As our landfills burst at the seams, there is no doubt that we have an unfortunate penchant for throwing things away.  By throwing trash out the window of a car, the trash becomes someone else’s problem.  These bad habits cannot be tolerated, even if we can get away with it.

Many companies receive supplies, products, and equipment wrapped, secured, and delivered on pallets, skids, trays, and boxes.

The Green Supply Chain concept stresses looking at the vulnerable elements of the goods that a company might require.  A popular tactic is to reduce the amount of packaging, but that is not all there is to a serious program.

Carefully examine the extra materials used in delivering your supplies or products.  Skids, pallets, and trays of wood and plastic should not be single-use items.  If your company currents disposes of these extra delivery items, this process is incurring additional costs and is unnecessarily wasteful.  Trucks making these deliveries do not lack room, having dropped off a good portion of their load at your door.  It’s a minor imposition to require your vendors and providers to provide a return cycle for these excess delivery sundries.  The waste that results from single-use pallets, skids, and trays is inexcusable in this time of environmental stress.  These items are a part of the packaging process, even if they are not typically viewed as such.  We encourage a review of this area of concern in the course of developing a more sustainable program.  These changes need not be implemented all at once – a Green business takes at least three years to achieve a notable level of Green maturity.

Potential Green Practices Value … 5 to 20 points
(EcoPath offers more than 500 Green solutions for any business)