Smart Packaging

Robrick has been a leader in packaging for years. A better box means less shipping damage and less replacement shipments. Our original shipping box has been copied and used for years by others in the industry. To ship to colder areas in the winter many resort to Styrofoam lined boxes. We chose to design a double box and our tests and our shipping results showed that the double box provided more than enough cold protection. All of our customers have some method of disposing of corrugated cardboard. Many recycle it. By not introducing Styrofoam into this waste stream we kept our customers’ recycling program simpler. Of course, Styrofoam is a petroleum product while corrugated cardboard comes from a renewable resource.

For many years Robrick Nursery has maintained a claims rate of less than 1% on young plants shipped. This is another great way to be “green.” Shipping dead or damaged plants makes you less “green” in a hurry. Right off the bat you add the whole “not green” aspect of growing and shipping replacement plants. Replacement plants mean more packaging materials are consumed and have to be disposed of by the recipient. More fossil fuels are burned by the freight company to move those replacement plants. The higher the quality of your plants the “greener” your greenhouse.

In 2008, in cooperation with Packaging Corporation of America and Federal Express Freight, Robrick pioneered the use of the Big Box for shipping plants. This method is quickly being adopted by other nurseries but Robrick was the pioneer. It was immediately apparent that this method was saving our customers money on freight and it was also apparent that it was further reducing plant losses due to shipping damage. What was not apparent until we dragged out the scale and compared the weight of our traditional box to that of the Big Box was that we were saving corrugated. We were delighted to discover that by finding innovation in packaging and shipping we were once again more “green.” The new Big Box actually uses 40% less corrugated than our traditional box. The Big Box saves our customers money and reduces the corrugated waste that they must dispose of.