3 simple swaps for a circular supply chain

For many of us, we’ve heard the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle) over and over again from childhood to adulthood. They’ve been ingrained into our behavior and our schooling since we were young. Yet, the main focus has primarily been on the 3rd R: Recycle.

Yes, recycling is a good habit to be in and I don’t want you to change that, but I do want you to take a moment to think about your recycling habits. 

What is it that you recycle today?

• Cardboard boxes
• Paper–envelopes, printer paper, mail, etc.
• Food containers–from berries, takeout, nuts, milk, egg cartons, etc.
• Glass jars
• Anything with a little triangle and a “1” or “2” in the triangle…

We are in the habit of tossing anything into the recycling bin with the expectation that we are doing something beneficial for the environment. While we do this personally in our homes, this habit continues into retail operations as well. Think cardboard boxes, polybags, excessive tape, plastic hangers, etc., and most of these items have a pretty short life span within stores.

Retail supply chains have a lot of moving parts, literally and figuratively, which means there can be plenty of opportunity for growth in creating a circular supply chain.

Circularity is where a product is reused or regenerated for extended use. Its lifespan extends single-use and helps keep materials in the circulation of life rather than into landfills.

How can we be better about fostering a circular economy? Through prioritizing the first two R’s: Reduce and Reuse.

Applying “reduce and reuse”

Earlier this year, Gartner shared a study on where and what organizations will prioritize when it comes to sustainability goals in their supply chain. A major focus of this reprioritization is within packaging. 

Specifically, Gartner predicts 20% of organizations with sustainable packaging goals will shift their focus from recycling and eliminating plastics to reducing the carbon footprint of their packaging by 2026. 

Cardboard is another main culprit impacting your carbon footprint at a large scale. 

After speaking with some local retailers nearby, I learned that many retailers use a cardboard box just once before it gets broken down and immediately thrown into the recycling bin. Sometimes, it skips recycling and just gets thrown into the trash…

Not only is this detrimental to sustainability goals, it is also costly. Cardboard isn’t cheap. Imagine spending $1.50 on every cardboard box to transfer your apparel from a distribution center (DC) to a local store and you have 15 stores to replenish twice every month with a plethora of single-use boxes. That’s $1.50 you throw away per box, per transfer. Over an entire year, this number will add up quickly.

Where can retailers adjust to encourage less waste–for the environment and their bottom line?

3 supply chain tips

Conduct a Materials Audit

Gain a better understanding of the materials you are using to package and ship your products from warehouse to DC, or direct to your consumers. Is there extra packaging that doesn’t provide much value? Are your products safe and secure in what they are traveling in? Are there wasteful or non-recyclable materials being used that could be swapped? When you employ circular design principles at the front end, you can significantly reduce waste at the end of your product’s lifecycle through packaging and transportation alone. 

Reduce Air Space

Air space can have a major impact on your environmental impact. When less is shipped inside a box that will still take up the same amount of space in a freight truck regardless of what’s inside it, that means you’re paying for air to travel. Highly wasteful here both to the environment and your bottom line. Work with your packaging partner or 3PL to find ways to reduce your air space so you only ship what you need to in a package that adheres to your products.

Redesign Your Packaging

Are you still shipping in cardboard boxes? Do you have plastic casings tucking your products in? Are packing peanuts still in your expense report?  If so, what is holding you back from reusable packaging? Cardboard boxes, even when made from recycled materials, still only get used 1-4 times before they are discarded. Some don’t get recycled at all and end up in landfills. There are more sustainable options. Reusable packaging can increase your cost savings by 15% plus and can be reused up to 200 times depending on the partner you work with.. 

The hardest part of switching to a more sustainable approach in your supply chain is the switch itself. It doesn’t have to be challenging when you work with a partner that is there with you every step of the way. 

If you want to learn more about how to swap seamlessly, click here to schedule a call and we’ll strategize together.

Why quitting cardboard should be a top priority

If you’re anything like me, you recently found yourself basking in the glow of a beautiful holiday season. With a smile on your face you looked around a sitting room at your family members, felt the pleasant warmth of a full belly, watched exuberant children play with a new toy, and noticed a slight sense of panic due to the stacks of cardboard boxes littered around the room. 

This feeling of cardboard overwhelm would only increase once it came time to take out the recycling. Your bin, like mine, will undoubtedly be full. So maybe you’ll find yourself sneaking down the street at midnight, hoping you can find space in a neighbor’s recycling bin, knowing the entire time that every single bin will be just as full as your own… 

This will launch a weeks-long process in which you frantically search for recycling bin space and fight the rising tide of every-day recyclables that are building up behind your holiday cardboard log jam. 

If this feels familiar, that’s because we all live in a world powered by single-use cardboard. 

And if you feel bad about it, it’s not just you gnashing your teeth at all the waste you’re witnessing. 

The question is, how can any person or any company be part of the solution when we live in a world where every day in the retail supply chain looks and feels like your living room does on Christmas morning? 

Breaking down cardboard

Understanding the scope and scale of cardboard manufacturing:

• American factories generated more than 400 billion square feet of cardboard in 2020
• The global production of cardboard was estimated to be 66 million tons in 2020 
• Cardboard output is forecasted to increase to more than 72 million tons by 2022 (25% increase)
• By 2025, the international market for corrugated packaging will be over $205 billion
• Amazon shipped an estimated 7.7 billion packages in 2021 (however, not all of these were in cardboard boxes)
• Cardboard packaging can be recycled and made into new packaging up to 7 times (which really isn’t that many)

If global cardboard consumption continues at this rate, we’ll have a real problem…

Cardboard kills, somewhat literally

The problem with single-use cardboard is that from the beginning of its life to the end of its life, there’s no real solution to make it truly sustainable. 

Instead, we’re cutting down forests and using billions of gallons of water to produce it. Then, we recycle it assuming it actually does get recycled. Yet much of this single-use cardboard that powers the retail supply chain ends up in a landfill, while new cardboard is created destroying not only forests, but the entire surrounding habitat that nurtures our wildlife.

Think of it like this, a tree in the ground fights global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide. Cardboard in a landfill, which is where all cardboard eventually ends up, releases methane, one of the most harmful greenhouse gasses. The question is, do we want trees to be growing and storing carbon, or do we want to continue contributing to the global explosion in the use of corrugated cardboard packaging? 

You know that disheartening feeling of cardboard overwhelm that you had on Christmas? Take it and multiply it by 365 days and 300 million people’s needs to begin understanding the daily reality at retail locations and distribution centers. 

Is there a solution to this problem?

Since we’re all in this together, we should all start looking for solutions together. 

That’s why LimeLoop is dedicated to quitting cardboard. 

LimeLoop helps brands transition to reusable packaging from single-use cardboard in their supply chain from first mile, middle mile to last mile.

The future is bright in the reusable space and there is a world where you can save money and increase efficiency by switching away from single-use cardboard packaging. 

If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of quitting cardboard, start with your free Sustainable Packaging Evaluation.

8 key takeaways I learned from retailers about "recycling" cardboard

I’ve spent the last 5 years of my life working to eliminate single-use packaging. Cutting the use of cardboard was part of that goal, but most of my focus was on cutting single-use plastic packaging used in direct to consumer e-commerce shipments. This was true for a variety of reasons, but the primary reason is that eliminating plastic gets all the headlines and regulatory attention when it comes to sustainable packaging. Cutting cardboard or “recycling” cardboard doesn’t get quite the same effect… Because plastic gets the headlines, that’s where retailers focus. And because I sell to retailers, that’s where my focus was as well. 

So, you can imagine my surprise when an employee at one of Limeloop’s customers made an off-hand comment that if I was truly worried about ending single-use packaging, I should be more focused on cardboard in their supply chain–not just focused on packaging direct to consumer.. 

While I am not a fan of single-use of any sort, cardboard has always been the somewhat “ok” material. Somewhat “ok” in the sense that it still can be recycled, though that process certainly isn’t perfect. Recycling cardboard is a beast of its own… 

This employee continued with, “We’re sending 500 boxes per store per month to replenish inventory, and only using those boxes a single time. That is a lot of wasted resources: water, energy and ultimately, money. We spend over $1 per box for that single-use cardboard.” 

Small-scale, $1/box is nothing. But we aren’t talking small-scale here. 500 boxes per month at $1.25 per box would add up to $7,500 a year on cardboard that gets used once and then tossed. These may not even apply to recycled cardboard boxes though many claim they to be using recycled cardboard boxes. And these numbers are on the smaller end of that scale… Large retailers around the nation, and the globe, experience these same price pains when it comes to their shipments. Why is it that retailers are willing to pay this kind of money for a single-use transportation item?  

“Well,” this customer had said, “We don’t have any choice. Cardboard is a fact of life.”

Despite this retail employee’s insistence, I wasn’t sure I totally bought what they said. Could it really be that most retailers in the U.S. are blowing through hundreds of thousands, or millions, on single-use cardboard boxes every year just to replenish their shelves? 

To find out, I decided to go undercover one afternoon in early November to visit 10 retailers who had sterling sustainability reputations. 

Behind closed doors

My skepticism didn’t last long.

First stop…

I started with a California based retailer that had around 100 retail locations. I walked into the store on a slow, cloudy day and quickly started a conversation with their very friendly store manager. 

“How,” I eventually asked her, “do your stores get replenished?” 

I quickly learned that store replenishment happened with cardboard, that they received around 300 boxes per month, and that they recycled all their cardboard. “However,” she’d said, sensing I had thoughts about recycling, “We know recycling isn’t actually a great option compared to reusing these boxes, but what else can we do?”

Second stop…

Next I visited a retailer with several hundred retail locations that is as hip and Gen Z friendly as a brand could be. I’d barely started speaking with the very young store associate before she’d said, “don’t worry. We recycle literally everything. We’ll do anything to promote sustainability.”  

I laughed, telling her that it wasn’t recycling that I was worried about, but the act of using a resource intensive material like cardboard just once.

“Oh wow,” she’d replied, “I’ve never thought of it like that. We go through a ton of cardboard! And yea, what a waste.”

The rest of the stores…

Store after store, the story was the same. I watched employees cut otherwise brand new boxes filled with sweaters and socks. I watched them unpack the boxes and then flatten them, sending them off to be recycled or discarded.

It’s not that recycling cardboard is bad, per se, but when you realize that every flattened box represents at least 70 liters of water, or that every 100 boxes represents an entire tree, one starts to realize that the environmental cost of using cardboard is astronomically high even when it is being recycled. 

So, what did I learn? 

8 key takeaways

• Store replenishment depends on single-use cardboard boxes
• Sustainability minded store employees feel bad about single-use cardboard boxes
• Breaking down cardboard boxes for recycling is a time consuming process for store employees 
• Cardboard is expensive
• Even companies that prioritize sustainability use cardboard boxes for shipping products 
• Many products arrive in stores in a plastic bag that is placed inside the single-use cardboard it is shipped within
• Both store employees and retail sustainability team members know single-use cardboard is wasteful, but don’t feel there is an alternative
• Cutting out the use of cardboard is low hanging fruit for retailers that are looking to increase operational sustainability and efficiency

Are you wondering how you can quit cardboard? If yes, click here to schedule a call and we’ll see what can do to help you get away from using resource intensive, single-use packaging in your supply chain.

