Industrial packaging products and services firm Greif has received the 2014 Manufacturing Leadership Award (ML Award) in Sustainability for its DoubleGreen™ COEX 10-liter plastic jerry can. This is one of the first sustainable multilayer 10-liter plastic jerry cans made from a renewable resource, sugarcane, with a stackable design that eliminates the need for a carton during transport.
The DoubleGreen COEX 10-liter plastic jerry is comprised of over 50 percent polyethylene that is derived from sugarcane ethanol. The can, produced in Brazil, creates a closed-loop system approach from agribusiness to agribusiness. Based upon the main Brazil agrochemical market volume, the use of sugarcane ethanol is estimated to eliminate roughly 1,390 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Greif’s manufacturing process requires less material in the production of the jerry can, reducing its weight for shipping even as it maintains the same compression strength as heavier containers. Its stackable design for shipping directly on transport pallets improves inventory management cost, removes the necessity for printing a duplicate label and optimizes the recycling process.
DoubleGreen also is UN-certified, which means that Greif’s customers will not need to worry about managing or paying for the UN Certification process themselves. The elimination of carton packaging is estimated to save 3,643 trees and avoid 23 tons of CO2 emissions.
“At Greif, sustainability is an innovation driver. Our goal is to help customers reduce their own environmental footprints with quality industrial packaging,” said Eduardo Simoniello, VP and general manager of Greif Latin America.
Winners of the ML Awards will be honored on June 5 at a black-tie gala during the 10th Annual Manufacturing Leadership Summit hosted by Frost & Sullivan, a leading research firm.
Earlier this month, HP announced it teamed up with global packaging company YFY Jupiter for a new initiative that will use straw waste to create packaging material for its products. YFY Jupiter uses straw waste from Chinese farms to manufacture corrugated cardboard and molded pulp packaging; the process to create the packaging uses up to 40 percent less energy, 90 percent less water, emits 25 percent less CO2 than traditional methods and, since the packaging is lighter than wood-based molded pulp, it will cost less to ship.
To learn more about how design, such as in manufacturing, is changing around the world to address several environmental, economic and social issues, check out the several case studies presented in Design Transitions. The book offers examples where design companies are changing their own processes, approaches, philosophies, and values, as well as examples of how organizations are beginning to introduce and embed design thinking into their operations.