BENTONVILLE, Ark. (BRAIN) — PeopleForBikes announced at the SHIFT '22 conference on Tuesday the completion of its first Sustainable Packaging Guidebook that will be available to the industry at the end of the year.
The Sustainability Working Group has been developing the online resource since the beginning of the year, and recent contributions pushed back the release date. An overview and preview will be at PeopleForBikes.org soon.
"It's really going to be awesome and a great resource for the industry," said Ashley Seaward, PeopleForBikes deputy director of state and local policy, in between sustainability workshop sessions on Wednesday. "We received additional contributions of content and additional examples of types of alternatives folks can use for packaging within the guidelines of commonly asked questions from packaging experts who are in this space."
Seaward said the group did case studies of those who have experienced successes or failures in establishing sustainable packaging. "We have a whole section on why," she said.
The guidebook primarily will cover the packaging of bicycle products, everything from hang tags to bike boxes. Between 15-20 industry members worked on the project with about 10 brands involved.
"It's been almost graduate school style: open up a Google doc, create an outline, break it up into sections, and bring it all together," Seaward said. "This is of incredible importance because a lot of folks are either stuck on something or they're on different sections of their sustainability journey. There was a lot of learning from one another and being transparent on what worked and what hasn't worked, which is the key to all of our sustainability initiatives. This will be a helpful resource."
The Sustainability Working Group was formed in 2020 to provide progress toward a more sustainable industry. The Shift'22 conference wraps up Thursday.