Sadly, holiday waste is only going to get worse this year

The beginning of October means that the holiday season is just around the corner. And, with the holidays, that means an increase in shopping which ultimately leads to more returns, or in other words more holiday waste.

We live in a world where ordering more rather than less is the norm so if something doesn’t work, we ship it right back. And we’ve become accustomed to this approach. 

Last year, returns reached a record high after the 2021 holiday season. 

• Ecommerce made up 20.9% of total U.S. retail sales in 2021
  • This is up 11% compared to 2020
• UPS shared that 21% of adults made a return before Christmas day in 2021
• 60% of people prefer to make a return by carrier rather than in person

Holiday returns are inevitable. 

Will 2022’s holiday waste look the same?

Unfortunately, yes. 

We are still on an upward trend of holiday waste when it comes to returns rather than a downward trend. 

Looking back at 2021 again:

• An estimated 8.75 million packages are returned the first week of January
• 17.8% of merchandise sold is estimated and expected to be returned both online and in-person.
• Returns have increased for 8 consecutive years

Returns are going to continue in ecommerce which is why creating a circular economy becomes that much more important. 

"The returns problem is only going to continue increasing this year and in the coming years," Optoro director of sustainability Meagan Knowlton said in January of this year (2021). "And luckily, quite a number of retailers and brands in the market are recognizing it as a problem, but also as an opportunity."

Who/what/where suffers the most with returns?

We like to look at this in two ways:

1. Your bottom-line
2. The environment

Your bottom-line

Naturally, your bottom-line is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about returns around the holidays. 

When more than 15% of merchandise sold is expected to be returned, it impacts your entire supply chain:

• Operational efficiency is impacted
  • Warehouse storage becomes a priority
  • Products are returned to sit in a warehouse
  • Additional employees and management may be needed
• Operational costs increase
  • Return labels are needed
  • Additional shipping materials may be needed
  • Increased transportation costs from stores to warehouses arise
  • And, cleaning and repairs join the party…

According to a recent study, in 2021 it cost $33 for retailers to process a $50 return item, a 59% increase over the previous year. 

Refunds are really just the start of a retailer’s costs…

The environment

Sustainability goals are inevitable for retailers today. 

Returns create a challenge when it comes to your sustainability goals as most become holiday waste and in most cases, additional paper, labels, boxes, bags, etc. may be needed to get your returns back to your warehouse or business by carrier rather than in person. 

Even returns in person may use some of these additional items as well as they get transported from your storefront to your warehouse anyway…

According to a 2018 report, returns account for five billion pounds of waste sent to landfills and 15 million tons of carbon emissions every year in the United States.

Cue “reusable packaging”

You’ve heard the phrase “reduce, reuse and recycle” time and time again. 

The United States designed its current recycling program over 50 years ago to take on cardboard consumption from retailers. While effective in its day, recycling centers and the planet can’t keep up with the ecommerce influx causing waste and recycling programs.

It just means that we’re focusing too heavily on the latter rather than the former: reducing and reusing.

Reusable packaging takes recycled waste and turns it into something we can use over and over again. And with reusable packaging, there typically comes increased visibility into your supply chain as technology is a forefront of this operation if partnering with the right company.

Retailers can use reusable packaging to:

• Enhance and reach their sustainability goals in reducing:
  • CO2 emissions
  • Water use
  • Land use
  • Oil and plastic use
• Increase visibility into your supply chain through sensors that track location, temperature management and consumer behavior 
• Increase your triple bottom-line overtime

With holiday shopping and holiday returns just around the corner…

Are you ready to move to a reuse model for your shipping and packaging needs?

Get started with a LimeLoop Reuse Specialist. We’ll discuss your logistics and supply chain needs along with your sustainability goals to strategize what works best for your business. 

Get started today.

Fashion's role in collective circularity

You can learn a lot about a society by way of its fashion.

What, then, do these photos say? And how did we get here?

One could highlight cotton’s role in the Industrial Revolution. The same would point out fashion’s role in industrializing countries, driving economic growth and development and leading to the mass expansion of the fashion industry.

However, society, now, sits at a crossroads as “the production of polyester textiles alone emits about 706 million tons of greenhouse gases a year, and hundreds of gallons of water go into making a cotton garment.” Digging into fast fashion’s history reveals precisely how we’ve arrived right here.

Connecting the dots isn’t difficult. The current supply chain, the linear “take-make-dispose” system, depends on outsourced labor and manufacturing because it’s cheaper and less regulated, and it allows for mass production, meeting consumer demand yet destroying the planet.

Fashion’s role in collective circularity, is then, two-fold. Both brands and consumers must take responsibility.

An Appetite for Fast-Fashion

It isn’t entirely our fault for wanting those trendy pair of jeans or that cute fall sweater. Fashion is a form of expressing our truth, our stories, but it’s also an industry – an industry which lives and breathes consumer demand. It’s capitalizing on our self-expressions, our anxieties, and our desires. And we allow this.

As Michael Solomon, a consumer behavior expert, told Vox, “It’s not just about clothing, it’s about a disposable society.” Fast fashion is a breeding ground for waste. Consumers don’t see what happens behind the clothing they purchase from stores, such as H&M and Zara. Fast fashion is fast because its meant to be disposed of as the seasons, trends, and demands change.

Consequently, the dress, or suit, you purchased for a special occasion, or those ‘never-again’ heels or slip-ons end up in the back of your closet. Until you rediscover them. Then what? You could try to return them, but chances are they’ll be landfilled. You could certainly donate them, but where you donate matters, too, because 84 percent of donated clothing, yep, landfilled. 

The solution, then, in eliminating fashion waste from landfills and creating a circular system, must come from both fashion’s brands and consumers, collectively.

Sustainable Fashion Satiates

According to Green Strategy:

“More sustainable fashion can be defined as clothing, shoes and accessories that are manufactured, marketed and used in the most sustainable manner possible, taking into account both environmental and socio-economic aspects.”

They add:

“In practice, this implies continuous work to improve all stages of the product’s life cycle, from design, raw material production, manufacturing, transport, storage, marketing and final sale, to use, reuse, repair, remake and recycling of the product and its components.” 

Sure, there’s a lot to consider when transforming the fashion industry from fast to sustainable. But it is possible with collectivity. When brands and consumers work in tandem, a natural circular loop forms. Each role, though, does carry its own responsibilities in the grander scheme that is fashion’s role in collective circularity.

Brands’ Responsibility

Rental services, thrifting, resale and secondhand programs, which are increasing in popularity, drive circular fashion because consumers are encouraged to participate in the loop. 

Brands, then, are responsible, for not only transforming the system, by implementing sustainable policies and practices across their supply chains, but for encouraging further participation and education.

For example, thredUp, an e-commerce shop offering secondhand styles, provides sustainability stats on each piece of clothing. This contrasts the impact of secondhand fashion with that of fast fashion on the environment.

Thus, consumers shopping with thredUP can see the impact their decisions have on improving the climate, increasing awareness, education, and participation and creating an organic circular loop.

Consumer Responsibility

But let’s be honest, change is difficult. We’ve consumed fashion the same way for so long. Well, changing our purchasing habits doesn’t have to be expensive or extensive. And don’t let quantity confuse quality. Those ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ or ‘half-off’ deals are meant to drive you mad with desire. FOMO, or the fear of missing out, is still a real psychological problem; remember, fast fashion is an industry existing because of FOMO and a disposable culture.

Thrifting, secondhand and resale programs, can offer the same shopping experiences as fast fashion without the waste and anxiety. And of course, there are stigmas associated with thrifting or secondhand clothing, but they’re simply that – misunderstandings. Education is free. 

So, decide today to be proactive in your choices. Fast fashion’s messages can only tell so much of the story before it must change to fit a new narrative. We’re writing said narrative right now. Sustainable fashion just became the main character.

Fashion’s Role in Collective Circularity

Fashion, better yet the fashion industry, plays an integral role in collective circularity because it defines our culture. Textiles drove economic growth, lending to prosperity and development; however, we must course correct the current path, for our stories currently tell of a wasteful society. Our legacies left behind are that of a society confused about what we deserve.

But when all hope seems lost, brands such as For Days, a “closed-loop clothing company” come through with a circular message and system which may be holistically applied to the industry. For Days not only offers a SWAP program where consumers may return any piece of clothing they desire for whatever reason, but For Days operates sustainably, from upcycling returned clothing where applicable to shipping with reusable packaging. 

Brands such as these – For Days, thredUP, DePop, and Rent the Runway – pioneer collective circularity by engaging with the sustainability conversation while encouraging consumers to do the same. Brands and consumers can, collectively, change the narrative from wasteful to waste-free by way of the fashion industry.

Let’s make our style sustainable, and our story circular. If not for us, then for future generations.

The voices of our products

Getting behind the voices of our products with EON’s Founder & CEO, Natasha Franck

Wait, put the scissors down. 

We know clothing tags haven’t necessarily been the most comfortable, or functional, in the past. But today, the tags on our clothes are alive – well, metaphorically speaking. Speaking to not only the retailer and consumer, but also the reseller and the recycler, clothing tags now have Digital IDs, courtesy of Natasha Franck, CEO and founder of EON, an operating system for clothing.

“[Recyclers] don’t know the content of your shirt, and if they don’t know the composition makeup, they can’t recycle it. So the Digital ID basically gives the product a voice. It’s like hello I am..and now that product can speak to whoever it’s in the hands of,” Natasha told Behind the Green host, Chantal Emmanuel.

Products with voices?

What a time to be alive – for the clothes and for the people handling them. Because now, more than ever, sustainability pioneers, such as Natasha and her team at EON, are making connections between pollution, waste management, and the fashion industry. For the fashion industry produces  “10% of our global carbon emissions, today, and that could increase to over 25% by 2050.”

The current linear “take-make-dispose” economic model means retailers feel they must produce more products to make more money, which is inherently unsustainable. As Natasha explains, “Today we have billions and billions of products that are produced every single year, and those products are produced and sold and lost.” Said products are lost in the stream of waste filling landfills and polluting the planet, along with the money retailers could be saving if only they could better manage the horizontal flow.

She adds, “It’s very hard to start to manage those products through a circular business model, like resale, rental, or recycling, if you can’t ID the products and materials. So, what EON does is we give every single physical item – my shirt, your shirt – a Digital ID.”

The Digital ID

EON’s Digital ID demonstrates a global shift to circular business models.

What is it?

As Natasha and Chantal discuss in Episode 7 of Behind the Green, EON’s Digital ID gives voices to our products. Functionally, a product’s Digital ID can either be a QR code or a NFC chip, which consumers, resellers, and retailers simply scan to “hear” what a product has to say. The difference in capacity between a QR code or a NFC chip, then, is the difference between recycling and resale. 

