This new book provides readers with a thoughtful packaging primer that covers the challenges of designing packaging for a competitive market. The book addresses all aspects of the creative process, including ...
By Larry Jaffee
Being ecologically conscious in packaging is trendy, but you can’t get any greener than leaving behind absolutely no greenhouse emissions. Nada.
That’s what the brand-new Oasis Zero Carbon Footprint Digipak for CDs and DVDs offers, featuring a tray composed entirely of 100% recycled, post-consumer bottles sourced from municipal recycling facilities. Recycled polyethelene terephthalate (RPET) is a non-toxic plastic on Walmart’s list of preferred materials. The package is being rolled out by Oasis Disc Manufacturing (www.oasisCD.com), which specializes in environmentally friendly media packaging and has a long history of using only sustainably harvested board products. The Oasis CD and DVD trays are mounted on printed paperboard of 100% Green Forestry Practices Certified board stock, which is printed using vegetable-based inks. (The board is also FSC- and SFI-certified.)
“This is the next logical step in further greening an offering for our very environmentally conscious client base,” says Micah Solomon, founder and president of Oasis, “and, frankly, for our very environmentally concerned team of employees here as well.” The “bottle tray” is the brainchild of Paul Gelardi, CEO of Sunlyte Packaging (www.sunlytecertified.com) in Kennebunkport, ME, who has been designing and manufacturing media packaging since the early 1970s and was one of the founders of Shape Inc., PolyMatrix, Global Zero, E Media, and Sagoma Technologies. Besides the initial media thrust, Gelardi also hopes to introduce the carbon-free concept to all forms of packaging, even food and medical applications.
“From design to distribution to disposal, Sunlyte Certified accounts for the carbon costs associated with the manufacturing of CD, Blu-ray, and DVD discs; all printed materials and packaging, even the shrink wrap; and shipping to distribution,” says Gelardi. “We’ve performed the most extensive footprint analysis of media packaging to validate our carbon free certification.”
While the new Zero Carbon Footprint Digipak reduces carbon emissions by 88% overall compared to a jewel case (65% compared to a conventional tray Digipak) through the purchase of carbon offset credits by Sunlyte, the entire package, assembly, and shipping are rendered 100% carbon neutral at a cost competitive with standard CD and DVD packaging. The remaining carbon footprint is offset by supporting such certified greenhouse gas reduction projects as the Freund Family Dairy in East Canaan, CT.
The East Canaan farm captures the greenhouse gas methane and converts it into energy used on the farm. The carbon footprint has been analyzed, quantified and reviewed by a third-party carbon management company. This includes the discs, all packaging materials, incoming transport of material, shipping to customer, business travel, and company operations.
Carbon offset projects are validated and audited according to international standards by CarbonFund.org and CarbonNeutral. From design to distribution to disposal, the program accounts for the carbon costs associated with the manufacturing of discs, all printed materials and packaging, and even the shrink wrap and shipping. Furthermore, the tray has less than 3% the carbon footprint of a standard jewel case or Amaray-style DVD box, and weighs half as much as standard packaging.
Gelardi says that Oasis is the first media manufacturer to adopt the Sunlyte package, but his company is planning to seek other disc replication, distribution, and printing partners for the carbon-free packaging. Top-selling independent artist and four-time Grammy nominee Trout Fishing In America, which performs folk rock and children’s music, has expressed interest in migrating its catalog and new titles to the Zero Carbon Footprint Digipak in keeping with their long-running commitment to the environment, according to the band’s manager, Dick Renko, a long-time Oasis client.
Warner Bros. has selected the Sunlyte package for the French DVD edition of Matrix Revolutions. In addition, electronica music artist M-Halo already chose the Sunlyte Certified package for its latest CD release, The Road of Janus.
“The carbon footprint of a product is in large part a measure of waste, and waste is not only bad for the environment, it’s bad for business,” Gelardi says. “Through a continuing effort to reduce the essential carbon footprint of packaged discs coupled with carbon offsets, we hope to prove that what’s good for the environment is good for business.”
Larry Jaffee writes about entertainment packaging topics frequently from his home in New York City.
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