My wife, Lenora, and I are fast approaching our third anniversary as entrepreneurs. During the Christmas break we reflected back on how far we have come, not only measured in sales numbers but just as importantly, in terms of friends.

Sure there are headaches and disappointments in owning and operating your own business, but we have also enjoyed the privilege and extreme pleasure of working with some pretty incredible people. We agreed our favorite part of the experience is being able to help create and share some unforgettable Green Moments.

What Are Green Moments?

Green Moments: When a committed green minded individual realizes they can have what they want and that is usually a packaging solution that is as green as the products they are promoting. We call it eco-consistency but our customers usually call it, “problem solved”.

Here are some great examples.

• The lady in Maryland who realized she could have her boxes printed with her very attractive logo and it would NOT cost her an arm and a leg to do so.

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Sure, our company sells eco friendly packaging supplies but my interest goes beyond the potential business. In an industry measured in billions, there is probably enough for everyone to get what they need and what they earn. No, my concern is more about the environment and “eco consistency” which is making sure your packaging is as green as the product you are selling and shipping.

Sustainability – Doesn’t End at the Door

In fact, we believe that is where it begins. As green business people we have to hold each other accountable and fortunately I have several die hard, green friends who will let me know if our green marketing ever begins to get ahead of the green facts. It is easy to get carried away or take things at face value as opposed to doing the homework and asking the tough questions of our suppliers. I appreciate it when a friend gives me corrective advice because if they see an inconsistency, it is a sure bet our highly intelligent, skeptical, eco minded customers will as well.

Especially if you are an internet based green company, when your product arrives at its destination, that is likely the first real contact you have with your new customer. The quality, cleanliness and yes, the greenness of your packaging is instantly evaluated.

Sustainable Packaging First Impressions

• Is the packaging intact and did it do a good job of containing and protecting the contents? “My goodness, did this get dragged behind the truck?”
• Is it excessive? “I ordered a DVD and this box could hold two basketballs!”
• Is it attractive, is it branded and does it represent you well? “Who are these people”?
• Is it eco consistent externally? “I can’t believe they shipped my baby’s organic cotton clothes in a plastic bag!”
• Is it eco consistent internally? “I did not even realize they still made packing peanuts.”
• Is it recycled content and/or recyclable? “Darn, this paper / poly mailer is going to wind up in a land fill.”

Packaging and the Contradictory Message

Simply put, if our product says “we care about the environment” then our packaging should communicate the same concern. If not, we are contradicting ourselves and our customers will spot it from a green mile away.
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We may not have the loudest voice but we proudly claim our rightful place in the in the front row of the sustainable choir, having spent over two years singing the praises of recycled 100% PCW content corrugated board and boxes. We are helping to educate the market and the people who hear us are asking questions of their current suppliers. Quite frankly, those suppliers do not always know how to respond and counter our unique products.

An email exchange with a new reader last week served to remind me that we continuously add new readers and subscribers to our blog, who may have not read some of our older, previous posts on the subject. So every once in a while it is a good idea to recap and update. Last week I also spoke to a prospective West Coast customer who complained her current box supplier was unable to give her the same answer twice on the construction and recycled content of the boxes they are supplying her.

Why 100% PCW Content Corrugated Boxes

Most eco minded people will agree recycling is a necessary component of an effective sustainability strategy. After all, recycling is one of the basic three “R’s” of sustainability along with reduce and reuse. What can we possibly do with all of the paper, corrugated, and paperboard waste we create? After all we can’t make deck lumber, designer bags or high end kitchen counter tops with it.

However, we can make excellent corrugated board and related products out of that paper waste and a handful of companies and suppliers like us are doing just that. To be fair, most corrugated board has some PCW content but the more we use the better, right? As long as there is no compromise on quality or performance, doesn’t it make sense to reuse as much of that waste as possible?