Resellers of luxury clothing products are most likely to utilize NFC chips, which allows for layers of authentication. Whereas recyclers of everyday wear products, such as t-shirts, are most likely to utilize QR codes to better understand the material composition. Both use-cases are a demonstration of how EON’s Digital IDs are taking the fashion industry from wasteful to waste-less.

What does it say?

“The product can really say whatever the brand wants it to say. Some brands are really leaning into bringing their transparency story forward – where that product came from, who made it – so, maybe, it’s a unique material story,” Natasha explains.

And in this era of consumer sustainability demand, “Transparency equals trust; trust is everything.” Consumers want to shop with retailers they trust to have not only their best interests in mind, but the planet’s best interest in mind, too. So with sustainable technology, such as EON’s, retailers bridge the gaps not only in their supply chain – recovering lost products and preventing more from being lost – but they, also, bridge the gaps between them and their customers.

Natasha adds, “Today, the customer buys a product, and then when they’re ready to sell it, they take it to the Real Real or Poshmark. But brands don’t want to lose that customer, and they don’t want to lose that product. So now, with the Digital ID, instead of reselling it on a third-party channel I can scan and resell that product back directly through the original brand that I purchased it from.”

The Bigger Picture

“You’ll get to the point where you go to the store, and you see a shirt without a barcode on it, and you’re like wait, I can’t find out more information about this? It will become that tipping point where you can’t be on the other side of it anymore,” points out host, Chantal Emmanuel. 

There’s just no way around it; at some point in sustainability’s progression, retailers will get left behind if they do not adopt sustainable business practices. For us, it’s reusable packaging. For EON, it’s the Digital ID. But both represent a global shift away from linear economics to circular economics across industries. “It’s really the data sharing, for us, as I imagine for LimeLoop, too, that is the fundamental of creating the system,” Natasha tells Chantal.

And with that comes the need for strategically decentralized data, connecting vertical, siloed data streams with horizontal product flows. Natasha alludes to product stewardship, or the idea of caring for products from point of sale through to delivery and even beyond as customers return, resell, or exchange products for new or different ones. She says, “I think in our vision all these simple products become intelligent assets and are stewarded through a circular and sustainable life cycle.”  

What will you hear with Digital ID?

Natasha and the EON team recently joined the Fashion Taskforce, created by Prince Charles. “It was quite an honor and a shock to be stewarding a commitment with his Royal Highness and his support was amazing.” She goes on to speak about how the taskforce leverages EON’s Circular Data Protocol – an integral piece to the EON vision.

“What information does every product’s Digital ID need to hold in order to enable circularity? So one thing would be material content; another thing would be factory of origin; another thing would be original retail price,” Natasha explains. She adds, ” Which, then, allows retailers to scale this sustainable solution.

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Decentralize to decarbonize

IoT’s role in positive environmental impact and sustainable business.

The narrative changed around ecommerce sustainability. No longer a niche ‘nice-to-have,” sustainability transitioned from an operational feature to an operational requirement. Increased pressure from stakeholders and consumers leaves retailers working into overdrive as they begin to implement more sustainable business models. 

Additionally, amended sustainability and decarbonization goals for 2025 and beyond means there’s an added urgency around collective collaboration layering the already urgent need to transition from linear to circular. Yet the question remains, are we taking the necessary steps to make these goals a reality?

The Problem

Despite efforts and demands, progress towards environmental sustainability in logistics, as one piece to the puzzle, remains halted, or rather, it remains reactive, for three reasons. First, we’re reacting to a problem not only larger than any one retailer or consumer but larger than just the environmental impacts. Second, we’re reacting to said problem at an individual scale, rather than scaling the solution to be more collaborative and overall circular. Third, we’re reacting to a problem we can’t really even see because the lack of visibility across supply chains leaves us holding onto what we know rather than what is possible.

For example, packaging, despite sustainability demands, remains designed for recycling rather than for reuse. But waste management systems are severely underfunded; not to mention, we’re producing more waste than we know what to do with. Therefore, recycling methods are currently inefficient and insufficient in their processes. While EPR legislation is working to hold retailers accountable for the wasteful packaging they produce, encouraging redesign, most new legislation is focused on taxing the use of virgin plastics, further emphasizing recyclability as the ultimate goal, opposed to extending life cycles through reuse.

So, how do we get from a place of reactivity to a place of response? Of course, the system will not change overnight. But there are steps we can take, call them ‘low-hanging fruit,’ which when implemented collectively, become largely impactful.

The Opportunities in IoT and Reusable Packaging

As anyone who struggled to track down toilet paper in Spring of last year could tell you, while exacerbated by the pandemic, there  are gaps in the current supply chain system. The supply chain, as it is now, requires an added sophistication to evolve it because data remains centralized. Centralized data makes it difficult to share proprietary information across the supply chain and difficult to manage inventory when shipments are halted as retailers are forced into bidding wars for shipping containers and freight space.

What’s more, centralized data isn’t timely, meaning decisions made from its analysis are delayed and homogeneous – not fit for the multifaceted problem we’re facing and not sufficient enough to respond with because there’s little value in disconnection. In other words, the horizontals aren’t connected with the verticals, and that disconnect, those gaps,  are where the challenges continue to drain value and opportunity.

The Smiley Curve

Dr. Hau Lee, professor at Stanford University, offered the Smiley Curve in his webinar presentation for SupplyChainBrain in explaining how we achieve a circular economy. 

By implementing reusable packaging, as a vehicle for IoT data collection, retailers can pick the lower hanging fruit to essentially progress past what Dr. Lee calls substitution. Substitution refers to improving the current system – in this case, the supply chain – by way of substituting what we’ve been doing with new innovative methods, such as reusable packaging with IoT.  Further, the Smiley Curve, as shown above, illustrates how scalability, in response to our multifaceted problem, propels the economy from waste and harm to value creation and repair. 

Therefore, at LimeLoop, we believe that scalability, visibility, collectivity, and accountability are the four dots worth connecting to carry us from reaction to response and from substitution to structural transformation. Decentralizing data – data collected by way of reusable packaging with IoT – is, then, how we connect those dots, to then, decarbonize the planet.

The Dots Worth Connecting

Scalability

Change happens as if it is a ripple across the surface of water. One drop, and the entire surface integrity is altered. Perhaps only for a moment, but that ripple shifts the state of things nonetheless. So how do we take a small- to medium-sized apparel retailer, for example, who’s established a successful reusable packaging program, and ripple their success across industries – food, pharmaceuticals, raw materials, etc. –  to then scale-out at a higher level, so that real-time data collected in California is shared with those across the supply chain, including overseas?

A LimeLoop package, by design, may be reused up to 200 times. This long lifespan makes it the perfect vehicle for IoT integration. Each package becomes its own data-hub, collecting real-time data on the environment in and around the package throughout its journey. But, what makes this platform a remarkable host for scalability, is the opportunity for reverse logistics and predictive analytics to inform the outcomes of future business decisions. 

When retailers are equipped with a closed feedback loop informed by data shared across the supply chain, business decisions regarding environmental impact become measurable and actionable – taking retailers from a place of response to a place of proactivity. This quantification adds value to the upward climb that is decentralizing data, which, then, moves retailers from substitution to scalability – the next step in transitioning from linear to circular.

Visibility

Data is incredibly siloed, as it’s currently collected and stored. An order is placed. A package is shipped. That package then receives a tracking number, which only informs of its last location. The package arrives a day late – delays in delivery, then, impact the consumer – which doesn’t, then, inform the retailer anything about the package. Why was it delayed? Was it opened? When was it opened? If it was a temperature sensitive or temperature controlled package is it still safe with that delivery delay? A retailer is left with so many questions, there’s little data to go on to ensure delays don’t continue or that the package’s integrity wasn’t compromised. 

Tracking and the Post-Purchase Experience

Additionally, consumers demand better ecommerce experiences – customization, personalization, first-day delivery, transparency, sustainability – but the possibilities in achieving these new experiences, especially around the holidays, are limited within the current system. When consumers track their packages, now, they get a vague impression of their package’s status – ‘out for delivery’ – and they get an estimated delivery date and time range. Upwards of 50-70% of customer service inquiries are asking ‘Where is my order?’ When the package does arrive – hopefully without delay – retailers don’t have the means of following up with consumers. And not to mention, the single-use packaging retailers paid for and put effort into personalizing will be landfilled. 

In other words, the lack of visibility into the post-purchase experience, but also into the supply chain, holistically, begs the question, “who has what and where?” With supply chain shortages continuing into 2022, retailers scramble to make up for the losses in manufacturing components, supplies, and shipping.

Decentralized data reveals those hidden opportunities in post-purchase experiences and in supply chain hierarchies by providing retailers the means to follow-up with consumers in real-time with social media messaging or personalized feedback inquiries. Also, this data allows 3PLs and carriers to communicate with retailers about inventory, storage, and shipping. This data, as a reminder, wouldn’t exist without reusable packaging and IoT.

Collectivity

Because a LimeLoop reusable package collects real-time data at every touch point along the supply chain, retailers implementing decentralized data spread decision making by including everyone from the consumer to a retailer’s 3PL and carriers, in the growth and operations of a retailer – taking specialization to a new level. 

Furthermore, because of its scalability, reusable packaging with IoT not only connects all personas involved in getting a package from order to delivery, but it connects industries and countries. Collaboration is key in shifting from substitution to scalability and, then, to structural transformation. Decentralizing data on environmental impacts, connects retailers by allowing them to work together rather than compete for solutions. 

Healthy business requires some competition, but when it comes to repairing the damage done to the planet and our supply chain, collectivity must be at the forefront. And it certainly isn’t easy to gather each player – all with their own perspectives, opinions, and agendas – in one place to hash out actionable steps towards a circular, sustainable future. But with reusable packaging and IoT, we’ll already be connected once we decentralize data. Only with common goals which are measurable and quantifiable, may progress once again catch steam after coming to, what feels like, a screeching halt. 

Accountability

Decentralizing data democratizes an industry. The lack of visibility is not only a problem throughout the supply chain, but it’s also a problem for retailers marketing sustainable practices and following through versus retailers utilizing sustainability as a front. This isn’t to point fingers, or to play the blame game, but there’s almost a shroud of secrecy surrounding data because it is a valuable tool in doing business. 

But progression requires accountability across industries and supply chains. Retailers must be held accountable for their practices, including their packaging and shipping. Reusable packaging and IoT hold them accountable because the numbers don’t lie. Quantifying environmental impacts illuminates their true environmental impact. It not only illuminates it, but it stores it, creating a historical log of a retailer’s sustainability. 

Ready for Reuse?

Get started with one of our Reuse Specialists today and start doing good with data.

Revolutionizing smart reusable packaging

At first glance, LimeLoop may appear to be just a reusable packaging company. 

Yet, as LimeLoop’s co-founders, CEO Ashley Etling and CTO Chantal Emmanuel, explain in this episode of The Understory Podcast, LimeLoop is revolutionizing smart reusable packaging. 

