustainable and exotic materials such as tree-free papers, cacao leaves, and coconut buttons. However, by far, the most critical success factor in our work is close creative design collaboration with brand owners to produce packaging designs that reinforce the exact brand experience they desire.

DS: Please give us an idea of some of your most popular products and the industries or markets you serve.

RC: Distant Village packaging is extremely sustainable and highly attractive, ideal for gift giving. For example, bath and body gift sets, jewelry boxes, fine artisan chocolates, organic baby clothes, and most every industry which desires an impressive handmade packaging experience. (more…)

We are very pleased to announce that our trademark application for Globe Guard has finally been approved so in the future we will be able to use the ® rather than the temporary ™. This is an important development because it signifies that products carrying the Globe Guard name have been carefully selected for their sustainable packaging characteristics.

Our vision for and commitment to the Globe Guard brand (more…)

One of our favorite blogs is Sustainable Is Good because they do an exceptional job of exposing examples of over packaging. This photo ran on SISG a couple of months ago, much to the embarrassment of Amazon. Obviously someone at Amazon made a mistake and shipped out an order for ten thin books, in ten separate boxes complete with tape and void fill. That was a plain and simple error on someone’s part and I am sure “inspector #25” or “packer #17” heard about their lapse in common sense. As bad as mistakes like that can be for the companies making them, what is even worse is deliberate lapses in basic concern regarding the importance of secondary packaging, especially when it is done by companies that should know better.

I believe that now more than ever, a green company making a green product MUST be consistent throughout their entire customer serving process, including the secondary packaging they ship out. Here are some reasons why. (more…)

Even if you are not a regular reader and subscriber to this blog, please accept this as sustainable challenge #1. How quickly and easily can you spot a product or package that that is, let’s call it, “less than innocent” in terms of greenness? You have an opportunity to be the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) investigator for this possible case of packaging sustainability crime.

Please click on the image below for a better view -

We have blocked out the name of the company to protect the guilty but the company name is really not important. If we look around we can spot countless examples like this on a daily basis. This company is shipping their annual catalog in the box that is shown. Ironically on the catalog cover they boast about offering hundreds of “eco friendly products”. But what about the packaging that is designed to get this catalog in the hands of their eco minded customers?

To a certain extent we agree that green is often in the eye of the beholder but we’ve spotted some things that are very likely wrong and some that merit further investigation. Jot down some observations and questions before you read the rest of this story. (more…)