A recent study shows that a new furniture shipping method devised by Noblesville, Ind.-based trucking firm Perkins Logistics reduces carbon dioxide emissions more than 283 metric tons annually. That’s the equivalent of removing 52 passenger cars from the road for a year--and that's just for one customer—Holland-based Haworth Inc.
Perkins shipped the products in reusable wrappings and equipment instead of cardboard boxes. Perkins’ CEO Andy Card says if the practice became customary the carbon reduction would be staggering.
“We were amazed at how shipping chairs and tables wrapped in protective blankets instead of cardboard containers could translate into such a sizable reduction in carbon dioxide emissions,” Card said in a prepared statement.
The independent study by Allegiant Global showed that Perkins Logistics reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent per pound shipped during a two-month test period, shipping some orders of products from the Bruce, Miss. plant of Haworth Inc. to customers in 16 states.
Perkins used blankets, straps, bars and plywood tiers, which allowed for an average of 65 percent more products in its trailers—and that meant fewer loads and no cardboard waste.
The new method adds labor and equipment costs of about 15 percent to a shipment. But the savings due to increased load capacity, the elimination of cardboard boxes and no labor costs to pack the boxes more than offsets the increase.
Haworth is assessing more widespread use of the new shipping method.
“While it took some added effort on our end, our customers said they appreciated avoiding the labor of unpacking boxes and disposing of cardboard waste,” adds Haworth's Global Transportation Manager Henry Oosterhouse.
Source: Perkins Logistics; Matt Gryczan, Alexander Marketing
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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