“At a high level what we’re really doing is eliminating all those packages piling at your front door, and replacing those with reusable ones,” explains Etling. She adds, “Knowing that the package can last over 200 times, we knew that we could start to make it more sophisticated; in a lot of ways, a smart package.” 

And a smart package it is, indeed. Which is how LimeLoop is driving the reuse revolution. But why? Because sustainable shipping – the integration of IoT enabled reusable packaging (smart packaging) into one’s supply chain – results in streamlined logistics systems, evolved ecommerce experiences, and optimal operations management. In other words, it’s all about the reuse…and the data. 

The Technology

the packaging & hardware

The reusable packaging is made of upcycled material – vinyl and cotton – zippers and pockets for longevity and ease in delivery and handling, cleaning, and returning. Each package is designed for durability and security. 

The newest addition to the packages – the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensors – become the brain of a fleet of packages. Through the use of cellular bluetooth, retailers and consumers can track locations, environmental savings, open-rate, and temperature data through a web-based and mobile app. 

the software & the data

Emmanuel explains in the podcast episode, “We really look at technology as a way to streamline the process of getting packages to and from, and then really taking advantage of the long lifecycle of our package to learn more about their journeys and their environment in and around themselves.” 

Retailers, fulfillment centers, and consumers can track packages, print labels, process returns, and watch their environmental savings all on the LimeLoop digital platform. Thus, providing retailers visibility and security into their supply chains, while recreating the in-store feel for their customers at home. 

The pairing of packaging, hardware, and software demonstrate how data can be better used to meet the triple bottom line – people, planet, and profit – for retailers across industries. Retailers, fulfillment centers, and consumers alike access information about their sustainable shipping journey at every step; while the environmental data collected from hardware to software allows retailers actionable steps in meeting ESG goals. As the platform conveys the collective environmental savings of CO2, water, trees, and oil, both ways – yes, changing the logistics and shipping game. As we said – it’s all about the data.

OUR PRIVACY POLICY

The Tech of Sustainable Shipping

How we consume our goods matters, and it matters most right now. According to this easypost whitepaper, “Over the past two years, businesses have seen a 37.8% increase in dollars spent online – an equivalent of nearly $275 billion.” In addition, analysts predict the ecommerce market will grow up to 25% by 2026. Existing retail and supply chain systems were not designed for this. Our waste management systems were not designed for this.  But we have the tools to make progress towards a more circular economy. 

“I think what a lot of people don’t realize is even when you have recycled packages and recycled boxes, it takes a lot of resources to make that box again…so we wanted to make sure the technology gave you a really great insight into how much your saving by switching to a reusable,” Emmanuel adds.

It isn’t about perfection. Sustainable technology allows us to do better, be better for the planet and the people on it, including us. By itself, the reusable packaging generates up to 60% savings in shipping costs and 93% reduction in CO2 emissions. And we know this because each package’s closed-loop journey is tracked from order to delivery.

the value & the support

LimeLoop’s technology drives sustainable shipping, further, as a guide for consumer behavior change – so that we may reduce and reuse. This is, of course, two-fold.

As it is, our partners work with both the reusable packaging as part of our sustainable shipping platform. It’s the combination of the packaging and the digital technology that really elevates and evolves those ecommerce experiences, adding the most value to your triple bottom line.

Added value across the supply chain, including the ecommerce experience, makes sustainability, as a business model, organically profitable. But the model, the closed-loop, is driven by customer lifetime value because customer loyalty drives return rates and return rates keep your reuse program running. As Emmanuel tells The Understory Podcast, “What we’ve seen study after study is that the easier a retailer makes returns for consumers the more likely they are to shop with you again.” 

Because customers can use the same package their order arrived in for their returns, retailers now have the data to close the gap between the post purchase experience and the customer’s next order. Predictive analytics inform smarter, even more sustainable logistical, customer service, and operational next steps. And the loop continues.

Listen to the episode or book a meeting.

The 5Rs of reverse logistics

It’s said that 79 percent of customers view free returns as important, which makes sense when we think about reverse logistics as a driver of Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). Return policies give your customers confidence in you and your products because, well, sometimes things just don’t work out. 

It isn’t just because we face unprecedented challenges in logistics and supply chain that we need to revise our reverse logistics strategies, policies, or processes. These challenges only highlight what is an ever-growing problem – return waste. Reverse logistics, more specifically sustainable reverse logistics, is then more important than ever as customer demand for sustainability rises, along with Earth’s temperature. 

But what about the cost to you? And what do we do with all these returns? Where in the reverse logistics process can change occur for successful and profitable waste mitigation? 

Here’s our list of the 5 Rs of Reverse Logistics. Let’s explore each one.

1. Returns

This one’s seemingly obvious. For without returns, we wouldn’t need reverse logistics. Right? But let’s first consider the items returned and their life cycles. Apparel (88%) and shoes (44%) are the top returned items, and the most expensive to process. They’re expensive because without the right information or technology, retailers must take these returned items at face value.

Sure, customers can inform retailers about the item as much as possible. But with fraud being ever prevalent, who’s to say what’s what with that return? And if an item just didn’t fit, then why landfill it at all? Challenge number one in today’s reverse logistics systems: visibility. And not only visibility into the overall process – who has what and where? – but visibility into the item being returned. Period. 

Return waste begins at the product and ends with the packaging, but we’ll get into that in a bit. Retailers landfill returns because it’s cheaper and makes sense when considering they can’t possibly know what they don’t know. But customers and sustainable reverse logistics demand better. As we’re about to see, there are options around a return’s life cycle.

2. Reselling

Okay, we’ve established visibility as a tremendous challenge in mitigating and, eventually, eliminating return waste. However, in the meantime, there are returns which can be resold, aiding your triple-bottom line. But how can we resell items we know nothing about? With the right combination of technology, it’s possible to know what’s what about any return – apparel, shoes, or otherwise. 

EON, a tech company, integrates IoT into clothing, creating a “digital passport,” which provides insight into the full lifecycle of a piece of clothing. Imagine knowing information like how a piece of clothing was made, how it should be repaired or cleaned, and its past locations? Technology as such makes reselling returns that much easier and more cost effective when all retailers need to do is scan a QR code. 

When we think outside the box, we see beyond the visibility challenge. While a QR code can inform a retailer about the item, reusable packaging can inform a retailer about the package’s origin through its reverse journey. Gaining insight into a package’s journey and  gaining insight into the item being returned allows for more opportunity in reselling as retailers will know everything they need to be better able to safely reshelve a returned item. 

3. Repairs

“Got something that needs fixing?

Start your repair here or bring it in to a Patagonia-owned store.” 

Outdoor clothing giant, Patagonia, worked repairs right into their returns policy. They even provide their customers with DIY repair tutorials and articles to expedite the process because repairs aren’t necessarily the quickest route when attempting to clean up reverse logistics. Patagonia estimates clothing, gear, wetsuit, and wader repair turn around time at or about 10-12 weeks. That’s including determining whether an item is worthy of repair or not. And if not? Customers will wait for their item to be sent back, or for a credit if their item is beyond repair.

This makes sense when we think about determining end-of-life in sustainable reverse logistics. Most, if not all of Patagonia’s outerwear and gear is designed for longevity. While repairs help mitigate waste, the process is often labor and time intensive, which may cost retailers more upfront if they don’t have the system in place to process repairs. But with the right technology, any return policy can incorporate repairs.

The IoT enabled sensors in our reusable packaging, for example, help with resource allocation given the predictive analytics provided by the data collected on each package. With real-time tracking, retailers can better inform their customers of when they should expect their item back, but also inform labor decisions in hiring and recruiting employees for repairs, specifically, if a brand starts to see more and more repairs initiated at point of return. It isn’t a short-term solution, for data needs time to accumulate, but long-term, retailers could reinvigorate their workforce after enough circulations of their fleet of reusable packages. 

4. Reuse

We mentioned earlier that return waste begins with the product and ends with the packaging. Here’s why.

Single-use not only feeds the logistical and supply chain challenges, but it also adds to the waste we’re trying to mitigate. Now consider each time a customer sends an item back. We’re doubling, if not tripling, the single-use packaging, depending on a retailer’s reverse logistics process. Not to mention, we’re not learning anything about the product – where it is or has been, who’s handled it, how long did the customer wait to return it? We seek answers, not more questions. 

However, if retailers implemented sustainable shipping with reusable packaging, customers could send their returns in the same package their order came in, and retailers could use those same reusables to redistribute processed, salvageable returns. Reusable packaging with IoT and clothing with IoT? We know, we’re excited, too. Because what all this IoT means is that retailers, fulfillment centers, carriers, last-mile delivery services, customers, and those involved in reverse logistics can work collectively, simultaneously, and efficiently to clean up the waste and overcome supply chain challenges.

5. Recycling

Last, but not least, in our list of the 5 Rs of reverse logistics: recycling. There may be times when returned items are seemingly unsalvageable – perhaps they were damaged in transit or a retailer has worked recycling into their reverse logistics. Either way, recycled clothing, for example, may be used to make more. Evrnu, a textile innovations company, uses “NuCycl Technologies” to tap into the untapped natural resource that is discarded textiles.

With their technologies, Evrnu turns waste into a resource, adding value to the circularity of sustainable fashion. If more retailers knew the material makeup of returned clothing by using IoT enabled “digital passports,” and they understood the surrounding area given IoT enabled reusable packaging, retailers could make smarter, sustainable decisions in recycling processes that are environmentally friendly and profitable. 

What we came up with..

These 5 Rs of reverse logistics do not have to be the proverbial thorns in every retailer’s side because the application of technology and reuse creates a seamless reverse logistics process. Keeping customer LTV in mind, a retailer even just shipping with reusable packaging gains more insight into their reverse logistics, and overall supply chain, than those who ship with single-use. Put simply, a closed loop system will keep customers coming back. 

What you save (up to 60%) in packaging, your customers are further saving in time and effort. Returns become hassle free. Additionally, they become sustainable as retailers gain cumulative data-driven insights into the packages and the items being returned. And with the coupling of reuse and “digital passports,” there’s no reason for retailers to continue landfilling resellable, repairable, or recyclable returns.

Designing for an Ecommerce economy

We now live in a digital culture.

And it has fundamentally shifted the shopping and packaging experience from the corner store (1900’s) to the store and the door (1990’s).  Key examples include companies that have embraced the change – Warby Parker (once Lenscrafters), Third Love (once Victoria Secret, now For Love and Lemons ), Everlane (once Gap), and Casper (once Serta). Companies are using digital to create a brand, and a brand experience, rather than push products. For example, Casper, which doesn’t promote itself as merely a mattress company, but rather a digital-first brand focused around the concept of sleep. Jonathan Ringan noted, in Fast Company:

“Casper sees itself less as a simple mattress company and more as a lifestyle-driven enterprise that looks at sleep as a unique, optimizable category comparable to exercise or cooking or travel.”

