On 25 February 2007, Al Gore received an Oscar for the best documentary for 'An Inconvenient Truth', and with that capped a year in which the world became universally convinced that global warming is real, and that it is largely caused by emissions from economic activity.
South Africa's economy developed on the base of cheap labour, inexpensive and dirty energy, and energy-intensive mining and industry. Together, they have created one of the most energy and carbon-intensive economies in the world. Cheap energy was and is produced mainly from coal and oil. As a result, SA is the 14th biggest carbon emitter in the world*.
While SA's intensive energy users are dominated by metal processors, petrochemicals manufacturers and mining companies, all manufacturing companies in SA need to operate in a more 'green' manner, ie, limit the environmental impact of their day-to-day business operations.
"Nowhere is this more true than in the area of packaging design, pallet optimisation and truck utilisation," says Bob Cork, MD of BCA Barcode Alliance. "There is an increasing international trend for companies to reduce their use of packaging and the space occupied by their products, and local players should heed the call to ensure they remain competitive and environmentally friendly on a global stage."
BCA Barcode Alliance is the reseller of CAPE Systems, which offers a variety of software tools to maximise a company's sustainability scorecard. The software allows companies to test different types of packaging materials, evaluate alternative package sizes and improve both pallet and truck utilisation.
Internationally, many companies have recognised the importance of reducing packaging material and space utilisation to decrease their carbon footprint. The world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, recently announced its plans to work with its suppliers to cut their packaging by 5% by 2013.
Reduced packaging has significant environmental impact
By working with just one toy supplier to reduce packaging, Wal-Mart reported that it meant it required 497 fewer containers to ship the same number of items, saving 3 800 trees, 1 000 barrels of oil and US$2.4 million a year in shipping costs. This is just one supplier in one product line with 255 items**.
According to Cork, the CAPE software can assist companies to rethink packaging solutions without them having to create samples for each test scenario. "CAPE can be used to design and test new product sizes, shapes and packaging," he says. "You can also use the software to test the impact of these alternatives in terms of compression strength, size of primary and secondary packaging, pallet pattern layout and load optimisation." Thus, both the environmental and cost implications of any changes can be analysed at the same time.
Manufacturers' efforts to save the planet can be achieved by adhering to the four 'Rs' of sustainability:
1. Remove packaging: the software helps you evaluate what happens to your product should you remove a layer of packaging, or change material. This helps companies to reduce packaging or switch to new or renewable packaging materials without impacting on product safety.
2. Reduce packaging: taking into account your existing product packaging and dimensions, the software evaluates different packaging materials, from corrugated to trays to films. It gives alternative dimensions, while varying the volume to offer new packaging and product size alternatives, while trying to improve your pallet load efficiencies.
3. Re-use packaging: the software will evaluate virgin versus recycled content for sizing of packaging, track the costs using the sustainability costing tool, and test the strength of the material using the compression strength testing tool.
4. Revenue: the software tracks all fluctuating costs associated with package materials, packaging production, manufacturing, storage, handling, distribution and transportation. This can help a company improve profit margins while meeting customers' goals and, by comparing solutions, companies can compare costs of environmentally friendly options and efficiencies relating to labour, material type and specification and transportation costs.
Pallet optimisation, truck utilisation reduce carbon footprint
Fewer pallets packed more intelligently into fewer trucks saves money while reducing oil consumption and emissions. It can also substantially reduce a company's warehousing and storage needs, as well as the number of vehicles required to transport products.
Cork says companies can use CAPE software to maximise their pallet and container-load efficiencies by evaluating alternative product and packaging sizes and calculating loads that are the most area and cube efficient. "In this way, you can automatically reduce your pallet needs by up to 20%," he says.
* Sustainable Energy? discussion paper prepared by David Hallowes for the Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Project of Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, in co-operation with the Henrich B"oll Foundation.
** The Guardian, 2 February 2007
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