NowDesigns, the Blaine, WA-based home decor company, has announced that as of September 2007 they will switch to shipping exclusively with used cartons. These boxes won’t be pretty, but their environmental impact will help make the world a little greener. NowDesigns challenges its industry competitors to follow their lead and employ more environmentally-conscious shipping practices.

NowDesigns, drawing on recent data supplied by J.Wooldridge (MSc.), 2006, Forest Sciences, University of British Columbia, estimates that by shipping with used cartons for one year they will eliminate the consumption of 75000 new cartons. The result is staggering. This change will:

• Eliminate the demand for 250 softwood trees
• Eliminate the demand for 1.1 billion BTU’s – or enough energy to power 36 homes for a year
• Reduce greenhouse gases by 205000 lbs

‘This was a relatively simple and small step for our company to take towards developing a larger strategy for more environmentally-sustainable business practices. But if everyone in the industry took this same small step, the impact would be tremendous. There is certainly much more we can all do.’- NowDesigns Vice-President Jeremy Braude.

It should be noted that NowDesigns has used biodegradable molded cardboard egg trays instead of polystyrene peanuts and bubble-wrap as carton-filler materials for 3 years and recently has installed a cardboard shredding machine so that cartons unsuitable for outbound shipping are also recycled into carton-filler.

NowDesigns challenges its industry competitors to GO GREEN.For more information, please visit: nowdesigns.net.