With increased clickable convenience, online shopping continued to gain momentum. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center study, by desktop or mobile, 79 percent of Americans made purchases online – compared with 22 percent in 2000. In addition, 15 percent of adult shoppers made an online purchase once per week and 28 percent made multiple monthly online purchases. In 2017, 5 billion items worldwide shipped with Amazon Prime (63 percent of Amazon customers).

Further still, momentum propelled ecommerce forward as the pandemic kept people inside and shifted retail away from brick and mortar, seeing a 25% spike in March 2020 alone. The digital age transformed the supply chain over the years, but the future of ecommerce is here. Therefore, designing for an ecommerce economy, for a circular economy, requires retail and ecommerce retailers to think outside the current systems still designed for the corner store, from point of order to delivery. If not, we’ll see a widening post-purchase gap, rising unsustainable costs to people and the planet, and a continuing shift in global relations and processes.

Post Purchase Gap

First, it is important to look at the experiential economy or specifically in this case, the post-purchase gap and how it relates to future generations. Millennials crave a new experience both in store and at the door. Gen Z, at 60 million strong in the United States, demand it. “Compared to any generation that has come before, they are less trusting of brands. Authenticity and transparency are two ideals that they value highly,” says Emerson Spartz, CEO of the digital media company Dose.

Today, when a customer makes a purchase online, there’s an “experience gap” from the time the customer checks out to when the product arrives. This is the new experiential moment for digital shoppers. According to Amit Sharma at HBR,

“Providing a positive experience at this time of anticipation is a tremendous opportunity for retailers to deepen their relationships with customers and build loyalty for their brands. Surprisingly, only 16% of companies are focused on customer retention, even though it costs at least five times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.”

More than ever, customers want personalized shopping experiences from point of order to delivery and beyond. And with customer LTV becoming more and more important as the ecommerce momentum continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, retailers find themselves paying higher and higher costs while the gap between consumer and retailer continues to widen. When is enough, enough?

UNSUSTAINABLE COSTS

Ecommerce customers, today, receive their products in a cardboard box, most likely in an OCC (old corrugated cardboard). The continued growth of online shopping and retail closings (70 million sq ft to close in 2018) have created a massive transition in the OCC (old corrugated containers) recovery market.

“There is a shift taking place and it’s more from the consumers. It’s a question of where that packaging material is going to end up and is it going to be as easy for us to capture,?” said Ben Harvey of Massachusetts hauler.

The United States designed its current recycling program over 50 years ago to take on cardboard consumption from retailers. While effective in its day, recycling centers and the planet can’t keep up with the ecommerce influx. And, the world is changing more in 10 years now than it used to change in 100 years, including rates and ways each generation consumes.

To keep up with the rapid change, innovative recycling companies are revamping their current systems. For example, Recology, a San Francisco serviced recycling center, is investing over $11 million dollars to add new processing equipment and supporting citywide taxes (15%) to account for the massive shift in receiving recycling from consumers versus retailers. While Recology is revamping to create temporary solutions, we must consider if the rest of the country can keep up with the rising cost and the impact to the environment we live in.

Today, humans are currently consuming nature 1.7 times faster than ecosystems can regenerate. The average American consumes its weight in trash each month and 165 billion packages and envelopes are shipped each year. Sixty-five billion parcel packages are shipped worldwide. 178 million parcel packages are shipped daily. This is a daily consumption of 1.2 million trees, 242 million gallons of water, and 5 million gallons of oil.

With the future of retail, we must consider the triple-bottom line – people, planet, and profit – as we build out more sustainable systems and collectively work to reduce and reuse what’s in circulation already, rather than just recycle.

SHIFT IN GLOBAL RELATIONS

To top it off, a recent shift in global policy will continue to impact the current supply chain systems in place. For example, the U.S. exports about one-third of its recycling, and nearly half goes to China. For decades, China has used recyclables from around the world to supply its manufacturing boom. But last year, it declared that this “foreign waste” includes too many other non recyclable materials that are “dirty,” even “hazardous.” In a filing with the World Trade Organization the country listed 24 kinds of solid wastes it would ban “to protect China’s environmental interests and people’s health.”

With e-commerce on the rise, the question becomes, do we revamp outdated systems or design a new one to solve for the growing costs to people and the planet? At LimeLoop we are designing a new one for the digital culture. Specifically, we are reimagining the packaging experience. First, by replacing recycled packaging with reusable packaging. Second, with sensored packaging to complete the brand experience loop. Packages that are received and sent back and reused, over and over again. With insights in where your package is and its state at all times, too boot. In return, is a high integrity system and experience for an environmentally sound world for many generations to come.

Sustainable reverse logistics

Reverse logistics. Chances are you’ve heard this term before. But, sustainable reverse logistics? Stop right there. We know reverse logistics involves providing easy ecommerce return policies for your customers. But where does the sustainability piece come in? 

Returned items end up landfilled due to the lack of insight needed when determining what to do with them. However, sustainable shipping with reusable packaging provides retailers said insight into the returned package’s status. Thence, sustainable reverse logistics combines data with customer service and inventory management to create a seamless, closed loop system, which mitigates waste and costs.

Two out of every three people will return a holiday gift, according to Forbes.

Refund policies are important. However, it’s no secret that retailers face unprecedented supply chain challenges, making returns more expensive and unpredictable. Not only are retailers faced with the challenges of a lacking reverse logistics system – including increased fraud and increased time and damage costs – but they’re also working in overdrive to meet their customers’ needs the best they can with what is left of our supply chain.

Right. That’s why we stopped you. Let’s break this down.

When we add sustainability, we’re now concerned about the end-of-life of these returned items. The probability of those returned items being landfilled doesn’t have to be as high as it is. Hitendra Chaturvedi, a supply chain management professor of practice at Arizona State University, tells NPR, “That is what consumers don’t realize — the life of a return is a very, very sad path.” Of course, this is dependent upon a retailer’s policy and the item, or items, being returned; however, retailers are still feeling the weight of the challenges as they reinvent said return policies, such as what Business Insider refers to as “just-keep-it” refunds.

Do “Just-keep-it” refunds aid in sustainable shipping?

It costs $33, or 66% of a $50 item, to process a return, on average. These costs were up 59% in 2021 from 2020, according to a report done by CBRE and Optoro. And Business Insider says what takes one shipment to fulfill a customer’s order, takes three separate shipments for it to be returned. Remember, retailers have little insight into the “forward” logistics of a customer’s order – tracking numbers and generalized locations. Forget having to track the logistics of three different journeys.

As Kim Friddle, who runs a business processing both new and returned items for Amazon sellers tells Business Insider, “If it’s going back into inventory, that thing gets shipped three times before it gets back on Amazon shelves, and every time that costs money.” With little visibility, retailers grapple with finding value in processing returns they know little about.

By refunding customers, but not taking the items back, retailers risk losing $4.4 million, while the end-of-life remains. In the end, it becomes the customer’s responsibility to do with the item what they will. Do they hang onto it in hopes of regifting it? Or do they donate it? With the pandemic keeping people inside, there’s little desire to hold onto unwanted gifts. So, as the pressure to do something about the unwanted item increases, customers may lean on default disposal – throwing it away.

Leveling-up reverse logistics with reusable packaging for sustainable shipping.

Retailers in apparel are faced with an additional challenge in creating ecommerce experiences for their customers that mirror brick and mortar experiences in hopes of reducing the need for as many returns. Further still, the “buy now, choose later,” or “bracketing,” ecommerce experience – where customers buy multiple of the same item to then return the unwanted options for the desired one – create greater challenges when multiple returns eat away at labor and cost.

To level-up, we must close the loop, if you will. And we do that with reusable packaging and IoT. Each LimeLoop reusable package, being that it’s reusable, houses a simple BLE sensor which collects data from the point of order through to the return of the package. Yes, you guessed it. AND of any items for return.

Each sensor collects and tracks the real-time location, open rate, temperature, and environmental impact of each package. Meaning, if a retailer circulates 1000 packages throughout their supply chain, they have 1000+ data points translating into predictive analytics which inform retailers of not only products’ statuses but of their journeys to and from customers, fulfillment centers and in-between carriers.

Championing reuse for sustainable shipping & reverse logistics.

Sustainable reverse logistics is concerned with more than just customer LTV. Returns can carry more value if we invest in smarter systems. With more data, retailers make informed decisions about better navigating the end-of-life for products certainly worth giving a second chance. 

Landfills are the disposal default because exuberant costs in money, time, and labor devalue the potential of reverse logistics. Shipping with reusable packaging provides the necessary insight into determining an item’s end-of-life options without taking value, but rather adding it. With this data – housed on LimeLoop’s digital platform – retailers can more efficiently determine whether a returned item is damaged, repairable, reusable, resellable, or donatable. 

Retailers, then, have real-time, two-way conversations about their products by way of the data. And thus, begin to nurture a stronger and smarter system built to withstand supply chain challenges. Think of the possibilities! Say a customer in Philadelphia wants to order an item you just ran out of. It’s going to take a couple months to replenish the inventory in that particular fulfillment center. However, your fulfillment center in Detroit just received a return of that exact item. What’s stopping you from having that new order in Philadelphia fulfilled with the returned item in Detroit, especially if you know all there is to know about where it’s been and who’s handled it? 

Nothing.

A.K.A – customer delight not customer disappointment.

Consumer behavior change & reuse

Consumer behavior is sometimes a mystery, but for the most part, it’s pretty predictable. Influencing consumer behavior, or rather consumer behavior change, however, is where the real riddle is. It isn’t impossible, though. We see it all the time with pop culture. It’s about the right place, right time, right message, right audience. Right?

Kimberly S. Wolke, with the University of Chicago, and Paul C. Stern, with the Social and Environmental Research Institute and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology list four distinct determinants of human behavior according to their analysis and application of human psychology to consumer behavior in Chapter 6 of Psychology and Climate Change: Human Perceptions, Impacts, and Responses. 

Let’s apply these to your new reuse program, so you can start influencing consumer behavior change towards sustainability.

Determinant #1: Knowledge

Ecommerce customers are most likely frustrated with single-use packaging; they just don’t know it, yet. Not until they hear recycling pick-up roll down the street at 7 a.m, remember the overflowing recycling bin, and rush outside in their bathrobe to get it to the curb in time so that this week’s pile isn’t next week’s mountain.

Chances are, customers aren’t fully aware of the better way, you now have to offer. But chances are, you have the information they need to make an informed choice. You’ll want to localize, visualize, and humanize when communicating and educating your customers on your new reuse program. They’re going to ask, “why reusable packaging?” And you’ll have an answer which speaks to their current circumstances and current capacity to understand why reuse is the better choice.

Educate customers on the why but, also, communicate the how and what. Outline the opt-in program. Explain how it’ll improve their ecommerce experience; how it works; what they need to do to participate; what is it they’re contributing to by opting-in. The more they know, and understand, the better. This includes returning the reusable package, too, and therefore, closing the loop.

Returning the Package

Getting the packages back is easy. It just may take some creativity and collectivity. This is where localizing, visualizing, and humanizing the process becomes integral when involving your customers. Once they’ve emptied their package, they simply need to flip the return label over and leave it at their mailbox or local post office for pick up and return.

