Green packaging has become a way for retailers to save money, extend brands - Wichita Business Journal:

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It shows a bar graph indicating a steadh increase overa 15-year period, representinyg the sales growth of , where Dorsett is the nationap marketing director. The growth is due to customers’ effortd to go green. Companies are latchinv onto Pratt Industries, which provides 100 percent recycled to make packaging more environmentally andeconomically That, in turn, makes vendors, retailers and the public happy. “Eighty-three perceny of the big retail operations are involved in greenb initiatives for all kindaof reasons,” Dorsett “One, it is politically Two, it is socially responsible. Three, it is economicallty responsible.
” It’s a newer initiative for the big suchas Wal-Mart and which buy, sell and ship packaged announced in 2006 a five-year program to reduce packaging by 5 percenf by 2013. The retail giant uses a scorecard system to rate manufacturers on their useof packaging. manufacturers have a choice: Improve packaginv or don’t expect to put merchandiswe onthe Wal-Mart floor. “We are not being heavy-handefd about it,” says Bill Wertz, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart. ”It’s really an invitation to our supplierw to collaboratewith us.
” Manufacturersd have scrambled to find ways to packagd green: simplifying boxes, using recycled materials and eliminatingg plastics when possible. “We’v e kind of caught the wave at therighft time,” Dorsett says. “We have the perfect sustainabl product, and a lot of peopled now need it.” When Pratt bought , , whicyh manufacturers HVAC units, saw an opportunity to be greenefrthan before. “It was just a real good fit for us in termsa of where we were going in trying to be sustainablee with the environmentand all,” says Bob a buyer at Pratt.
Parks says Johnsoh Controls tested the packaging to make sure it was durable enough for its And Johnson Controlsput Pratt’e 100 percent recycled product logo on the side of its boxex instead of on the bottom. “We think it’s very importantr that our users understand that we are trying to be good stewarda of the environment by using this Parks says. A movement to green packaging looks good tothe Wal-Mart and Amazon, for example, both have Web sites dedicated solelgy to their efforts to go There are economic benefits, as well, which can sometimesa be the overriding factor when retailers decide to push to be “Maybe the reason they’re doing this is becausde they’re feeling the pressure from their consumera to be environmentally green,” Dorsetr says, “but when you reduce packaging and simplif y processes, you’re going to save