Bodycare company discovers balm for emissions

A Taranaki bodycare company says designing lighter packaging and sourcing locally will help lower its freight emissions.

Everkind specialises in organic products, handcrafted in the company’s hometown of New Plymouth. Everkind creates products that prioritise wellbeing and effectiveness.

From the outset, the company has had a goal of zero waste. Initially, the focus was on recyclable packaging. However, the company has since embraced home-compostable packaging options and eliminated plastic in favour of paper, glass and tin.

Everkind recognises the importance of measuring its carbon footprint to identify other areas where it could make an impact. The challenge was knowing where to start. The Your Footprint, Your Future workshop series, in partnership with Venture Taranaki provided Everkind with the support it needed. The 6 month programme was based around the Climate Action Toolbox and enabled the company to begin measuring its carbon footprint.

Through this process, Everkind discovered its waste levels were relatively low. Its electricity use was also relatively low dur to energy-efficient practices such as the use of solar power and LED lighting. The results, however, indicated that freight was the largest emissions hotspot. This included bringing in ingredients and delivering products to customers.

“Freight became the area that we could see was having the biggest impact on our emissions where we could really make the biggest difference if we took some action,” says Amanda-Jane Healy, Founder of Everkind.

First, the team looked at what they could source locally to reduce freight emissions. While that wasn’t possible for ingredients, they identified opportunities to obtain packaging and promotional materials from local suppliers, instead of relying on products made in Auckland.

Through measuring their carbon footprint, they also discovered the significant impact that weight had on freight emissions. Having already transitioned from plastic satchels to cardboard boxes for customer deliveries, the company has since switched from using wood wool to tissue paper to protect products and reduce weight further.

The team also explored ways to reduce the weight of product packaging. Working with a packaging designer, they created a new form of lip balm packaging that is home-compostable, lightweight, and innovative in its application method. This design represented a significant step forward for the company.

“One of the biggest steps that we have made since the climate workshops is committing to innovation. When you take undesirable options off the table, there is much more room to think creatively and develop innovative solutions,” says Amanda-Jane.

“Customers are saying it’s the best packaging of any natural lip balm they have bought. It just goes to prove that you can produce something that is sustainable while also being beautiful and useful.”

The shift to lighter packaging has also resulted in cost savings for the company. Everkind is now redesigning the packaging for two other product lines to make them lighter and more sustainable.