Ben Wilkinson
University of Otago
Joe Cooper
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Cleverbox is a moving services company that operates under the aim to make sustainability and convenience work hand-in-hand. Use of their reusable plastic boxes when relocating eliminates disposable cardboard boxes entering landfills and recycling facilities, requiring large amounts of water and energy in the recycling process. They provide them to individual consumers, organizations and schools who generally lack sustainable alternatives that are accessible and affordable.
The innovation strives to replace the use of disposable cardboard boxes when relocating, instead using reusable plastic boxes in their place. Cleverbox was founded in 2017 after Jill Wong-Stratford identified a solution to the common problem. After Jill Wong-Stratford and her husband developed a business plan, which emphasized sustainability and convenience working hand in hand, Cleverbox was born. Part of the Cleverbox solution supplies their customers with easy-to-use plastic boxes, moving dollies, and removable labels to eliminate the use of cardboard while making the moving process simple and efficient.
“Cleverbox puts processes into place as a safeguard to ensure every move is as efficient and stress-free as possible.”
Cardboard boxes can be used only a limited number of times provided they are dry and clean, as opposed to the plastic boxes which have a useful life of 20-30 years and can eliminate short-use recycling during this period. Their boxes are made from commonly recycled HPDE 2 plastics making them extremely light, durable and commonly recycled throughout New Zealand. The innovation eliminates disposable cardboard being sent to landfill or using large amounts of energy and water usage as part of the recycling process. Their innovation makes steps towards more responsible consumption patterns, making cities sustainable as well as reducing of energy consumption and water use (SDGs: 7, 11, 12 and 14).
Jill began the Cleverbox initiative in 2017 after working in the property industry for the previous 10 years, and after identifying the high frequency at which people were relocating. It was noticed that this relocating came a high quota of cardboard waste. She figured there had to be a more sustainable solution than discarding cardboard boxes after only a few uses. At the time, she had two children under the age of two which highlighted the importance of taking responsibility of our impacts on future generations and the need to be part of the sustainability solution. The realization that each individual is responsible for the waste they accumulate from the products we consume within households led Jill to identify a solution that enacts change and reduces natural resources being used. The business values are centered around sustainability and convenience working hand-in-hand. They aim to provide an efficient and convenient moving experience for their customers saving time, saving money, and preventing stress, all while protecting belongings and having a positive impact on the environment.
“I wanted to help as many people as possible switch to a smarter, more sustainable way of moving."
The implementation of Jill’s innovation has had an instant impact by preventing the flow of resources to recycling centers and landfills. To date, they have managed to eliminate 38,000 cardboard boxes by replacing them with Cleverboxes. The idea is built on the notion that when consumers cannot avoid single use items, they should mitigate their environmental impact by reusing as many times as possible before disposing of them. Cleverbox extends the life cycle of moving boxes and has a growing positive impact on the environment over the long-term. Furthermore, the elimination of cardboard boxes results in lower power consumption, less reliance on water in recycling facilities, and less resources in landfill. This is extremely important in New Zealand where recycling capacity is scarce. In New Zealand, the majority of recycling is exported to Asia, which makes the recycling system vulnerable to being impacted by international events that affect global recycling markets.
The innovation has not been all smooth sailing. Jill highlighted the difficulty in making customers aware of the sustainable alternative they are offering. She also highlighted the “lack of understanding from consumers around how impactful every home/business move is for our environment.” Adoption of a similar business model requires ecosystem collaboration between entrepreneurs, organizations, and governments to enable a suitable environment for reuse innovation.
“We are only at the beginning of an exciting journey for reuse. Innovative models will help us achieve a world free of single use cardboard.”
Jill hopes their initiative will encourage consumers to consume less single-use products and opt for more sustainable fit-for-purpose alternatives which contribute to a healthier planet.
The sustainability factor is often not enough to attract customers, however, Cleverbox believes that convenience and sustainability needs to work in synergy. This led to the development of the business model. They will deliver a specified number of bright green Cleverboxes to their customer, along with a moving dolly, before returning to pick them up once the move is complete. Jill highlighted that the feedback from customers was almost always related to either sustainability or convenience.
While Cleverbox’s mission is built upon having a positive social and environmental impact, they are able to achieve success at the same time. By providing an easy-to-use service for their customers, they can compete with less sustainable moving businesses. They currently operate in and around Auckland, providing boxes to individuals, businesses, and schools with plans to expand in the near future. Jill hopes that the changing preferences of consumers around sustainability will enable the business to help as many people as possible switch to a smarter, more sustainable way of moving.
Providing consumers with an innovative solution to the relocation headache is a key factor in its success. Moving is generally a process which generates a lot of cardboard waste and lacks accessible and affordable alternatives. Despite public concern around environmental issues, there isn’t always suitable products available for use. Cleverbox prides itself around their innovation providing three-fold savings - time, money, and the planet. It saves the customer time in having to source cardboard boxes and tape/un-tape them at each end. The pricing of the boxes is competitive with less sustainable alternatives, and the environmental impacts are clear in their efforts to save the planet.
“We hope to make a potentially stressful situation a little bit easier for our customers”
By creating an alternative solution to a widespread and ill-addressed problem, Cleverbox have set the foundations to disrupt the moving industry in New Zealand. The business model is suitable for the majority of cities and areas globally, scalable to the required size. They have reduced 38,000 cardboard boxes from being sent to landfill or recycled with the use of energy/water, a number that will continue growing in the future. Prioritizing reusable products is not only critical for environmental health, but can also have large social and economic cost savings if the innovation is planned and implemented in a suitable and effective manner. Cleverbox is a great example of this, with their innovation contributing to more responsible consumption patterns, making cities sustainable by reducing energy consumption and water use (SDGs: 7, 11, 12 and 14).
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Jill Wong-Stratford, Managing Director
Cleverbox provides a sustainable alternative to cardboard boxes used in the relocation process. The company's plastic moving boxes can be reused many times over, replacing disposable cardboard, and can be further recycled at the end of their useful lives. We are all responsible for the waste that travels through our homes, businesses, and organizations and Cleverbox’s innovation directly aims to implement aspects of a circular economy into everyday life.