Innovation

MonkieBox is located in Spain and offers services throughout the country. It provides the most revolutionary storage service of the moment to help not only solve logistical problems but also to help the environment. These services make a delivery of boxes that are adjusted to the client's needs at a very competitive price (each one has a value of € 3 per month). These boxes can be reused at least 14 times (almost twice the lifetime of other boxes employed in different storage practices/services); which leads to fulfill its main commitments related to environment, sustainability and community.

Pablo, the co-founder of MonkieBox, realized that today's consumption habits are based on unnecessary spending in cheap and low quality goods, that are thrown away whenever people are running short in space or need to move houses. This is a common trend in university cities all over the world, Pamplona (where the business was created) being one of them.

Every year, most students and young professionals change flats/residences, return to their homes outside the region or outside the country. This comes with very negative consequences. During the summers, individuals have to take their belongings back to their hometown, as they cannot leave them in the flat if they are going to change their residence. The most common thing to do is to throw away what is not really necessary, or if you are very lucky, to find a friend with enough space to store your things.

Without MonkieBox, most belongings people have but that take too much space in their houses, end up being thrown away. Thanks to this innovative storage solution, customers can be more aware of what they buy, buying more long lasting and higher quality products, knowing that everything can be stored in one of these boxes. This allows them to stop just buying and throwing away, and make use of objects that last much longer.

This is extremely important and central to this company. In recent years, we have become accustomed to short-lived household appliances, short-lived mobile phones and surprisingly short-lived clothes. Excessive consumption and the pollution that comes with it, has caused the quality of products to drop or become fast-moving.

With the philosophy of Monkiebox, they are contributing to reaching the goals set by the SDG 12, targeting responsible consumption and production.

#EnMonkieBoxtodoEnCaja

Inspiration

When asked what inspired this innovation Pablo told us that "MonkieBox was born during the coffee breaks during the exams period last year."

During his short time off the books, Pablo would often call his dad and chat with him (his dad is actually the "real estate Investment Manager" of their family business). Over these conversations, they would talk about different topics, but mainly they would be discussing what challenges their were facing in their business and how to improve the service , how to overcome limitations on traditional self-storage practices, what innovations could be implemented, what were the needs of society at the moment...). It was, through these conversations, that MonkieBox was created and shaped into what it is nowadays.

But in reality, MonkieBox comes from way further in time: Pablo Cuervo has been raised in a very hard-working family, learning the importance of perseverance and effort. He started working at age 16. The first summer after turning the working age he was already part of the staff of the family business. MonkieBox is the result of a lifetime of learning and effort. Ever since Pablo has never stopped working, at the same time he kept on studying hard, volunteering and travelling to different countries and cultures, languages... He is deeply thankful to his parents for providing him with so many enriching opportunities. "Now I feel in the obligation of paying my parents back for everything they have offered me; to be able to, through my work, say: mom, dad, thank you. This is something that really motivates me." Pablo knows very well the value of money and the importance of conscious consumption. He soon realized that the consumerism that we can observe in our societies had to be stopped, and wanted to contribute to this goals.

"Innovation comes from knowledge and experience, one must understand how the industry in which he seeks to innovate works from the inside," said Pablo. MonkieBox will be the answer to these concerns and irresponsible consumer behaviors today.

Overall impact

The business has just been launched this past year, but we can already start to see its impact, and we can predict further benefits in the short and long run:

In the short run, many will directly grasp the benefits that MonkieBox offers: Customers (cheaper, more competitive, easy, adaptive, and trustworthy self-storage services), Real Estate owners (increasing the profitability of these assets to its maximum potential), Transport, delivery and freight services (enhanced efficiency and profitability of pre-existing logistic networks); Spanish producers (MonkieBox supports national producers by using only recycled boxes manufactured sustainably in Spain)

In the long run, apart from further improvements of the agents previously mentioned: Society, as a whole will be the most benefited:

Increased efficiency and optimization of the whole system of self-storage results in less polluting activities and more sustainable, responsible and environment-respectful behaviors. The fact that the boxes used are recycled and nationally manufactured boxes, is also benefiting economically and environmentally all of us (contributing to increase Spanish employment, production during these hard times); and supporting the national objectives in the achievement of SDG12.

In order to do this, MonkeiBox partners only with businesses with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) accreditation. This ensures that all boxes are made within the forest preservation framework and are 100% recyclable. At Monkiebox their commitment to stable production and consumption is central. They have achieved this in collaboration with these national cardboard box companies. Thanks to the use of a double internal mesh, the walls and the overall structure of the box is solid, stable and strong. What they have achieved with this is to extend the life of a typical transport box by 7-8 years. This is very important. Not only does it reduce the environmental impact, but they are able to recycle 100% of all the boxes, which end up having a life span of 15-20 uses. This commitment to responsible and sustainable consumption is not only their business model, but it runs deep within the company.

Business benefit

This innovation allowed this new business model to be actually created. As they opened up their economic activity towards a new sector that they had never worked before. It also helped them to adapt to the needs of today's society and situations, and that helps supporting a mentality shift towards a more responsible consumption.

It also helped them in terms of:

-Self-criticism: re-conceptualizing the traditional family-run business involves a deep reflection and self-criticism. "When you create your own business, you tend to over-estimate it ; leaving little room for negative-constructive feedback or new ideas and innovation." In the case of a family business, innovation is particularly hard. Pablo had to fight a lot for his idea to be heard and accepted. But the idea finally came to being and now they can all see its benefits.

-This model is based on a hard study of the real estate owned, to maximize each cm2 to its maximum potential to optimize spaces. All this information was systematized in the creation of MonkieBox, resulting in huge effectiveness and accessibility improvements.

-Optimization of logistics and transportation networks on which they were already working

-Ethics: a more sustainable approach, respectful with society and the environment is definitely adding value to the business.

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Social and environmental benefit

The innovative approach of MonkieBox helps society move towards more responsible behavior. It promotes a more conscious, long-terms focused consumerism. It helps people buy less but better quality goods, that they will hold for longer periods. This helps reducing waste in cities.

Through its pre-existing network optimization and logistics systems, the company drastically reduces transportation costs. This is very beneficial for the environment, as Monkiebox delivers through existing routes of parcel companies. The company is still collecting data, so that in the future it will be able to provide information on the real impact of this reduction in CO2 emissions.

Thanks to its competitive prices, that encourage the utilization of their ethical services, they directly benefit society by making a sector that was previously reserved for a very specific public accessible to all. The impressive thing about this company is that it manages to provide this service for the whole of Spain. Faced with a problem of a somewhat "niche" service, they manage to provide it at a low price, to the whole country and reducing the carbon footprint through the promotion of long lasting products, a service that will take care of them.

Interview

Pablo Cuervo-Arango, Co-founder and project manager