Again, knowledge is key. As you work to scale your reuse program, don’t be afraid to educate your local carriers about the packaging and what to do with it, too. 

Determinant #2: Personal motivations and values

This one’s tricky because customers are definitely going to have their own motivations and values behind their behaviors. I’ll do what I want. And that’s cool. But to engage your customers so that they opt-in to reuse and return the package, your brand messaging must inspire. 

Wolke and Stern write, “Values are theorized to influence worldviews about the relationship of humans and nature, which, in turn, influence-specific beliefs about the consequences of environmental problems and actions.” Customers care about the environment. They care about their impact. They care about climate change and sustainability. They’re just on auto-pilot. 

Position your customers as the ambassadors of their own sustainability journeys when they opt-in to reuse by aligning the environmental, economical, and social benefits of using reusable packaging. This will assure your customers they can value the environment and enjoy shopping – guilt and worry-free. The shared values between you and your customer will then make them feel supported as they confront their current motivations and values in changing them. 

In other words, they’ll start to believe in these new motivations and values you, as their retailer, present, and believing in something means they trust you to guide them through it. Trust is everything.

Determinant #3: Beliefs, attitudes, and habits

We’ve consumed goods in much the same way for 150 years, meaning retailers have been shipping with single-use for about as long as anyone can remember. Consumer beliefs, attitudes, and habits, then, have been engrained based on an outdated system. Sure, we’ve had the “Don’t be a Litterbug” and “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” campaigns which have positively impacted consumption and waste management. But the narratives were transfigured in translation from intent to action.

There’s a reason, “reduce and reuse” are first and second to recycling. It isn’t the end-all solution for waste management if there’s more and more waste being produced. The solution, then, is to reduce waste and reuse what’s in circulation. Therefore, to shift your customers’ behavior from single-use to reuse is to shift their beliefs, attitudes, and habits from “take-make-dispose” to “reduce and reuse.”

How do you do that?

Wolke and Stern write, “The theory of planned behavior proposes that intentions to engage in a behavior are the outcome of three factors: attitudes about the behavior; subjective norms (i.e. social pressure), and perceived behavioral control (i.e. perceived ability to enact the behavior).” In other words, make reuse easy, exciting, and exclusive – yes, we said exclusive – and you’ll influence your customers’ beliefs, attitudes, and habits surrounding sustainability.

Exclusivity adds a touch of subjective norms. Customers opting for reusable packaging become your new VIPs. Existing customers? Upgrade and retain them. New customers? Introduce and excite them. And you’ll want to reward your participating customers by providing incentives for their exclusivity. Whether this is earned discounts or rewards with each order and package return cycle, or other perks and benefits – exclusivity will drive people to perform a behavior because they’ll want to be included. It’s human nature. So long as they feel good about what they’re doing and are capable of doing it.

Determinant #4: Context

Context is different from knowledge in that there are always variables your customer cannot control. However, that doesn’t mean these variables impede on feasibility. They simply create obstacles. “For some behaviors, supportive policies that reduce costs, make the behavior more convenient, and provide necessary infrastructure are critical,” explains Wolke and Stern. 

Think back to the customer rushing outside with their recycling in their bathrobe. What if they lived on the top floor of an apartment complex? What if they lived in a city without a recycling program at all? Knowledge is knowing there’s a solution. Context is making the solution fit. Show your customers using reusable packaging. Show them you’re invested in more than the packaging or in the program but in its efforts of improving their experiences and the environment.

Similar to pop culture, reuse must be exclusive to catch, then inclusive to survive. Show your customers that they can join the revolution and become a part of the solution, and they will.

The Reusies: the award ceremony for reuse

On September 30th, Upstream and Closed Loop Partners held their first-ever national reuse awards ceremony complete with an invigorating panel discussion, inspiring award winners, and a VIP after-party.

Host, Danni Washington, TV personality and science communicator, was joined by panelists:

Bridget Croke, Managing Director at Closed Loop Partners;

Matt Prindiville, CEO and Chief Solutioneer at Upstream; 

Benjamin Von Wong, Artist and Activist, and;

Elizabeth Segran, Senior Staff Writer for Fast Company

The Reusies began as just an idea thought of by a solution-forward NGO.

A.k.a – the team behind the event’s fruition. And like most great ideas, it resolved a collective need. The sustainability industry needed a way to recognize its “reuse heroes,” especially those making moves in activism, reuse, and community. With the work yet to be done in sustainability at the forefront of everyone’s mind, Upstream saw the significant progress made and wanted to showcase it. Pulling resources and people together, Upstream sparked the beginning of what’s possible with an award ceremony for reuse.

We, here at LimeLoop, believe it’s important to highlight this progress, as well; even seemingly small victories are worth celebrating, and the history behind society’s climate-forward evolution is worth mentioning. Prindiville touches upon this when he says:

“When I was a kid, there was only one bin; it was the trash bin. And then we got the recycling bin a little while later. And we got the composting bin. And in the future we’re going to have the reuse bin.” 

We, too, believe in that future. It is possible. In time, and so long as we, as in all of us, including you, too, continue to explore and persevere in sustainability. LimeLoop sees events, such as The Reusies, as reasons to remain engaged in changing the policy, the product, and the culture to move us closer towards that reuse bin.

As Prindiville pointed out in the panel discussion (segments of which may be found on YouTube), policy is a key factor in driving change. During WWII, convenience wasn’t prioritized. Supporting the war was, which demanded collective effort and bred a collective purpose. After the war, however, people were left asking, “what do we do now?” It was then, society adopted and promoted disposability. Disposable products, such as dinnerware, became mainstream as post-war life unfurled.

But we’ve spread ourselves too thin. Now it’s time to face the consequences – once again, we’re left asking, “what do we do now?” But it isn’t all doom and gloom. Croke said in the panel discussion:

“What we realize is that actually because of that challenge we’re creating one of the biggest investment opportunities, I think, of our lifetime, to completely transform the way supply chains work.

The challenge Croke alludes to is the “visibility around the issue of plastics and material and marine debris taking over what we see in the media everyday.” There’s an urgency around these issues, and brands are responding.

Croke believes the revenue opportunities in transforming packaging from a “cost center” for brands to, rather, an elevation of customer experiences adds value to sustainability, reuse, and circularity.

Segran adds, “I think one of the most interesting things about this whole mess we find ourselves in is that I don’t think we really enjoy throw-away culture that much.”And we’d say, she’s right. Where’s the enjoyment in breaking down cardboard boxes each week for recycling? Where’s the enjoyment in drinking coffee from a paper cup or eating dinner from a plastic take-out container? Quite frankly we deserve better. And we can provide better. 

“At the end of the day, I think, this kind of social change happens as a result of seeing others who believe in the same things that you do,” says Von Wong.

Cultural consumer behavior changes when we engage with the change rather than react to it.

Von Wong, who uses his art as awareness and education to engage with people at different stages in their reuse or sustainability journey, points out that we all need to ask ourselves, perhaps not what we do now, but what kind of world we want to live in.

Collectively, as these panelists and the award winners have demonstrated, we have the power to change the world. LimeLoop believes one way to do so is to ship with reusable packaging, which indeed changes the way supply chains work and the way customers experience ecommerce.

Named Honorable Mention for The Most Innovative Reuse Company, our passion for sustainability and circularity was reignited. LimeLoop is proud and grateful to have mixed and mingled with some of the VIPs – Very Important Protectors – of our sustainable future.

Vanessa Tiongson, Upstream’s Marketing and Communications Director, sums it up best when asked about next steps:

“These solutions are happening now. This isn’t a crazy fever dream. It’s going to take each and every one of us, whether you’re a big or small influencer or just one person with a couple friends; it’s up to us to talk and spread the word – to inspire each other’s experiences. We’ve just scratched the surface.”

Reusable packaging for holiday shipping

Photo by Gabriel Garcia Marengo on Unsplash

“Good luck getting your holiday gifts delivered on time this year. You’ll need it,” writes Chris Isadore in an October 2020 CNN Business article. He adds, “Demand for shipping has reached levels they didn’t expect to deliver until several years from now.” The they he’s referring to are the carriers delivering the sea of packages ordered online in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s no denying the system bog as carriers and delivery drivers around the country struggled to keep up with e-commerce demand, impacting businesses and consumers alike.

What, then, is in store for 2021?

Well, Isadore’s words may reign true. Starting October 1, a slowdown of all first-class USPS deliveries, originally proposed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy back in June, will take effect, delaying first-class mail by up to 5 days sent from certain areas of the country.

And not only will brands need to ship those  gifts much earlier this year, but they’ll be paying more to ship them with USPS, as well. Kimberlee Speakman, for Forbes, outlines some of the important facts, including:

Under the proposal, customers can expect to pay from 25 cents more for packages up to 10 pounds, up to as much as $5 more for packages weighing between 21 and 70 pounds.

The additional fees would be added to packages shipped between Oct. 3 and Dec. 26

The USPS started charging more for packages sent by retailers and large shipping companies last year, adding surcharges ranging between 24 cents and $1.50 per package.

With e-commerce’s heavy traffic expected to continue, shipping orders and gifts is going to cost brands and consumers even more time and money this 2021 holiday season, without guarantee packages will arrive on time. This, of course, isn’t forgetting the predictable, single-use packaging waste to come.

There’s a better way – a smarter way.

The Webinar:

There’s a lot going on in the world, already, and with the rules changing, making shipping even more analog and expensive, it’s time we learn from the past – if even just the past year – and prepare for the future. 

It was David Biello, TED’s Science Curator who said:

“It’s not just saving the planet. In fact it’s not really saving the planet. It’s saving ourselves. You know, the planet has dealt with climate change many times before, and honestly the planet will be fine. Our civilization, if we don’t act now, and act quickly, will not be fine.”

And the best ways to save ourselves? Education and collective cooperation. Thus, in support of sustainability education, the theme of its August Giveback, and collective circularity, LimeLoop presents its first webinar: Reusable Packaging for Holiday Shipping in hopes of inspiring and easing holiday shipping experiences this season. 

Topics covered in this webinar:

1. Holiday Forecasts and Opportunities
2. How Reusable Packaging Works
3. Implementing Reusable Packaging

The webinar will take 20 to 25 minutes. So, whether you’re setting up the basics or shipping what may feel like your millionth package, join LimeLoop to review what you might know and to learn what you might not. 

August giveback: center for ecoliteracy

LimeLoop Gives Back

Gearing up for the start of school and hybrid work, also means inspiring new methods, mindsets, and systems as both schools and companies continue to adapt. Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released a report concluding, “If the world reused just 10% of plastic packaging, as much as half of our annual plastic waste would be prevented from entering the ocean.” 

Sustainable living is how we adapt. And reusable packaging is a step to sustainability. Yet it isn’t just about the packaging – it’s about the education, too. For, if we are to reuse we must relearn. 

Thus, this August, LimeLoop is donating 10% of all proceeds to support the Center of Ecoliteracy in their efforts to “cultivate education for sustainable living,” and to encourage the post-pandemic transition into more sustainable perspectives.

