Carbon Footprint of the Cool Blue Box

The carbon footprint is the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, created by an individual, in their everyday lives, or by a product, via manufacture, transport, use and disposal: a lifecycle. The recent awareness of environmental issues has called for more environmentally friendly business practises, with more consumers considering their own environmental impact. This has lead to many businesses wanting to reduce their emissions and advertise their commitment to the environment. The carbon footprint is an ideal way to meet business and stakeholder sustainability.

To calculate the carbon footprint of a product, it is important to consider the life cycle of the product, from production, to use, to disposal. The calculation of the carbon footprint of the Cool Blue Box considers all its life cycle and associated emissions. Initial research work by the Grimsby Institute focused on using the Carbon Trust's methodology. This method has already been used by three large brands when calculating and advertising a carbon label. The Carbon Trust's method is also being used in partnership with the British Standards Institute as the starting place for developing an industry wide standard.

The Cool Blue Box is a reusable polypropylene box, used for fish storage, which is washed between uses and can be used over and over again. It has a significantly lower carbon footprint than the packaging currently used with in the fish supply chain. The key areas where carbon dioxide savings can be made are shown listed below

1. The Cool Blue box is reused many times and saves the manufacturing cost of new packaging
2. The Cool Blue box has inbuilt refreezeable gel, saving the energy needed to produce large amounts of ice.
3. The Cool Blue box has smaller external dimensions and so can fit more boxes on a pallet and hence reduces the number of heavy goods vehicles on the road.
4. Polystyrene boxes are crushed and then taken by road to Felixstowe to be shipped to China for disposal/recycling.
5. The Cool Blue box has an expected lifespan of six years and is then fully recyclable.
6. The Cool Blue Box Company will utilise backloads to take clean and sterilised boxes back to the fish supplier. Use of a potentially wasted resource makes environmental sense.
7. The washing process is energy efficient and creates far less emissions than the manufacture of a new polystyrene or corrugated polypropylene box.

The carbon footprint of a Cool Blue box is 78% less than a polystyrene box depending on distance from supplier to processor. For further details about how Cool Blue can reduce your chilled products carbon footprint please contact one of the team at the Cool Blue Box Company kate@coolbluebox.co.uk or the Grimsby Institute daviesw@grimsby.ac.uk