DS Smith develops plastic-free industrial packaging for Bosch Home Comfort Group
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DS Smith, the leading provider of sustainable, fibre-based packaging, has developed a plastic-free corrugated cardboard packaging solution for a gas boiler for Bosch Home Comfort Group. While the previous solution relied on two pieces of EPS (polystyrene), the packaging solution developed by DS Smith does not require any plastic at all. This avoids 100,000 superfluous plastic components and saves a total of 310 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. This is in line with the sustainability goals of both companies - Bosch Thermotechnology, which designs its packaging to be sustainable and recyclable, and DS Smith, which has set itself the goal of eliminating one billion plastic components from packaging by 2025.
In the project, DS Smith's packaging experts were able to use the company's own value tool and the DS Smith circular design metrics to transparently demonstrate the benefits to the customer and thus convince them. The eight metrics analyse the sustainability and recyclability of different aspects of a packaging solution in a standardised and quantifiable way. An improvement was identified in five categories, while two categories remained identical to the initial situation. The great advantage of the solution lies in replacing the EPS parts with corrugated cardboard. The fibres of the corrugated cardboard material can be recycled more than 20 times and thus remain part of the functioning material cycle for a long time.
Packaging optimisation supports the sustainability goals of both companies
"We are helping the industry to become plastic-free and are delighted to be working with the Bosch Home Comfort Group. Providing comprehensive advice to the customer by using our strong expertise in sustainable industrial packaging in combination with proven tools is a recipe for success and demonstrates the added value of the solution in a simple and understandable way - for example, our circular design metrics were used to illustrate the benefits of mono-material packaging to the customer in a transparent way. This project clearly shows that corrugated board can also score points in demanding industrial packaging with ideal protective properties and at the same time improve sustainability," comments Stefan Endres, Account Manager at DS Smith.
"We are delighted with the positive impact of this packaging optimisation by the DS Smith team and the value it brings to our business, but also to the environment with an improvement of more than 75% reduced CO2 emissions, which equates to a reduction of 310 tonnes of CO2 per year. Every year, more than 2,350 fewer pallets need to be taken out, which also significantly reduces the number of lorries involved in delivery logistics by almost 60%, resulting in more than 60 lorries being taken off the road each year. By switching to this fully recyclable packaging, the Bosch Home Comfort Group is meeting the diverse demand for sustainable solutions while maintaining product protection," summarises Jingjing Huang, Purchasing Engineering Combustion Systems, Bosch Home Comfort Group.
