Recently attending the West Pack conference in Anaheim, Clean team members took a look at innovations in the packaging world. Though smaller than previous years, we were pleased to see that the Green Packaging Pavillion was centrally located, and that investments and interest in innovative secondary and tertiary packaging have grown. Some highlights include: reusable and recyclable pallets made from post-consumer recycled content, biodegradable cushioning materials for packing boxes, ultra-strong paper based recyclable honeycomb panels to substitute pallets and partitions in distribution, versatile paper made from stones without water or tree pulp that can be used for catalogues, tradeshow displays and labels, even bio-compostable tree-free food to-go boxes—all elements of packaging that would end up in a landfill if it weren’t for their environmentally preferable counterparts.

Knowing collaboration is a key to our success, the Clean team spent the day at Il Fornaio in Pasadena, brainstorming and strategizing for the new year.

Read more]]> Los Angeles, CA (December 15, 2009) – Clean Agency, a firm specializing in sustainable business strategies for companies with strong commitments to corporate social responsibility and the environment, recently created a sustainability platform for Spin Master Ltd., the fifth largest toy manufacturer in the world.

With products distributed in over 50 counties, Spin Master Ltd. has an extensive presence on retail store shelves in the U.S. and internationally. Aiming to reduce their impact on the environment, Spin Master Ltd. joined forces with Clean Agency to create a sustainability policy that guides product packaging towards material choices that improve a package’s environmental performance. Clean outlined several environmental concerns related to the manufacture, conversion and disposal of polyvinyl chloride (PVC, prevalent within the toy industry) and its various stabilizers in packaging and put forward alternatives that avoid such concerns.

“Clean Agency has helped guide Spin Master to implement policy before government regulation or retail initiatives are put in place, enabling us to stay ahead of the trend and work toward our sustainability goals,” said Michelle Dube, VP of Packaging and Design, Spin Master Ltd.

Clean Agency has worked with Spin Master Ltd. to promote environmentally preferred packaging as one of its top priorities moving into 2010 and 2011. By coupling better material choices with supply chain efficiencies, Spin Master Ltd. stands out with retailers interested in environmentally preferred packaging and reduced costs.

###

About Clean
Established in 2002 and based in Los Angeles, Clean is a researched-based outreach firm specializing in strategic planning, environment and economic research, integrated marketing and product packaging. Leading in the development and communication of green industry initiatives on a global scale, Clean creates customized solutions for nationally recognized brands and innovative entrepreneurial companies, enabling them to improve their economic and environmental performance simultaneously. For more information please visit www.cleanagency.com.

About Spin Master
A multi-category children’s entertainment company since 1994, Spin Master has been designing, developing, and marketing consumer products for children around the world and is recognized as a global growth leader in the toy industry with a strong track record of breaking into new categories and identifying what kids want. Now ranked as the 3rd largest toy company in North America, Spin Master is best known for such popular brands as boy’s action phenomena Bakugan Battle Brawlers™ (2009 Toy of the Year), Air Hogs® (2008 Toy of the Year winner), Tech Deck™, as well as best-selling activity lines including Aquadoodle™ and Moon Sand™. Liv™ is Spin Master’s strongest launch into girls’ products in the company’s history. The company has also recently marked an entry into children’s media with the launch of Spin Master Entertainment, a division focusing on the design, development and production of television and other media properties, including a 2011-slated Bakugan feature film with partner Universal Pictures. Spin Master employs over 680 people with offices in Toronto, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Hong Kong, China and Mexico. For additional information please visit: www.spinmaster.com.

Landfilling as a disposal route, however, even as a last resort, will soon become more problematic in California with the upcoming 2013 closure of the Puente Hills landfill. Dennis Chiappetta, Athens’ Executive Vice President and our guide for our facility tour, informed us that the closure of Puente Hills, currently the largest landfill in the United States, will mean that local waste management agencies will have to find other, likely more distant and more costly, places to send their municipal solid waste.

Athens is currently developing landfill avoidance facilities and technologies with the goal of ensuring that less and less waste will go the way of the landfill. At Clean, it’s always been our philosophy that waste = lost profits, so fostering additional opportunities to recycle and recover waste materials is a strategy we’re definitely on board with.

GreenBuild 2009 takes place through the end of this week, Nov. 13th.

SEE MORE OF CHRIS JORDAN'S IMAGES>>

From the artist's statement, on Midway, Message from the Gyre :

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

Jordan has also posted a YouTube slideshow of the images.

As a member of the Businesses for Social Responsibility global network, Clean was counted among attendees at last week's conference held in San Francisco. Major Clean takeaway: taking inspiration from the corporations in attendance and their various investments in sustainable processes. Click here for video highlights.

With carrots in hand, the Clean team paid a visit to the United Pegasus Foundation (UPF), a nonprofit horse rescue group located in Tehachapi, California. Clean supports the UPF through the thoroughbred sponsorship program, as well as the donation of professional marketing and outeach services.

Clean's sponsored horse, Chicken Lips, pictured above is a retired thoroughbred racehorse.