Sustainability Profile: Ecobox

1. What is your company's brand promise, vision or statement of values, and how does it relate to sustainability?
Ecobox rents moving boxes that are made of sustainable and durable plastics and sells a wide range of eco-friendly moving supplies. Our mission is to create a positive environmental impact while offering a convenient service that strives to make moving hassle-free! We envision a world where trees no longer need to be cut down for the purpose of making boxes and to eliminate the cardboard box entirely. Our alternative is a reusable plastic box that, when used in a continuous cycle, will make a giant impact on the foresting industry.
2. How are your products or services environmentally and socially sustainable?
Our moving boxes at ecobox are sustainable because they are capable of being used over 500 times! It takes less energy and water to create a plastic box than a cardboard one, and once our boxes are in use they displace cardboard. When one of our boxes has reached the end of its useful life and is ready to be disposed of, 90% of the plastic can be used to make a new one.
3. How do your suppliers create positive social and environmental benefits either through their products or through their community partnerships?
Ecobox has chosen to work with suppliers that are committed to a greener future and that only supply environmentally responsible products that can be used for a variety of things. Their goal, like ours, is reuse which they achieve by using plastic reusable pallets instead of wood or plastic boxes instead of cardboard. The manufacturer of our plastic boxes takes them back at the end of their useful life and recycles them for us. Our packing materials suppliers produce green products with minimal footprints, like 100% recycled packaging peanuts and 100% Organic Cornstarch Packaging Peanuts which are completely biodegradable.
4. How does your business minimize the environmental impact of its operations through some or all of the following activities?
Ecobox itself uses only post consumer recycled paper in its office and only sells recycled and recyclable materials. Our business is home-based, so we recycle everything we can through The City's blue box recycling program. Additionally, we are almost completely paperless through the use of electronic fax and email. We are also in the process of becoming bullfrogpowered with 100% green electricity, use diesel engines in our trucks to reduce our emissions from transportation and are considering a switch to bio-fuels.
5. How does your business demonstrate ethical business conduct?
Our business is small business with a big heart. All of our emails and numbers are on the website and people can reach the owner personally. We want to grow and create an impact so therefore we strive to provide the best service possible.
6. What strategic community partnerships does your company have in place?
We are a proud member of REAP Business Association and are also in the process of creating a not-for-profit organization that plants trees and creates tree farms. As we grow we look forward to reaching out to our community and building more partnerships.
7. What policy or guidelines exist to support charitable contributions? Or, if no formal policy is in place, what organizations have you previously supported?
We are a very new business – operating for less than a year – so we haven't yet established charitable relationships or ongoing contributions. We would like to start our own organization that focuses solely on conserving trees as this is the reason we started ecobox in the first place! We look forward to allocating 1%-3% of our profits annually to charitable donations to our own not-for-profit or other organizations.
8. How many people do you employ locally?
Currently, we are a one man show, but if we continue to grow we will only hire like-minded individuals.
9. In what ways does your business demonstrate its commitment to employee health and safety?
As an owner operated business, we are too small to warrant formal health and safety programs. As we grow we will establish training programs, measurement of accident free days, and internal communications where appropriate.
10. In what ways does your business demonstrate its commitment to employee development and job satisfaction?
When we are big enough to support it, we will offer meaningful programs to support our employees.
11. How does your business support employees to lead balanced lives and be active participants in their communities?
When the business needs employees the employees will follow in the footsteps of the owner. As a passionate entrepreneur and person of integrity, I believe that I will be a very good and fair example.