Green Packaging

Every day it seems that there is more and more interest in green packaging. Consumers seem to be driving demand but even more of a driving factor appears to be large retailers like Wal-Mart with their "Green Packaging Rating System". Over 60,0000 Wal Mart suppliers are now scrambling to lower the amount of packaging materials they use by five per cent, use more renewable materials and slash the energy use by machines that package their products. Wal-Mart estimates cutting five per cent out of its suppliers' packaging materials will stop millions of pounds of trash from reaching landfills and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere by 667,000 metric tons. This new green packaging push by Wal-Mart seems to be change in direction from their usual lowest price wins mentality.

So What's the Benefit of Green Packaging for Wal-Mart and other major retailers?

Less packaging material = lighter weight and more items per truckload cutting distribution costs. According to Wal-Mart- "This is equal to taking 213,000 trucks off the road annually, and saving 323,800 tons of coal and 66.7 million gallons of diesel fuel from being burned. This initiative will also create $10.98 billion in savings, just from a 5 percent reduction in 10 percent of the global packaging industry."

Earth Friendly Consumer Campaigns- If done properly Wal-Mart has a huge opportunity to promote Green Packaging to consumers and perhaps soften the opinions of the consumers that feel Wal-Mart is a corporate giant that is only concerned with profit.