Today’s post comes to you from the “this is cool” department. It’s slightly old news, so you might’ve seen it already, but we thought it was still worth sharing.
Puma, the shoemaker, recently announced that it’s going to take a radical step in its efforts to go green. The company is, simply put, ditching the shoebox:
As Fast Company explains, the new packaging is essentially a recyclable plastic bag wrapped tightly around some cardboard. There’s no tissue paper, there’s no laminated cardboard and there’s no plastic bag.
That will have an impact, both on the environment on Puma’s bottom line:
Puma estimates that the bag will slash water, energy, and fuel consumption during manufacturing alone by 60%–in one year, that comes to a savings of 8,500 tons of paper, 20 million mega joules of electricity, 264,000 gallons of fuel, and 264 gallons of water. Ditching the plastic bags will save 275 tons of plastic, and the lighter shipping weight will save another 132,000 gallons of diesel.
Switching to a different bag doesn’t mean Puma has saved the world. It doesn’t even mean the company has made its supply chain as green as it could.
It’s a reminder, though, that we can all change our everyday behavior to help the Earth. If half of all Americans followed Puma’s suit and used less paper, the impact on greenhouse gas emissions would be similar to that of keeping 568,000 cars off the assembly line. Take action now to do less for the environment.