The Center for Ecoliteracy

Founded in 1995, in Berkley, California by Fritijof Capra, author and systems thinker; Peter Buckley, business leader, farmer, and philanthropist; and executive director Zenobia Barlow, “a pioneer in creating models of schooling for sustainability,” the Center for Ecoliteracy, or the Center, as its referred to, began as “dedicated to education for sustainable living,” as it is now.

“Thoughtful words have the power to influence impactful action. The Center for Ecoliteracy started on a few words which have inspired millions to act on living sustainably, and we are thrilled to join them in this mission.” 

Ashley Etling, co-founder and CEO of LimeLoop

Through its many projects and initiatives, including:

“California Thursdays” – serves more than 334 million farm-to-table meals a year to a statewide network of school districts;

and

“California Food for California Kids®” –  supports “systems change by improving children’s health, education, and the state’s economy” – 

the Center for Ecoliteracy provides educational opportunities to students and professionals collectively looking to live more sustainably.

Interested in signing up for LimeLoop reusable packaging and supporting the Center for Ecoliteracy cause?

Celebrating black history month

In 1966, Mary Van Brittan Brown, feeling unsafe alone in her apartment in Queens, New York, created a camera “that could slide into and look through four peepholes in her front door.” The feed from this camera, then, appeared on a monitor so that she could “survey any unwanted guests.” In addition to the camera, she added a microphone and a button, which when pressed contacted the police. 

Three years later, in 1969, she and her husband received the patent for the very first home security system, which, now has evolved with aspects of her original design at the core of home security. 

Celebrating Black History Month, LimeLoop honors these black founders and creatives making waves in sustainability, innovating timeless ideas, such as Mary’s, and creating spaces for self-expression and creativity. 

Reel 

Reel is disrupting the toilet paper business with biodegrable-bamboo rolls. Co-founded by CMO Derin Oyekan, Reel’s business is free of plastic from their products to their shipping. Additionally, each purchase supports their co-mission and partnership with SOIL to expand access to clean toilets. 

“Some things have been a part of our lives for so long that we forget that there’s room for improvement – like that … same ol’ toilet paper you have stockpiled in the loo,” says Oyekan. 

Bamboo consumes 30% less water than hardwood trees, while also aiding in decarbonization. An acre of bamboo creates 35% more oxygen than trees.

BLK + GRN

Dr. Kristian H founded BLK + GRN, the non-toxic marketplace for black artisans, so that consumers can consciously curate, craft, and consume. Additionally, the brand cultivates its own products.

“At BLK + GRN, our all Black artisans are carefully chosen by Black health experts who know what an all-natural product truly looks like…Our marketplace connects Black people with natural lifestyles to high-quality, toxic-free brands that share in our mission of health, wellness and community cultivation.”

Blavity

Founded in 2014 by CEO Morgan DeBaun, Blavity is a network of platforms and brands, including Blavity News, Blavity Politics, AfroTech, and 21Ninety. Across these brands Blavity connects the world of Black culture through experiences.

“Blavity Inc is a diversified digital media company that builds platforms to inform, entertain and engage communities of color.“ Coined “the Largest Network of Platforms for Black Millennials and the Community for Black Creativity and News”, Blavity is changing the media landscape and amplifying Black voices. 

Zero Grocery

Becoming the U.S.’s first zero-waste grocery store seemed like a no-brainer: “If 90% of global plastic waste comes from food consumption, then let’s change the way we consume food.”

Zuleyka Strasner founded Zero Grocery to prove we can have “what we want, when we want it, without ruining the planet.”

How? By simply placing an order which is then delivered to your home. And make sure to leave any reusable packaging out on the doorstep, Zero Grocery will collect and reuse them for future orders.

IPIC physical internet start-up award winner

In June, 400 participants across the transport, supply chain and logistics global community discussed the problems within the supply chain and logistics systems and offered their Physical Internet solutions. 

It was the 8th annual IPIC (International Physical Internet Conference) and LimeLoop’s Co-founder and CTO, Chantal Emmanuel, presented LimeLoop’s pitch: Powering Reuse for Retailers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJyzFaKOXnY

Physical Internet, Supply Chain & Logistics?

 The Physical Internet acts as a roadmap between brands, fulfillment, transportation, and consumers applying the principles of the Internet to logistics. In practice, the Physical Internet serves as a global, open, interconnected network, using a set of collaborative protocols and standardized smart interfaces. 

The Physical Internet is, then, integral to the future of transport, supply chain and logistics because of its enhanced systems, tech, and physical layout of distribution networks. This year’s award comes at a time when retail and ecommerce are evolving to incorporate sustainable and circular supply-chain tech to achieve greater efficiency.

Integral in developing the Physical Internet is the digitization of all available information. Because a LimeLoop Shipper may be reused over 200 times, the overall circularity of the shipper’s journey can fit within the high frequency Physical Internet model. Serving as a vessel to collect insights through IOT along the way, the Physical Internet continues to evolve the networks and distribution methods of existing hubs, transportation, last mile, etc. 

LimeLoop Reusable Shippers

“One trend I noticed was an overall shared sentiment that the solution to bringing about the Physical Internet and directly related, circularity, is through a collaborative effort of shared networks and resources as opposed to everyone coming up with solutions in a siloed vacuum,” comments Emmanuel.

Other conference speakers, such as Transporeon, a cloud-based network for logistics services in Europe, stressed the importance of traceability within logistics to enable touch-points between all players.

Emmanuel adds, “Overall I was really impressed with the conference. It was a very international crowd so it was fascinating to hear a global perspective on the Physical Internet.”

The Physical Internet Start-up Award

IPIC’s Physical Internet Initiative aims to transform the way physical objects are moved, stored, realized, supplied and used, pursuing global logistics efficiency and sustainability.

Collaboration across industries is precisely what’s needed to tackle the current logistical gaps occurring in today’s supply chain. The award, tech and startup pitch validated LimeLoop’s efforts providing profit and planet for both brands and consumers.

“While it’s always nice to bring home a win for LimeLoop, after attending the sessions I know the real winner is the future of logistics,” Emmanuel states.

Invest in the Future of Logistics

LimeLoop’s WeFunder campaign is closing soon!

Since May 2021, LimeLoop has been raising money to support its mission to make supply chain and logistics sustainable. In the first month of its WeFunder campaign, LimeLoop raised $100k from 121 investors. With additional accredited investors, the raise totaled to over $930k.

“The competition and conference as a whole brought together some of the brightest minds working to make the Physical Internet a reality through shared learnings and experiences, fueling the more efficient and sustainable supply chains of tomorrow,” concludes Emmanuel.

LimeLoop’s crowd equity funding campaign is open to those interested in investing in physical internet innovations and in retail tech and innovation making supply chain and logistics more efficient and sustainable.

There’s only one week left to invest in LimeLoop through its WeFunder campaign. Take part in the next stage of LimeLoop’s ambitious growth strategy to tackle waste and frustration in the traditionally analog, single-use e-commerce and retail experiences.

Profit & planet: reuse and reverse logistics at scale

When co-founders, CEO Ashley Etling and CTO Chantal Emmanuel, first started LimeLoop, they shared a frustration around single-use packaging and its effects on not only the environment but the economy, too. To combat single-use packaging waste, LimeLoop raised $100k, within its first month of its WeFunder campaign, in hopes of improving the supply chain.

“From a funding side, we’re definitely an early stage startup. But we have seen very early growth.” LimeLoop trialed its business model in partnership with Toad&CO, an outdoor retail apparel company based in Santa Barbara, to “test the logistics and the supply chain, and really understand the data infrastructure to add value to brands,” says Etling.  

Adding value to brands and consumers’ e-commerce experiences is exactly what Etling and Emmanuel pitch to host, Manuel Bleve, in this episode of Angel Notes.  

Profit & Planet

To understand the added value in LimeLoop’s Profit and Planet pitch, we must first identify Profit and Planet.

The Added Value – Brands

The feat of changing the current supply chain infrastructure, designed 150 years ago, from linear to circular is a daunting one. And while the nonprofit sector continues to make great strides in this area, the scale needed for any long term solution will require us to take the double bottom line into account. But how?

The Roadmap

Shipping is expensive, particularly in e-commerce, when considering the consumer experience. Returns drive up the costs of goods and communications between brands and consumers (and vice versa) are often lagged and inefficient. With LimeLoop, profit may result from the value added to a brand’s shipping and logistics. This, then, translates further to their relationships signaled by the brand’s environmental values and the connectivity offered from timely insights into the Shipper’s journey. 

A LimeLoop Shipper may be reused up to 200x, making it the perfect host for BLE (bluetooth low energy) sensors. Not only do brands save up to 40% in shipping costs by implementing reusable Shippers (Profit), while being able to quantify environmental savings (Planet), they also may begin to leverage reverse logistics.

Reverse Logistics & Returns

E-commerce returns rose to 70 percent, with 1.8 million returns initiated daily with UPS, in 2020. It costs a brand anywhere from $10 to $20 to process an item’s return. Not to mention the added waste –  5 billion tons of it. 

“A lot of integrating and changing the work systems of third-party logistics involved getting the shippers back as quickly as possible, so that you’re able to put those back into rotation quickly. And obviously, minimize the loss of the cost of goods,” explains Emmanuel to Bleve. 

When a brand uses LimeLoop’s Shippers and logistical data, the return process is seamlessly incorporated into the reuse process. Customers need only to place their returns inside the Shipper, place a pre-paid, already printed shipping label inside the outer pocket, and wait for it to be picked up. Then, specific to a brand, data is continually collected as the package makes its way to its necessary destination. 

Data – the package’s temperature, open-rate, and location – are collected and shared on a web-based platform, allowing brands and consumers the experience of brick-and-mortar due to the end-to-end visibility LimeLoop provides. This aids in eliminating return waste from the very start, but of course that can’t always be the case.

The Added Value – Consumers

LimeLoop’s pitch of Profit and Planet applies to consumers both indirectly and directly. 

Indirectly, consumers shopping with brands using LimeLoop Shippers have access to similar data as enterprises and SMB brands would – their environmental savings of CO2, water, trees, and oil. Directly, consumers have access to tracking and customer service features; moreover is the access to knowledge of an alternative way, a sustainable way, to consume goods.

“The information that’s available today is just not sufficient for people to be able to plan their lives around it, and so we wanted to get more granular in that data about where the package is and then therefore, learn more about how to streamline the delivery process to make that easier,” explains Emmanuel.

LimeLoop’s technology allows consumers to seamlessly fit reuse into their lives by interconnecting them with the brands they shop with and by streamlining e-commerce so that it is as if stepping right into the store. Yet, there’s another reason for consumers to consider reuse. 

Reuse vs. Recycling 

In Maine, taxpayers are paying an estimated $16 million annually to manage packaging materials and, at best, only 36% of these materials are being recycled. 

In Minnesota, taxpayers are taxed 9.75% of their total recycling bill – a bill calculated and sent to residents to cover the collection, transfer, storage, or disposal costs of recyclable items. 

