Smurfit Kappa Bee-Box design wins ARA Special Award at the Green Packaging Awards

A specialist corrugated transport box for bee colonies, designed by Smurfit Kappa Interwell, has received special recognition at the 2015 Green Packaging Awards in Austria this month. 

Organised by local environmental packaging magazine, KOMPACK, in association with the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology, OFI, the awards programme recognises environmentally friendly innovations in the packaging sector, which contribute to resource conservation and waste prevention in the design process and across the supply chain. 

Designed as a more user and bee-friendly alternative to traditional, wooden bee boxes, the ventilated  corrugated box provides lightweight housing for bees in transit, accommodating multiple honeycombs in one unit.  It enables commercial beekeepers buying or selling vast numbers of colonies to transport them more securely over longer distances, reducing the risk of death, while positively impacting the cost and sustainability of their supply chain.

The judges praised the impressive benefits the innovative Bee-Box packaging design offers customers, which includes

• 80% less storage needed when flat packed, reducing costs
• 90% reduction in weight, in comparison to wooden boxes
• 75% CO2 emissions saving during transportation

Overall, the Bee-Box offers a potential cost saving of 86% in comparison to traditional heavy and bulky wooden box and also facilitating easier handling/

Four categories were awarded on the night for most environmentally sound product, production process and corporate philosophy, plus the special award sponsored by ARA, Austria’s leading packaging compliance scheme, which Bee-Box won.