Bright sparks at DS Smith help Schneider Electric to reduce packaging waste

DS Smith has helped Schneider Electric to reduce waste and cut its packaging costs through an innovative new design.

Global electrical manufacturer Schneider Electric is committed to protecting the environment, with a firm focus on reducing carbon emissions, water consumption and waste. For the company, waste management is a priority.

Aimed at electricians and other professionals, the packaging for Schneider Electric’s products serves two purposes: to protect high-value electrical products, and to provide necessary technical information.

Since Schneider Electric’s energy management products help customers cut their carbon footprint, the business was keen that its packaging did too. The manufacturer wanted a packaging solution that would cut waste and turned to packaging and supply chain strategist, DS Smith, for its expertise.

DS Smith’s experts used the company’s PackRight® approach – where Schneider Electric had the opportunity to collaborate with DS Smith’s packaging experts to develop and design an innovative concept that would meet the customer’s needs.

The new product had significant environmental benefits. For example, many of Schneider Electric’s products previously had paper instruction sheets included with them and to eliminate the wasteful insert, DS Smith printed the instructions directly onto Schneider Electric’s product packaging. Testing proved that DS Smith’s packaging solution worked for Schneider Electric’s customers, so they adopted it for a number of their products.

The new solution not only reduces the amount of packaging disposed of by their customers, but it also reduces Schneider Electric’s packaging costs.

Reducing waste is a big priority for Schneider Electric across the globe. Our commitment to the environment mirrors the fact we develop connected technologies and solutions to manage energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. That’s why DS Smith’s approach was the perfect fit for us and we are very pleased that they were able to come up with such an innovative packaging.

— Miroslav Bilek, Packaging Commodity Buyer at Schneider Electric

Gustaf von Segebaden, Electronics Market Segment Business Unit Director at DS Smith, said: “Schneider Electric had very clear aims and by using our PackRight® approach we were able to find a design that matched their ambitions. A seemingly small change like printing instructions on the pack rather than on a separate document can actually make a huge difference when applied to the scale of Schneider Electric’s production."

We think there is always room to optimise packaging, either by reducing costs for a business or minimising the packaging’s environmental impact. And we have managed to do both with this packaging, so it’s a great result.

— Gustaf von Segebaden, Electronics Market Segment Business Unit Director at DS Smith