In Indiana, 37% of taxpayers’ dollars are used to cover municipal recycling programs, which are still forced to shut down due to the volume of recyclables and the decreased market value of said materials.

Thus, consumers are paying for their recycling – plastic, metal, glass, and cardboard – to be processed when the reality is that only 9% of plastic packaging is actually recycled, while only 68% of cardboard is recycled. There is legislation in place to shift the costs of recycling to businesses producing the waste rather than to the taxpayers attempting to live green. But the real problems remain: volume and decreased market value. Problems only reuse and circularity can solve.

Because there’s little demand for recycled products, but an uptake in e-commerce, the surplus of material lands in landfills along with the returned items and all the single-use packaging. Purchasing or renting Shippers from LimeLoop, or shopping with brands who use LimeLoop Shippers, decreases the amount of packaging needed to be recycled or disposed of for both brands and consumers through reuse of the Shipper for not only deliveries, but returns, too. 

WeFunder

In raising $100k on WeFunder, LimeLoop plans to illuminate the ways in which the system can become a seamless marriage of Profit and Planet. Integrating reuse into the lives of consumers and into the business models of brands provides a bridge between sustainability and convenience.

“To get to a billion dollar company, we only have to capture 0.05%. So it just shows when you look at it from that perspective how large the market is and how ripe it is for change,” Etling points out to Bleve. She adds, “To make this systemic change, multiple companies [will need] to be big players within this whole system.”

 LimeLoop is ready. Are you?

5 single-use to reusable swaps

Since the 1950s, about 8.3 billion tons of plastic has been produced. That’s equivalent to the weight of roughly a billion elephants or 47 million blue whales. 

Sadly, though, only about 9% of this plastic is recycled, 12% is burned, and the remaining 79% ends up in landfills or the environment.

Wait, what?

Plastic production, and consequently its pollution, is expected to double by 2025. The equivalent of a truckload of plastic enters the ocean every minute. Let’s not make that two. 

July is Plastic Free month and in spirit, LimeLoop is sharing its top five ways to supplement single-use plastics.

1. Reusable Water Bottles

Beverage companies alone produce over 500 billion single-use plastic bottles annually. Reusable water bottles eliminate the need for single-use plastic bottles when used at refill stations.

Often found in schools, offices, gyms, grocery stores and airports, water bottle refilling stations, such as ELKAY, not only provide students and commuters a space to refill their bottles, but they also track how many 20 oz plastic bottles are saved with each refill.

On an individual scale, 156 plastic bottles are saved per person annually by using reusable water bottles. In 2015, Jefferson Labs saved 84,000 plastic bottles from landing in landfills and the ocean by implementing refill stations throughout their campus. 

See here for the consumer approved reusable water bottles.

2. Grocery and Food Reusables

The food and beverage industry races against time to come up with sustainable and reusable options from take-out containers to cutlery, but they aren’t the only industry giants shifting methods.

Grocery store chains are actively working to eliminate their plastic produce and grocery bags.

Retail giant, Walmart, announced it was eliminating its plastic bags in Maine in response to new legislation. In Maine and beyond, consumers can use reusable produce and shopping bags to collectively reduce single-use consumption.

Options such as these reusable produce and grocery bags, make-and-take containers, and these reusable ziplock bags, make purchasing and storing food low-to-no waste.

3. Alternative Straws

An estimated 7.5 million plastic straws pollute US coastlines.  Who doesn’t remember the image of a sea turtle with a straw stuck in its nose? 

We’ll wait.

The plastic straw ban, though arguably imperfect, collectively changed how consumers reconsider their consumption options, creating a demand for alternatives to plastic straws. 

Reusable straws or compostable straws, such as bamboo, stainless steel, or paper, aid in eliminating plastic straw pollution. Often accompanying a reusable cup, reusable straws are effortless to wash or compost. 

4. Reusable Menstrual Cups and Cloth Diapers

In the US alone, about 12 billion pads and 7 billion tampons are thrown out. What if a woman only had to throw away 4 small menstrual cups over the course of her menstrual cycle instead of 8,000 to 17,000 tampons?

There’d be a 300 ton difference in waste. 

Reusable menstrual cups landed in the market first in the 1980s as latex rubber cups. By the beginning of the 21st century, though, silicone versions started becoming more and more popular.

Because menstrual cups can last up to 10 years, their reusability eliminates the need for tampons and pads completely. Insertion is similar to other menstrual products and cleaning is easy.

Additionally, in 2016, an estimated 20 billion disposable diapers were added to landfills throughout the country each year, creating about 3.5 million tons of waste.

Cloth diapers mitigated a half-ton of waste per child, but more can be done. Much like menstrual cups, cloth diapers are rewashable, lasting up to 10 to 20 months when cared for.

5. Shop and Invest in Sustainable Brands 

More and more brands are seeking alternative packaging and shipping methods to become more sustainable. 

LimeLoop partners, such as Toad & CO and UpChoose, offer sustainable and reusable products that ship in a LimeLoop Shipper. 

Further, consumers can purchase a LimeLoop shipper directly from LimeLoop – becoming a part of the solution. 

Check out more ways to go plastic free this July! 

And, join LimeLoop in the next stage of its ambitious growth strategy to tackle waste and frustration in the traditionally single-use e-commerce and retail experiences. 

There’s only one week left to invest in LimeLoop through its WeFunder campaign.

Tech and the fourth wave of environmentalism

Make Lasting Environmental Impact by Leveraging Technologies in New Ways.

The rate of technological advancements since the recent turn of the 21st century has been unlike anything we’ve seen before. According to Moore’s Law, technological abilities grow exponentially, with computer processing speeds doubling every 18 months. With so much growing potential, and its many forms becoming more and more ubiquitous in our lives, it’s no wonder that in looking for ways to tackle our current environmental challenges, we’ve been looking to innovative technologies to provide the solution.

In looking at our societies’ evolving approach to environmental challenges, major shifts have been marked by four distinct eras, or waves. We’ll examine our current, fourth wave and what it means for today’s business approaches.

The First 3 Waves

Marked by President Theodore Roosevelt’s land conservation initiatives, the first era took place in the 19th century. The second wave leveraged legislation to hold government and corporations responsible for their roles in contributing to wildlife pollution, seeing its height in the mid-20th century. Then in the late-20th century, we saw a shift in focus to market-based solutions to solve these problems. The common thread between these different approaches was that they leveraged what was available at the time to bring lasting changes.  It is no surprise then that our current wave is centered on the use of innovation, especially through technology, to apply those changes at scale.

The Fourth Wave

Not only does the fourth wave leverage available technology in new ways, it draws on a very important lesson that we’ve learned in our previous wave – business practices and sustainability practices are not only at odds with one another, but require one another to meet their individual goals.

“In any era, solving environmental problems means making use of the best available tools. In this era, those tools include innovations that can help drive transparency, responsibility, and least-cost action.” – Fred Krupp

The 7 Innovation Technologies

While infinite types of technologies will contribute to the fourth wave, the report focused on seven in particular:

Mobile Ubiquity

The last wave saw a shift from desktop programs to the cloud, as we continue to untether ourselves from conventional workstations, the fourth wave will continue to highlight the importance of developing solutions for mobile execution.

Automation Technologies

We’re seeing technology applied to more quickly and accurately perform repetitive tasks previously performed by humans. 

Data Analytics

We generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data a day. Our ability to quickly analyze and create practices around what we learn will be a key feature of the fourth wave.

Blockchain

While often confused with bitcoin and cryptocurrency, blockchain as a technology is actually a really secure way of transferring and storing data. Making it a great tool for medical and financial data. Still convinced blockchain isn’t going to take off? Walmart just recently won a patent for a system that would house medical records on a blockchain for faster lookups.

Sharing Technology

Solving global problems will require adapting a global mindset. Open source practices and collaborative thinking will need to be part of the DNA of business practices.

Sensors

As sensors continue to become more affordable and use cases more adaptable, we’re seeing them leveraged in new ways to help detect, measure and visualize environments.

“When sensors, machine learning, IT, and data analytics are used to shape smart policy, rein in free riders, and reward corporate responsibility, the result will be positive change that helps people and nature prosper.” Fred Krupp

Innovations at Work

While we’ve just scratched the surface on the potential of some of these technologies, companies are already successfully implementing many of them. For example, orbiting 500 miles above the earth’s surface is the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. To help us better understand the sources of global warming causing greenhouse gases, it’s measuring hot spots of air pollution around the globe. Adding sensors to Google Street View cars enables them to map out occurrences of methane gas leaks in many major US cities.

Among retail companies, more focus is being put on using automation technologies to increase efficiencies and productivity. Everything from robots to stock shelves, to apps that allow shoppers to ring up their own groceries are being tested for eventual rollout. If in the Seattle area, you can already check out Amazon Go, their smart grocery store that employs computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusions to allow shoppers to put the groceries they want into their bags, walk out the store without waiting in line and be charged via the app.

Levi Strauss & Co’s automation efforts are focused on the manufacturing side of the process. They’ve introduced Project F.L.X. (future-led execution), a “new model [that] replaces manual techniques and automates the jeans finishing process, allowing the company to reduce the number of chemical formulations used in finishing from thousands to a few dozen”.  Through the program, they’re able to not only cut down on thousands of chemical formulations but also reduce textile waste.

Executives and the Fourth Wave

A recent report by the Environmental Defense Fund took a deeper look at these seven innovative technologies, and how companies leverage them. They surveyed 500 top-level executives (VP, SVP, and C-suite) of retail, manufacturing, energy, technology and finance industries making over $500 million in revenue.  The goal was to examine the intersection of business strategy, technological innovation and corporate responsibility.

Some key takeaways:

• Over 70% of business leaders see greater alignment between business and environmental goals.
• Executives see sensors and data analytics as the most promising innovations.
• Almost half of executives cite government regulations as drivers to implement Fourth Wave technologies, while more than 40% cite pressure from customers and positive business results.
• The retail industry scored the highest for constantly trying to find new ways to reduce its environmental impact, 78% of retail executives say their business and environmental goals are more aligned than five years ago, 65% of respondents attributing that to an increase in Fourth Wave technological advancements.

A company’s adoption of environmental practices does not just help to maximize efficiencies, it’s an increasingly growing demand from customers and employees alike. Consumers are holding companies accountable for their impact, of the leaders surveyed, 80% felt that this would continue to increase. 84% of these same leaders said that having sustainability-based business practices helped them attract and retain talent.  This is a trend that’s sure to continue to increase as numerous studies show that purpose driven career choices are becoming the norm among younger generations.

What’s Next

Leveraging technological solutions to today’s environmental issues is not only a moral obligation but also a financial one to a growing number of companies. Long gone are the days when large corporations could argue that corporate responsibility is at odds with revenue goals and shareholder obligations. As EDF President Fred Krupp explains, “The Fourth Wave is not pro-tech for technology’s sake. It’s pro-tech because we see incredible opportunity for people around the world to use technology to scale environmental solutions as never before”.