Dispelling the 100% PCW Quality Myth

Our products have been tested over and over again and grade for grade 100% PCW is every bit as strong and performs as well as any other board construction combination. As I have said many times, “ALL 32 ECT boxes are 32 ECT strong, regardless of the board’s recycled content.” After all, that is what that 32 ECT certification stamp on the bottom of every Globe Guard box means – the box has been tested and has met or exceeded the edge crush standard for 32 ECT boxes.

Yet, companies that don’t have 100% PCW to offer continue to respond with information that is at best out dated, and at worst, deceptive. “That stuff is no good.” “100% PCW board is not approved for UPS, USPS, or FedEx shipment”, they may say. “That board is like the stuff that comes in from China”, others may defend. Desperate people say desperate things but many of these comments are outright lies and need to be confronted whenever they are presented as fact.
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I think most would agree that corrugated board is one of the greenest packaging materials currently available. You can buy it with a high or 100% recycled content and when it is no longer needed, it can easily and readily be recycled to serve another day and another packaging application.

Partitions have been rediscovered by the green and packaging communities as a great way to solve a packaging or damage problem, while reducing material and labor costs when compared to other product protection options. Best of all, it can all be accomplished with undeniably eco friendly, corrugated board.

Corrugated Partitions – Not Just for Liquor Bottles Anymore

Historically corrugated partitions have been a mainstay in the liquor and bottled beverage industry because they do such an excellent job of separating and protecting one product from another. Obviously bottle to bottle damage is virtually eliminated and other benefits are also enjoyed.

• Labels are not marred or damaged in shipment because label to label abrasion is prevented.
• Stacking strength is dramatically increased, even when the bottled and cased products are heavy liquids
• Bottles and jars remain upright, minimizing the possibility of leakers

New Applications for Eco Friendly Corrugated Partitions

Recently we have had a flurry of partition projects and applications and here are a few reasons why our customers chose this solution over other options we offered:

To verify count – Products were individually wrapped with Kraft paper to avoid damage and then randomly stacked and packed in a corrugated case. Our customer was being inundated by claims of incorrect counts. Coincidently the complaints were always for under shipment, never over, so we created a 20 cell partition that separated the individual products for easy, accurate count confirmation.

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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…)

(Note: this post written by Dennis Salazar also appeared on Nashville Wraps blog on July 6th, 2009)

Sustainable Packaging Creates Strange Bedfellows

I may be paraphrasing the old adage about politics but there is absolutely no politics involved in the decision for Nashville Wraps to offer Globe Guard, 100% recycled (PCW) content shipping boxes to their customers. It is really all about good customer service and making it easy for customers to order and receive what they want and need.

Two Different Companies with One, Almost Identical Objective

Most people and their own customers recognize Nashville Wraps as an innovator and leader in their market of decorative, retail and gift packaging. They long ago committed to making their products and company as green as possible and made news in the green and packaging communities with their Green Way® product line.

Our company, Salazar Packaging, Inc. has been working toward the same goal in our product area of green, eco friendly packaging products for secondary (shipping) purposes. We created and trademarked the Globe Guard® line of 100% PCW boxes and began promoting them in 2007. (more…)

Back on March 26th we published an article on this blog talking about sustainable packaging dead ends. In it I described a personal pet peeve which is single use products that are destined to end up in a land fill. It only adds salt to the sustainable wound for me when the manufacturer leads customers to believe that they are doing a good, green thing.

An Imperfect Sustainable Packaging Example – Cushioned Mailers

We have all used them at one time or another but cushioned (foam or bubble) lined paper mailers feature two excellent materials. Unfortunately they are laminated together and cannot be separated for easy sorting and recycling. Since the outer layer is paper, they are likely to hold up for only one trip through USPS, FedEx, or UPS so it is usually a prompt and short trip to your local land fill. Think about the millions of these that are used for home or office and you can see how easily the problem is compounded.

A Near Perfect Sustainable Packaging Solution – Globe Guard 100% Recyclable (Plastic) Cushioned Mailers

Before the anti-plastic people get all worked up, please keep in mind that on sustainable, green packaging, it is not always about bad versus good. Sometimes the decision is not all that simple and the choice is between very bad and perhaps, not so bad. Or in this case between completely unrecyclable and easily recyclable.

