Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash
Google has long expressed its intention to nix single-use plastic—not only in its company but also in those striving for the same ambitious achievements and willing to take help. The US giant’s “plastic-free” pledge came to light in October 2020 and went a long way toward bringing the form the world will finally lay eyes on in June of this year. Props to Google – our oceans are fed 2K truckloads of plastic a day, but more companies must act take responsibility for their share of contribution.
The world is now rejoicing over the long-awaited launch of the document disclosing the strategic measures that the company successfully overtook to slash its plastic packing consumption and afferent plastic footprint. Good practice recommendations can easily be mistaken for empty words when thorough examples don’t follow them, and the leading tech solution provider knows this by heart. So, what should we realize in the days leading up to the behemoth’s bombshell? Will the revealed environmental solutions live up to supporters’ expectations?
Google is just a brick in the greening wall
Amid intensifying global efforts to reduce the carbon footprint and preserve and conserve the planet’s natural resources, Google’s announcement to abolish plastic from their offerings is as welcome as flowers last month. Governments, organizations, and businesses worldwide strive to cut in half their carbon footprint to ensure we can reduce global warming to an urgent 1.5°C threshold by the end of the decade. On the other hand, worldwide corporations have the most considerable impact on these initiatives, possessing immense potential to broaden the effect of their own projects. Those looking up to the more prominent companies to gain the information they can use in their environmental strategies have a lot to prepare for these days.
So, what’s the move all about?
As excitement builds up, all we know to date is that the long-awaited educational resources will approach the innovations and methodologies that helped the behemoth put an end to plastic usage in their companies. The corporation’s lead sustainability strategist, David Bourne, recently communicated that the documentation boils down to the way Google spotted insufficiencies and incompatibilities that weighted down on nature’s running its course. Having spent tremendous time and financial power to come up with the right solutions to redesign the packaging used in the most massive consumer products, the company needed innovative measures to cover the business stages ranging from point A to Z to trickle down to the last branch.
Thus, the newfound strategies couldn’t leave their already-established collaborations unimpacted. The corporation had to revise its partnerships with stakeholders ranging from suppliers to distributors to manufacturing partners. The range of products eyed consisted of small—to big-ticket items, with a focus on TVs, all the more since Google itself doesn’t produce the latter. The new associations had to be equally made with long-term views in mind.
The success of a business depends a lot on the contributors’ efforts to meet the joint goal; Google draws attention to the partners that businesses worldwide choose in their journey to accomplish all sorts of goals, especially environmental ones. Fortunately, business giants around the world can also lead by example. If you look into the sustainable solutions offered by Miltek New Zealand, you’ll see that businesses, from the smallest to the largest and regardless of their industry, can step up their environmental efforts and observe results in the shortest time possible. All it takes is teaming up with businesses that pursue common goals. In this situation, buying, renting, or leasing balers and compactors to streamline waste management processes is among the most straightforward actions an eco-centric business can take, coming to discover that areas like budget, time, and space gradually improve.
The craze around Pixel 8
Google’s recently launched smartphone – Pixel 8 – has generated a lot of buzz, and for good reasons. The packaging is mainly made from fiber and paper in an effort to promote recyclability and slash the production’s and disposal’s environmental aftermath. The phone’s design overhaul stretched out to coating, box assembly, lamination, and even the labeling steps, demonstrating an all-encompassing approach to sustainability.
The seller’s packaging revamp was not at all trouble-free. Multiple barriers were broken down, including the upkeep of the smartphone’s plastic components, as they had to remain just as durable and stylish as the consumer base was used to, all while eliminating parts like shrink-wraps.
Other concerns tackled down the road included the eco-friendliness of the ink and coating and the adjustment of the packaging’s shape and size. All these new applications had to align with the tech mammoth’s branding necessities.
Despite the incremental expenditure linked to paper-based packaging, the company points to such practices as the only path to achieving long-term sustainability and, thus, sustainable success. Such big-ticket investment raises the barriers in environmental business operations and creates a pattern and example for broader tech producers to follow.
All without compromising consumers’ experiences
TVs were the main focus of the corporation’s late efforts since they’re some of the weightiest out there. Google isn’t a TV producer, so it had to shake hands with manufacturing collaborators to bring its eco-centric goals to fruition. Understandably, a great hurdle was ensuring that consumers’ received products were at no cost bearing the brunt of their efforts. They are committed to guaranteeing that everything from the quality to the packaging meets the highest standards—as consumers are accustomed to.
Google’s main design challenges mainly came down to:
- Learning how cutting plastic shrink wrap impacts the package’s reliability and durability
- Finding out the implication of the products’ shapes and sizes in ameliorating “drop dynamics”
- Discovering improved ways to waterproof and seal boxes to ensure their intactness
- Determining the quality of closure labels and the ease of removal
- Going through more than 50 solutions to find the one that best suits the company’s branding requirements regarding the new ink and coatings, dealing with sketchy suppliers
- Determining how the chemicals and other substance substitutions used impact the amount of greenhouse gas released.
To max out the impact of the late initiatives, Google launches a comprehensive guide of 70 pages on how the giant succeeded in revamping consumer products to contribute to speed up their goal of eliminating the plastic footprint. Stay close for more!