Furniture manufacturer reduces environmental impact

Reducing the amount of polystyrene in its packaging has not only produced greater efficiency for Criterion, it also resulted in being recognised at a national level for its environmental focus.

New Zealand furniture manufacturer, Criterion Group has won two awards for excellence in environmentally acceptable packaging at the Packaging Council of New Zealand's 2007 Environmental Packaging Awards.

Criterion won the "˜Keep New Zealand Beautiful' Packaging Systems Award and also received high commendation in the "˜Reduced Environmental Impact' category for its project conducted last year on reducing the polystyrene content in its product packaging.

"When the awards started in 1999, being environmentally aware was regarded as "˜green stuff', but now it has very much become a central part of business in the packaged goods industry," executive director of the Packaging Council, Paul Curtis said.

Criterion business improvement manager, Mehdi Shahbazpour said, "Through collaboration with Auckland University, we have managed to reduce our polystyrene by up to 15%, which results in significant reduction of polystyrene dumped into land fills.

"Minimising the size of our polystyrene packs has also enabled us to pack and export our mainly flat panel products more efficiently, decreasing transportation and, ultimately, expelling less carbon emissions into the environment," Shahbazpour said.

Criterion CEO Brian Smaill said, "We are very proud of this achievement and see this as a significant step towards meeting our environmental responsibilities. While as a manufacturing company it's impossible to have zero impact on the environment — we are making an effort to lessen that effect."