There has been a significant increase in demand for bundle wrapping. Half our our machine volume in the past year has been bundle wrappers, so it seems bundle wrappers are useful all of a sudden. This is because bundle wrappers improve corporate social responsibility and corporations care more and more about that.

The reason for this is not simply cost savings. Public companies in North America and Europe  have to publish and make available an annual corporate sustainability report. This report includes their goals and accomplishments against those goals for reductions in landfills, water, energy, carbon, etc.  Potential reductions in waste including intermediate packaging (landfill), reductions in shipping costs (carbon).

Companies are also responding to consumer influences too. In a blog in the Harvard Business Review entitled  How the Voice of the People Is Driving Corporate Social Responsibility, the author argues that companies are responding to stimuli from social media in creating their corporate social responsibility agendas. What this really means is social media about them impacts their brand message.   Think clothing manufacturers and Bangladesh or Nestle and palm oil. Engaging the consumer and aligning brand with consumer values is important.  “These campaigns and individuals are successful because they reinforce the company’s brand and goals around both sustainability and consumer engagement.”

Nobody escapes meeting ROI hurdles, but ROI is not the only factor in making the decision to move from corrugate or chipboard to bundling.

When it comes to bundle wrappers though, brand owners are responding to their retailers and to their own sustainability goals. The impact of change in intermediate packaging is not necessarily visible to the consumer, since the consumer never sees the packaging that gets the product from the manufacturer to the retailer. However it is documentable for corporate  and social media purposes, and reinforces the sustainability message to employees and retailers.

In a recent whitepaper, we calculated from numbers provided by customers that there were significant cost savings possible. You can use the numbers below and multiple by your volume to get some sense of the savings potential. To get the whitepaper email sales@packagemachinery.com