Canon Ink Cartridge Case Study

Jones Packaging provides optimized sustainable design consultation for its manufacturer and co-packer customers through the use of its Greensweep assessment. Focus areas include the type of packaging material as well as reducing the amount of packaging, both size and weight, which has a direct impact on shipping costs. A good example of this is the Canon Ink Print Cartridge package launched in December 2007. Canon’s previous package for ink cartridges used a full non-renewable resource PVC plastic clamshell which encased the entire product.  There was an opportunity for converting the packaging to a package which is made from a renewable resource, while simultaneously being much lighter, with a smaller carbon footprint. The benefits of this were:

• The weight of package was reduced by 28%, meaning less energy is now consumed to transport it
  through the supply chain
• The elimination of the moulding and forming of the plastic clam shell increased production efficiencies
  and eliminated 2 processes.  This also helped reduce energy and raw material consumption
• The new package reduced by 3% the total number of pallets required to transport the annual volume
  of this product
• The inner divider that was developed worked with all SKU’s of Canon’s products, as opposed to using
  15 different plastic liners.  Therefore we were able to reduce the energy costs to produce, store and
  transport Canon’s packaging materials
• The entire package is made from a renewable resource and is 100% recyclable through municipal curb pick up
• Over 70 tonnes of plastic were diverted from going to landfill
• The package is 100% biodegradable
• Greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 12.9%
• Better product to package ratio and maximized cube utilization was achieved
• The overall footprint of the carton was reduced by 30%.