65% less emissions
by 2030
We believe sustainability is about operating responsibly; but more than that, it's an opportunity to support the communities we're a part of and to have a positive impact on the world.
At Brother, we use moulded pulp and cardboard in our new printer and scanner packaging, with no Expanded Polystyrene (EPS).
Our packaging is highly durable and flexible, making it the ideal material for the safe and secure delivery of our printers and scanners to our customers.
It uses less resources and is much easier for our customers to recycle - so it's better for you and for the environment.
We've developed the packaging using our advanced simulation technology, which determines the energy or impact needed to break or damage our products in transit. Through ongoing testing and analysis, we were able to create smaller, compact cushioning without compromising its strength.
This innovation in our moulded pulp packaging has won the following awards:
Our packaging was recognised for achieving compactness and lightness while maintaining cushioning performance and reducing CO₂ emissions during production and other processes.
While Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) offers excellent cushioning performance, it is difficult to recycle and challenging for our customers to dispose of responsibly - posing the very real risk of becoming microplastics and leading to marine pollution.
There is also a growing movement to legislate Expanded Polystyrene.
So we wanted to develop packaging that was easier for our customers to recycle and better for the environment.
Following multiple prototypes and evaluation, we were successful in developing the initial paper cushioning packaging while maintaining the same packaging size and cushioning performance.
However, the cost of the parts was greater than Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), which made mass production a significant challenge.
A significant turning point came with the development of our unique simulation technology that analyses the drop impact.
Normally, physical drop tests are a major burden in packaging development, but developing our innovative simulation technology made it possible to reduce the number of prototypes and shorten development time, whilst significantly reducing the CO2 emissions associated with prototype production.
After simulating over 100 tests using analytical techniques, we developed the idea that we could improve cushioning performance by creating a shape that was optimised whilst being less resource intensive.
This newly shaped moulded pulp is highly versatile, can be stacked for easy recycling and provides maximum protection for transportation.
The protective moulded pulp can be placed at the four corners of the top or bottom of the printer, which not only improves cushioning performance but also reduces the weight by 33% compared to the previous moulded pulp prototype.
In addition, this smaller moulded pulp has made it possible to reduce the size of the boxes by 7%, meaning significantly less resources and costs are required to produce them.
The protective moulded pulp can be easily expanded or contracted to fit a variety of products and weights.
This makes it possible to accommodate a wide range of Brother products, paving the way for the mass production of easy-to-recycle, moulded pulp packaging.
Moulded pulp is a packaging material made from recycled paper that involves hydrating fibres to a pulp, moulding them into specific shapes, and then drying them. It's fully recyclable and very durable.
Our moulded pulp is extremely durable and provides cushioning performance comparable to the Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) it replaces.
Expanded Polystyrene is a lightweight and rigid foam material, made from polystyrene beads that contain styrene monomer and pentane gas. Whilst it is relatively cheap and rigid, it can be highly flammable and is difficult to recycle.
We believe sustainability is about operating responsibly; but more than that, it's an opportunity to support the communities we're a part of and to have a positive impact on the world.
Discover Renew By Brother, our ink and toner cartridge remanufacturing programme and find out how you can support us by recycling your used printer cartridges.
From design and inception through to collection and recycling, every stage of our products' life cycle is considered to minimise any impact on the environment.