Shoeboxes account for millions of tonnes of waste and sadly, looking at my shoe racks, I've probably made a substantial contribution to that. PUMA on the other hand is on a mission to reduce its carbon, energy, water and waste "paw print", and has decided to do away with the shoebox altogether. It has launched its Clever Little Bag, a single folded sheet of cardboard in a resuable, recyclable PET bag, designed to protect shoes from the time they leave the factory until the customer gets them home.
PUMA says the new packaging and distribution system will reduce the paper used for shoeboxes by 65% and carbon emissions by 10,000 tons per year. It plans to make the remaining packaging materials fully sustainable by 2015.
The Clever Little Bag is the brainchild of San Francisco-based industrial designer, humanist, naturalist and fuseproject founder Yves Behar.
For the statistically-minded among you the “Clever Little Bag” concept will help PUMA reduce the water, energy and diesel used in manufacturing by more than 60% per year.
- Approximately 8,500 tons less paper will be consumed
Tip from a shoeaholic: you can also use the Clever Little Bag to pack shoes when you go on holiday!
Now, if they would licence their design concept to other manufacturers across the world, they would surely deserve a major award - and the benefit to the environment could be multiplied by several orders of magnitude. Perhaps someone could suggest an appropriately prestigious award to recognise the achievement.
Whenever I buy shoes, they always keep the box, and I take the shoes home in a plastic bag (could be a paper bag)