I know I would likely be escorted out of some green gatherings for using the C word (compromise) but that is the reality of current eco friendly packaging options. The key is to know what you are using in terms of content and how or if it satisfies the sustainability requirements of reuse, recycle and reduce.

What Makes These Plastic Cushioned Mailers Green (more…)

I am very happy to announce I am now blogging for Packaging Digest, one of the media leaders covering the packaging industry. Writing for them is a terrific opportunity to reach a different, substantially larger audience and I invite and encourage you to check out their excellent online and print publications.

The Increasingly Crowded Green Blogosphere

The world of eco focused internet blogging has become very crowded as more people and companies are writing about packaging OR about sustainability. Green is an increasingly popular topic because readers are eager to better understand sustainability. Packaging will always be a green focal point for consumers so the growth in interest is to be expected.

In our work as well as in our writing, we strive to be a place where people with an interest in sustainability AND in packaging can learn more about the people and products impacting both.

That is our overall objective on Inside Sustainable Packaging and will be our goal for Common Sense and Sustainability, our new featured blog on Packaging Digest. (more…)

Though the above title may sound like yet another edition of the Star Wars series, this post is actually about the number of very good companies that are now producing “stock” molded pulp products. In the past the words stock and pulp were never used in the same sentence unless you were talking about egg cartons or soft drink carriers but the number of companies offering standard, “no tooling required” packaging solutions is growing quickly.

Eco Flex Molded Pulp and Beyond

Five weeks ago we launched this new green product which is very unique in that it is flexible molded pulp able to be bent, folded, rolled and easily hand torn to size, making it ideal for a multitude of packaging applications. We still love our new Eco Flex molded pulp product but we also realize that in some situations, an application specific form fitting molded product may be better for the customer and application.

Molded pulp in any shape or form is 100% recycled content, usually newspaper PCW and it is also “obviously” green. We believe the clarity of that green message is becoming more and more important and quite frankly, very few products fall into that category of being undisputedly green. There is often debate on almost any imaginable packaging product one could offer or use, but I have never heard two green minded individuals argue over the merits of molded pulp packaging.

Where’s the Adventure in Stock Molded Pulp Packaging

The adventure comes from a manufacturer guessing at what sizes customers could potentially want and making a substantial investment in a mold to create it. In all honestly, it is usually not as wild of a guess as it may appear because there may be a customer or two with ready business that take some of the risk out of the decision.

In many industries, there are indeed common or standard sizes that often repeat. In the glass jar and candle businesses for example, it is not at all unusual to see 1”, 2” 3” and 4” diameter candles and standard wine bottles tend to have the same shape and size. Tooling can also get very creative so that a single cavity may be able to accommodate various diameters of products.

How Does This Impact Your Green Packaging Efforts? (more…)

It is hard to believe but it was one year ago today that we launched our blog at the urging and advice of our marketing guru, Brad Shorr.  I admit initially being somewhat reluctant, or as others recall, “dead set against it” because I was concerned we would not have enough interesting topics to write about, or be able to maintain an audience. Boy was I wrong.

In the last 12 months Brad and I have posted over 100 articles, conducted 7 interviews, launched 11 new green packaging products and irritated at least 23 people in the packaging industry and probably twice that many in the green community. We have freely shared our opinions and perspectives, even when they are not the popular thought and we have enjoyed it tremendously.

Quick Recognition from within the Packaging Industry

Last August after publishing ISP for just a few short months, we were surprised when David Bellm of Packaging Digest, a packaging industry leading publication, talked about Inside Sustainable Packaging on his blog.

It was high praise from THE premier packaging blog and it told us we are on the right track. Our initial objective was to deliver worthwhile, valuable content to our readers while informing them on the new products and activities within our company. Keeping that balance was the key and we must walk that fine line well because Packaging Digest has invited me to join their team of packaging bloggers.

Is Inside Sustainable Packaging Self Promoting? (more…)