Ecologic Brands adds Greener Package Award
By Canadian Packaging Staff
Sustainability cardboard bottle Ecologic Brands Greeen Generation Greener Package Awards Natural 4x Laundry Detergent recycled content Soil Control Labs2011 Environmental Impact Award recognizes company’s contribution to sustainable packaging.
The Greener Package Awards honoring the top innovations in sustainable packaging have recognized Ecologic Brands with its 2011 Environmental Impact Award for its cardboard bottle. According to Greener Package, this year’s honors were bestowed exclusively to products that made quantifiable improvements in sustainable packaging that could be substantiated. Ecologic’s award was given in the Non FDA (Food & Drug Administration)-regulated Products category.
The new cardboard bottle was first introduced in March 2011 by the Oakland, CA-based Ecologic Brands with the launch of Seventh Generation’s new Natural 4x Laundry Detergent. The detergent has cleaned up on store shelves, and is now the third best-selling laundry detergent in its category of 150 SKUs (stock-keeping units).
The bottle’s innovation comes from combining a molded-paper outer shell made from 70 per cent recycled old corrugated boxes and 30 per cent old newspapers. It has been certified by Soil Control Labs to be compostable per ASTM 6868 standards. Additionally, its thin interior liner uses up to 75 per cent less plastic than other rigid plastic containers.
The package also offers greater carbon savings because its outer shells are tightly nested and transported flat. One truckload of Ecologic Brands’ packaging materials is equivalent in volume to up to nine truckloads of rigid plastic containers.
Company founder and chief executive officer Julie Corbett says, “It took three years to create an entirely new bottle that would make real environmental change. Seventh Generation was the perfect partner to make this bottle a reality. Creating change is always challenging, but this prestigious award affirms that this is the future of packaging.”
Greener Package Awards judge Jack DiMartino of Stonyfield Farms acknowledges, “I love everything about this project; the amount of thought and consideration for its consumers and the environment puts Seventh Generation on a different level for sustainable packaging.”
Ecologic is working with many large brands to create custom bottles for liquids, dry ingredients, consumables, and non-consumable product categories.
Since its introduction, Ecologic Brands has racked up a number of innovation awards, including the San Francisco Business Times Cleantech Sustainable Awards 2011, “Best Sustainable Product”; The International Business Forum’s The Social Impact Award for 2011; and was finalist in the PMMI (Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute), “Package of the Future” Competition in 2010.
Now in its third year, the Greener Package Awards is more stringent than ever—this year’s honors were given with special attention to measurable achievements in sustainable packaging. For the 2011 Awards all submissions required verifiable data for at least one aspect of environmental impact: greenhouse gas reduction, sourcing metrics/impacts, end-of-life recovery metrics/impacts, life-cycle metrics/impacts, and/or social impacts. Entries were evaluated against some of the latest standards and guidelines under development for sustainable packaging.
About Ecologic Brands
Ecologic Brands’ innovative new bottles are an eco-sensitive alternative to plastic jugs and non-recyclable containers. The Oakland, California-based company’s goal is to finally give consumers and brands a sustainable choice in the packaging of everyday liquid products like detergent, household cleaners, milk and juice. Ecologic’s hybrid bottle combines a rigid outer shell made from recycled cardboard and newspaper, with a lightweight inner pouch. The result is an outer shell that can be recycled with paper or composted, and a #4 pouch that can be recycled and uses less plastic. For more information, visit www.ecologicbrands.com.
About Greener Package Awards
The Greener Package Awards are North America’s only independent, neutral, sustainable packaging awards competition not affiliated with any supplier or company. The Greener Package Awards honor the top innovations in sustainable packaging introduced over the previous year. For more information, visit www.greenerpackage.com.
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