Wood’s manufacturing process alone makes it the environmentally friendly choice in building materials. Wood products make up 47% of all industrial raw materials manufactured in the United States, yet consume only 4% of the total energy needed to manufacture all industrial raw materials. Valley Box chooses to incorporate sustainable business practices by recycling all wood scrap with San Diego’s Waste Management Company. Visit our “Green Thinking”" page to learn more
San Diego’s industrial packaging corporation has solutions for delicate electronic equipment or bulky machinery, commercial, industrial, or Mil. Spec for international or domestic shipments. Our strength is based on our ability to offer value by managing important “non-core” elements of our customers’ production process, enabling them to focus their time, investment and talent on their own manufacturing expertise.
Technology has developed so much now-a-day, that the thought of going back to basic energy produced without fossil fuels sounds surreal. The good ol’ fashioned use of bark and wood helps to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel. As it has been important to adapt to new technology, it is now important to adopt ways to contribute to the environment.
Mills utilize bark and wood residuals as a source of energy required to run our operations. These biomass fuels reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and purchased electricity, thereby reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.Unlike fossil fuels, which emit carbon into the atmosphere from geologic sources that are not renewable, carbon associated with the combustion of biomass is part of a natural cycle that maintains a carbon balance by removing emitted carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and storing it in plants, trees and soil. Valley Box is committed to the responsible use of natural resources, and we make sure our suppliers promote the same practices. Valley Box chooses to incorporate sustainable business practices by recycling all wood scrap with San Diego’s Waste Management Company. Visit our “Green Business” page to learn more
The next step in our Packaging lifecycle is Storage, which pertains to the overall length of time your product will be kept in its packaging.
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For example different products require different means of protection
Electronics or Machinery manufacturers protect their products from potential-short-term surface corrosion that can degrade performance or longevity.
Part Distributors require long-term-protection since the storage timeline can be unknown due to unpredictable demand.
Bio-tech and Perishable products often require short-term temperature-controlled packaging, to avoid damage or spoiling.
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A small San Diego Biotech firm ships volatile proteins for DNA testing, domestically and international. These valuable and temperature sensitive proteins were arriving damaged to international destinations, due to a rise in temperature.
Both the domestic and overseas shipments were packaged the same;
with expanded poly-sti-reen, or EPS, containers
and four 8 oz. coolant gel packs to maintain an ambient temperature for 72 hours
Sustainable forest management is about nurturing the long-term health of the forest ecosystem while providing present and future generations with environmental, economic, and social opportunities. Thinning is one approach to managing a forest sustainably.
Increased tolerance to environmental pressures. The tree’s vigor is enhanced through reduced competition. This improves the ability of the tree to withstand insect and disease, and periods of drough
Increased plant diversity. Thinning creates openings in the forest canopy allowing sunlight to reach the understory, which stimulate growth of more grasses, forbs, and shrubs. The greater abundance of native plants species closely resembles historical forest conditions.
Improved wildlife habitat. The increased number of plant species in the understory creates a richer source of food and cover for many wildlife species.
Reduced wildfire threat. Wider tree spacing can slow the spread of fire, help keep fire on the ground surface rather than in the tree canopies, and reduce fire intensity by reducing the amount of available fuel.
Improve aesthetics. A more open, park like forest is generally perceived as visually more pleasing than a dense one.
Although some people consider cutting forest trees to be a harmful act, if done with care for the surrounding environment, it can improve the condition of the forest. The improvement of the forest’s health and wildlife habitat, creation of more historical conditions, and reduction of wildfire threat are beneficial outcomes of forest thinning.
Valley Box chooses to incorporate sustainable business practices by recycling all wood scrap with San Diego’s Waste Management Company.
Now we come to the point of why the packaging was designed in the first place. To maintain the quality of your product to its destination, the packaging has-to-have performed properly. In most cases products ship everywhere everyday with no issues of damage from rough handling, punctures, vibration damage or dropping. When, however, these events do occur, new issues come to light concerning damage and returns.
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This section will help you learn to recognize and prevent damage. There are many ways a product can be damaged during transport. Some common causes are:
Severe impact
Package design flaws or failures
Improper stacking resulting in crushing
The End users improperly handling or unpacking
Hidden damage from Internal cushioning or bracing failure
Occasionally when products are damaged or destroyed, the blame game can come into play. We all use freight companies and hire carriers at some time. To make sure that the cause of damage and the parties involved are identified for insurance proposes, we recommend some basics steps be implemented to protect your company.
First you need to identify what the cause of damage may be.
It’s amazing that carbon continues to be stored in wood long after being processed. Other building materials such as steel, and concrete don’t absorb any carbon, instead it’s released into the atmosphere during construction.
The combination of photosynthesis and a tree’s ability to create wood acts as a powerful concentrator of carbon from the atmosphere into a fixed form. Carbon is stored in trees and wood until it is burned or biodegrades naturally. However, a tree can only absorb carbon until a certain point. As a tree matures it absorbs lesser amounts of carbon. Luckily tress can live 50 – 300 years depending on the species, so absorption tapering off varies between trees.
When a forest is allowed to decay, the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere. If it’s harvested sustainably and manufactured into building products, like our wood containers and reusable boxes where carbon is stored in the products while the forest regenerates with young trees that absorb even more carbon, therefore achieving a net reduction in global emissions.
Valley Box chooses to incorporate sustainable business practices by recycling all wood scrap with San Diego’s Waste Management Company.
Valley Box Sustainable Packaging Practice; If the cost of repairing the containers is less than 50% the cost of replacing it, then we recommend Refurbishing.
Refurbishing reusable wood containers makes good business sense and helps your bottom line by extending the life of the box and maximizing investment. Every link lock or steel reinforced corner can be replaced just like the wood and the container then performs just like it did when it was first built. Remember: When the repair cost is no more than half the cost of replacing the container, we recommend refurbishing!
