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Ecologic Brands

by Gina Angie on 12/14/2011 | 3 Minute Read

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"About Ecologic Brands: Ecologic Brands designs and manufactures innovative and sustainable packaging solutions. With the first molded paper bottle made from recycled cardboard, Ecologic Brands connects brands and people through smarter packaging choices. See the future of packaging at www.ecologicbrands.com.

At last week’s awards ceremony in London, the International Green Awards recognized Ecologic Brands as the Best Green 4R’s Award recipient, celebrating the company’s new molded fiber bottle that uses a re-sealable “smart fitment” as the best innovation in efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover material. The award was part of the 6th International Green Awards for Creativity in Sustainability.

This award recognizes the best initiative that promotes the 4 R’s –Reduction, Reuse, Recycling and Recovery. Ecologic Brand’s award winning innovation comes from combining a molded-paper outer shell made from 100%recycled materials (70% recycled cardboard boxes and 30% old newspapers)with a thin fully recyclable interior pouch.  The outer shell has been certified by Soil Control Labs to be compostable per ASTM 6868 standards.Additionally, its thin interior liner uses up to 75% less plastic than rigid plastic containers. The package also offers greater carbon savings because its outer shells are tightly nested and transported flat. One truckload ofEcologic Brands’ packaging materials is equivalent in volume to up to nine truckloads of rigid plastic containers.

Ecologic Brands, based in Oakland, California, manufactures and designs innovative and sustainable packaging solutions. The company’s patented containers for dispensing liquids and dry goods are made from recycled and renewable materials, minimize the use of plastic, and reduce landfill waste.The business is in the process of developing custom packaging solutions for large Consumer Packaged Goods companies in Europe while their product is currently featured as a Seventh Generation 4X detergent package. The iconic brown molded fiber bottle will be in as many as 7,000 stores in the US by year’s end, including mainstream grocers and mass retailers in the U.S.,such as Target, Whole Foods, Kroger and Raley’s.

 

'It’s a great honor to have our packaging innovation recognized internationally. After more than three years of research and development, we have created an entirely new solution that advances authentic environmental change,” said Ecologic Brands founder and CEO Julie Corbett. “Innovating packaging products that both consumers and brands will adopt is challenging,and the International Green Award validates that Ecologic Brands’ package has a leadership role to play in reducing the tremendous waste caused by the consumption of rigid plastic bottles.'Ecologic Brands’ new cardboard bottle was first introduced in US stores inMarch 2011 with the launch of Seventh Generation’s new Natural 4x LaundryDetergent. The detergent has cleaned up on store shelves, and is now the fifth best-selling laundry detergent in its category in the Natural channel.Ecologic Brands was born when working mother Julie Corbett was shocked by the amount of plastic jugs and cartons her family produced on a regular basis and the lack of viable packaging choices to solve the problem.   She decided to do something about it. Inspired by the inner molded fiber tray in her new iphone box in 2007 and the Canadian milk pouch - a clear lightweight pouch placed in a reusable carafe – Julie decided to create a bottle that used a lot less plastic to provide a lot more sustainability.Since its introduction, Ecologic Brands has racked up a number of innovation awards, including the 2011 Greener Package 'Environmental Impact' Award, SanFrancisco Business Times Clean tech Sustainable Awards 2011, 'BestSustainable Product,' The International Business Forum’s The Social ImpactAward for 2011, and was a finalist in the PMMI (Packaging MachineryManufacturers Institute), 'Package of the Future' Competition in 2010 and2011"

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