IBM developed its Packaging Guidelines back in 1990 and they are updated periodically. The Guidelines called for the banning of ozone-depleting chemicals and heavy metals from IBM's packaging and the elimination of polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated biphenyl oxides from all its packaging, all of which were accomplished a number of years ago. The Guidelines also provide direction on minimizing toxic elements in packaging materials, identifying methods, process and designs to reduce packaging volume, and promoting the use of packaging materials that are reusable, recyclable and/or contain recycled content.
For specific requirements and details, see environmental packaging requirements.
The key elements of IBM's Packaging Guidelines have been embedded into various Engineering Specifications, which extends their reach beyond IBM to include its supply chain and other business partners.
In 2010, the IBM packaging team implemented 19 packaging design projects with its suppliers. The resulting packaging solutions reduced the packaging materials from incoming parts by 204 metric tons and saved $1.7 million in both material and transportation costs.
Some examples follow:
- In collaboration with a supplier, IBM redesigned a server motherboard package that originally held one card per carton to a four cards per carton package, which avoided the annual use of 58.5 metric tons and achieved a cost savings of $422,000 in transport and material costs.
- In collaboration with another supplier, IBM redesigned a server card package that originally held 10 cards per carton to a 20 cards per carton package, saving nearly 66 metric tons of packaging and delivering a cost saving of $239,000, primarily from materials.
- IBM and a supplier implemented a reusable packaging solution for use between the supplier and IBM locations for storage card packaging. This project delivered a total annual materials savings of 5.8 metric tons and a cost savings of $69,000, primarily from material.
When suppliers apply the design improvements achieved through collaboration with IBM to packaging designs for other customers, the environmental benefits and cost savings can be far-reaching.
In addition to the avoidance of the hazardous chemicals noted above, IBM has gone well beyond the legal requirements in packaging. The following are some examples of the company's accomplishments:
- banned the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in our packaging
- banned the use of free flowing cushioning materials (such as "plastic peanuts")
- banned the use of permanently commingled but dissimilar materials except in cases where they're part of reusable packaging designs or where technically required to ensure product quality (example: static shielding bags). This improves the recyclability of IBM's packaging when no longer in use.
- developed a chart of environmentally preferable packaging materials and graded them into four categories:
1) Green (Best, Expand usage), 2) Yellow (Acceptable), Red (Poor, avoid), Black (banned completely). This
has been added to IBM's General Packaging Specification and therefore applies to both the company's suppliers
and IBM. The goal is to move up the chart as much as possible.
- developed and are currently populating a Master Packaging Database to capture data on the amount and type of packaging materials used for all of IBM's products, to better enable the measurement of environmentally preferable packaging
- specified the avoidance of methyl bromide (CH3Br) fumigants -- though legally allowed, methyl bromide is an ozone depleting substance that is still used globally to combat the spread of non-indigenous pests in wooden packaging. It is allowed by IBM only as a last resort in cases where environmentally preferable alternatives cannot be found. This pest issue is a significant environmental concern because of the risk of mass deforestation and its impact on international commerce.
- specified the avoidance of chemical impregnation of wooden packaging even though it is legally allowed since the chemicals used (copper chromated arsenate) render the wood unfit for recycling or energy recovery.
- pioneered the use of TimberStrandTM in some of IBM's pallets and crates since these materials are rendered
inert to pests during normal manufacturing. This material is made from fast growing and therefore environmentally
preferable Aspen species. More information may be found at:
http://www.environmentalbuildingnews.com/products/timberstrand.cfm
- pioneered the use of M-GUARDTM in our packaging for shipments of smaller products to China. This allowed us to avoid the use of much heavier and bulkier wooden crates that were previously required in China. M-GUARD is a specially treated paper that is made into corrugated boxes and greatly enhances its moisture resistance while still being completely recyclable unlike some waxy coatings.
- developed a pallet marking scheme which has now been adopted by the USDA and will become part of a
United Nations sponsored specification aimed at harmonizing global standards for wood treatment. The marking scheme
is intended to convey in a language free way which materials are compliant and may be exported. This
will reduce the risk of pest migration, reduce costs and waste for shippers and speed the logistics system
for everyone, not just IBM.
- continued to focus on strategic areas such as product ruggedness and carrier handling. If our already rugged products can become more so and if we can get carriers to "soften the ride" then less packaging will be required and this is the goal of source reduction.
Moreover, IBM has freely shared its environmental packaging specifications with anyone, including competitors.