San Diego’s industrial packaging corporation has solutions for delicate electronic equipment or bulky machinery, commercial, industrial, or Mil. Spec for international or domestic shipments. Our strength is based on our ability to offer value by managing important “non-core” elements of our customers’ production process, enabling them to focus their time, investment and talent on their own manufacturing expertise.
Climate changes have forced most industries to adopt new sustainable product solutions and methods. It is important to adjust in ecological, social, and economic systems according to actual or expected climate behavior and their effects or impacts. Most common individuals already applied changes in their regular life style and try to associate with companies with similar ethics. As a natural behavior to keep the relationship with customers, companies adapt by making changes in processes, practices, and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change. Adaptations vary according to the system in which they occur,who undertakes them, the climatic changes that prompts them, and their timing, functions, forms, and effects. For example the wine industry would have to make changes in their fermentation, or the travel industry with their seasonal traveling. Events in the environment affect behavior in the consumer as well as the producer.
Valley Box chooses to incorporate sustainable business practices by recycling all wood scrap with San Diego’s Waste Management Company.
The next step in the packaging lifecycle is the actual physical act of packaging.
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Packaging Material, in general, is bulky and usually requires floor space for inventory.
Think about the different types of packaging materials you might be storing currently. Sometimes the wisdom of purchasing a larger volume for price quantity breaks, may be lost due to additional handling or the cost of storage. A balance of inventory and price can be achieved thru various planning implementations.
VMI or a Vendor Maintained Inventory program operates on a minimum maximum inventory plan that is monitored by the supplier. Volume Adjustments can be altered based on production demands and can reduce the chance of over stocking.
JIT or Just In Time is a coordinated plan that provides the suppler a time line to support the value chain of supplies. This helps with storage space, overstocking, and the uncertainty of potential interruptions of supplies.
Also consider Racks for vertical storage and Collapsible shippers, both can improve space usage in the packaging department.
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This leads us to the story of one Non-Profit Emergency Relief Agency that had limited storage space. They required a compact-rapid-response-shipping-container for food and medical supplies that was easily assembled and disassembled by a single volunteer with no tools. This organization has to act quickly if they’re going to save lives. By having the containers on-hand, they’re able to react faster and expedite the packing & amp; shipping to get the supplies where they’re needed most.
Valley Box developed a collapsible-reusable-box that when un-assembled, reduced storage space requirements by 74%, while maintaining an ease of use that was safe and simple to understand by the end user. Because of its collapsed size, Shipping costs on the return trip were decreased as well.
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Let’s talk about the Packaging Department for a moment
3 factors that effect your packaging department are: Labor, Storage, and actual packaging time.
It important to keep track of how each of the factors effect the end of your production line. Rather than setting aside large areas for storing packaging goods, consider optional methods like; a Vendor Maintained Inventory or a Just In Time scenario.
The same thing applies to your labor force performing the pack job. If you do not have a dedicated trained labor force packaging the product, consider hiring a specialist to perform the final pack. Your employees can go back to doing what they do best, and a pack crew will take care of the rest.
Another consideration is to have your Packaging Vendor evaluate your current methods of packaging, which may result in a design change that would increase the productivity of your pack time.
Here’s a case where over packaging had a real cost impact. This Machining Company has a Central and Southern California location that requires parts to be shipped back and forth. We were invited to review their package design and packing process.
We discovered that the individual long term preservation packaging they were performing was unnecessary due to the short transport time.
Their product was durable and just needed adequate spacing between each part so the machined surfaces didn’t touch. A multi-pack reusable container provided adequate spacing eliminating the unnecessary individual packaging.
The result was a 90% decrease in packing labor and material. Additionally this also improved the turn around time on part completion.
With recycling initiatives being implemented and in this age of being leaner, greener, and more efficient, some customers may have specific packaging requirements to meet the needs of the end user. Switching to reusable packaging or a packaging design that serves multiple purposes, can offer advantages to both the supplier and buyer.
Some considerations are:
• Implement a packaging recycle plan. Almost all packaging materials comes in recycled alternatives. Your packaging supplier can provide choices.
• Reuse in-coming packaging by sorting and organizing materials for other shipping events
• Redesign your packaging with the intention of reducing waste
• and lastly, you can ask your suppliers to conform to your packaging requirements
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One such company who focuses on eliminating packaging waste is Costco, who distributes a 16 page Packaging Specification Packet to all suppliers.
This has been instrumental in lowering costs and ensuring that products arrive to the warehouse undamaged.
The Packet includes Performance Requirements, Stacking Strength, Pallet Load Configurations, and more. Costco has these specifications in order to drive out costs by eliminating; excessive packaging, handling, and corrugated waste.
We at Valley Box completely agree with these types of policies, and we encourage you to conduct packaging reviews and make your own guidelines that make sense for you.
Wood is one the most popular choices for building material. It makes up to nearly half of the industrial raw materials manufactured in the United States. Yet it only takes 4% of the total energy needed to manufacture all industrial raw materials.
Simply put, manufacturing with wood is energy efficient.
Bark and wood residuals are utilized as the primary source of energy at production facilities, supplying more than 50% of the energy needed to make wood products.
Cement is the second most energy efficient material used still taking 5 times more energy than wood to produce.
Glass takes almost ten times more energy than cement.
It takes steel 24 times more energy to produce, compared to wood.
Aluminum is the least energy efficient taking about 126 times more energy than wood for one ton of aluminum.
The advantage of wood versus any other product listed is the reusable leftover material. It can either be recycled, and used in other engineered wood products, or used as biofuel for production. Engineered wood products make far more efficient use of the available resource today than ever before. Valley Box’s offers a wide variety of wood packaging solutions.
