Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. The 2012 Urban Mobility Report found that traffic congestion costs Americans over $120 billion in delay time and wasted fuel. The report highlights that congestion caused urban Americans to travel an additional 5.5 … More
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, there are nearly 15,000 Christmas tree farms, and over 100,000 full or part-time jobs are created by the industry. The average growing time for a Christmas tree … More
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. Roughly 35 million pounds of candy corn will be produced in 2012. This equates to roughly 9 billion individual pieces. 2. In 2011, the federal government provided $4.1 billion to Homeless Assistant Programs to provide … More
With significant interest around monitoring, collecting, and reporting sustainability metrics, a recent Sustainable Brands article draws attention to some of the shortcomings of conventional sustainability metrics. The article, which is largely based on research coming out of the Center for Sustainable Organizations, suggests that conventional (absolute and relative) metrics only “occasionally, if not randomly correlate with the true sustainability performance of organizations.” The alternative—context-based metrics—take … More
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. Back to school sales are the second highest consumer spending period for retailers behind the winter holidays. The average family with children in grades K-12 reportedly spends nearly $700 on back to school items. … More
The SPC member reporting initiative was a short term project intended to help measure progress toward packaging sustainability and capture member advancements in measuring and reducing environmental impacts. The result of this project is a newly released report entitled Member Annual Reports: Statistics from SPC Members. The goals of this report were to a) identify the number of SPC members currently collecting and reporting data on sustainability … More
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. The Federal Railroad Administration reports that there were nearly 1,500 train derailments in all of 2011. From January to April of this year, there were 389 derailments, which is an improvement when compared to more … More
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. The average vehicle is immobile roughly 95% of the time. This requires about 600 million parking spots worldwide, which is an issue addressed in Eran Ben-Joseph’s book Rethinking a Lot. 2. Some 98% … More
I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of media attention on how gamification can help encourage sustainable behavior (for example, see recent articles in Grist, Sustainable Brands, and Mashable). This is not a new concept to me as I was first introduced to gamification when I was about eight years old. It was my mother’s attempt at getting me to make my bed by making it … More
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. This year is the 40th anniversary of the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Environment Day. Celebrated every June 5th, this year’s theme is “Green Economy: Does it include YOU?” 2. The US consumed … More