Nov 20, 2021

Sustainable Practices Improve Business Performance PROJECT GIGATON- CJCHT Ranked #1

Updated: Dec 16, 2021

Sustainable Practices Improve Business Performance

PROJECT GIGATON- CJCHT Ranked #1

By Price Stabilized & Quality Improved scores high over 800 contestants worldwide for greener earth

CJCHT declares a “China Packaging Alive” project for her supply chain companies and pier players, to tackle the skyrocketing material prices and greener regulation issues of packaging in China. Sharing of green packaging toolkit: ZEO® and its sourcing platforms will help suppliers construct a safer and more prosperous supply chain.

▲CJCHT ranked #1 by Sustainability Project Gigaton

Retailers have been struggling to identify their sustainability initiatives while strengthening their business. Supply chains are the new frontier of sustainability. Forward-looking companies like Walmart launched Project Gigaton in 2017, inviting suppliers to join Walmart in committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from their operations and supply chains. This initiative will provide an emissions reduction toolkit to a broad network of suppliers seeking to eliminate one gigaton of emissions, focusing on areas such as manufacturing, materials and use of products by 2030.

As one of the prominent suppliers to Walmart, CJCHT has been actively engaging with Walmart’s sustainability requests for decades. With a remarkable track record in doing so by her RD efforts and supply chain management, CJCHT has won a top place among 800 contestants by a unique novel solution for addressing social and environmental issues while also strengthening business.

As a good will to give more back to the society, CJCHT also declares a “China Packaging Alive,” also known as “CJCHT PKG Alive” project, for local communities, with a free sharing of Know-Hows and ZEO® green recipes to mitigate cost fluctuating problems of paper packaging industries that have been seriously hit in 2016 and 2017. Asia pacific vendors are also welcomed to participate in green packaging initiatives by CJCHT with a take-away for free in strengthening corrugated packaging while saving some papers.

Walmart has identified energy, agriculture, waste, packaging, deforestation, and product use and design as the goal areas to focus. Participating suppliers are encouraged to focus their commitment in one or more of these goal areas. As chosen by CJCHT in the packaging area, NANOZEO team, a R&D BU of CJCHT, was entrusted in 2008 to design and implement an ECO system to leverage and consolidate every possible resource to solve the puzzle: saving and enhancing product packaging in daily operation process. These efforts made by NANOZEO paid back: Project Gigaton’s 2017 benchmarking results shows that CJCHT scored 100% points and ranked #1 among 800 contestants (averaged at 48% points) throughout Walmart supply chain.

Key to Sustainability Success: Start with Packaging and Expand with Sharing Solutions!

“We are proud of the recognition by Project Gigaton on improvements we’ve made in reducing our own emissions, but we aim to do more. We will keep working with our suppliers and others on reducing packaging by our proprietary ZEO® solutions, and are willing to share the solution, recipe and know-how to facilitate our [China Packaging Alive] mission for more benefits to the community,” said Catherine Liu, vice president and chief sustainability officer for CJCHT. CJCHT is the first shoe supplier with a verified science-based packaging emissions-reduction target and toolkit: ZEO®. The company has spent enormous resources and RD efforts to cultivate innovative solutions and to reshape company culture to reduce its emissions and sustain its business competitivity. The company will also work to further expand its packaging saving solutions by NANOZEO, with branch offices for Packaging Solution Center, Sourcing Center, and Design Center setup in Taiwan, Fujian and Shanghai. Supply chains who are interested in the solution of sustainability are welcomed to learn from CJCHT. As more companies follow in the footsteps of the green packaging solution, we can achieve the critical mass needed to address climate change, and to reshape our planet’s future.

Commitment makes difference! CDP 2017 Climate Scores High!

If Gigaton Project shows a verified science-based target emissions-reduction plan, then CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) reveals daily operational details and supplier engagement of sustainable business practices. CJCHT has been ranked high in CDP for years as an active participant to disclose greenhouse gas emissions. Supplier Engagement/Commitment is crucial to make a long-term, transformative impact for sustainability initiatives into business practices. CJCHT uses the challenge to catalyze leadership and innovative solutions within the group, using a novel toolkit ZEO® as a core to link supply chain around the globe. Common Packaging Sourcing Center and Design House in place greatly help things get done in time for sustainability issues of packaging.

▲2017 CDP Climate Score

▲2017 Supplier Engagement Rating

Green Technology Toolkit ZEO® to improve strength and to eliminate toxics of packaging!

CJCHT relies on continuous R&D efforts for Innovative solutions in sustainability. ZEO® solution was initially developed to improve bonding strength, busting strength and Edge Crush of corrugated cardboards to avoid packaging collapse. Over the time, it has been evolved into a multi-functional, water-resistant cardboard solution, with reinforced packaging structure at a lower cost with alternative paper selections. It is also crucial for ZEO® to replace all kinds of toxic additives of corrugation process and consume less energy along the manufacturing process. A third party verification shows significant savings both in CO2e and paper, and as a result, cost of packaging becomes very competitive.

▲ZEO® 3rd Generation Green Technology

▲ZEO® Products Ready-to-go from shoe boxes to PDQs

Real Case Reference : How Sustainable Practices Improve Business on maintaining lower cost and better quality in fluctuating markets of 2016-2017 China Paper Packaging

Fluctuating paper price in 2016 and 2017 challenged everyone in the supply chain for shortage of paper and skyrocketing prices. Worst of all, bundled with prices fixed by yearly contracts between vendors and suppliers (or just lowest bid every time by chances), no leeway is there to fix the problem when the contracted prices of products fixed first and found later the paper price reaches higher almost 75% up and in shortage for packaging. These issues have caused serious PDQ or boxes collapse issues in 2016-2017, among almost every supply chain from China to the world.

▲2016 Analysis on Paper Prices for Corrugated Cardboards in China

There is no easy answer for that. Surprisingly, CJCHT has found that the practices used in implementation for sustainability challenges can also be applied to mitigate real business challenges like packaging material price up and in shortage. By Plan-Ahead (setting targets), Technology-First (innovation efforts), and Flexible Transparent Purchase (from source to shelf), a buffer room like a big sourcing pond is created to handle various challenges both in sustainability or business.

Partially because sustainability initiatives are normally benchmarked on yearly basis, the supply chain who have been seriously engaged are used to planning ahead in every year start to avoid “clustering” problem that pushes sustainability initiatives away because of better margins offered to do something else. Furthermore, with innovation toolkit like ZEO® in place to link together packaging suppliers needed by CJCHT, a stronger purchase power consolidated for green initiatives at this time paid back a lot because those certified sustainability packaging suppliers withhold cost challenges much better.

▲CJCHT Strategies for Sustainable Development

▲CJCHT Chairwoman Clare Chen boosts employee engagement for sustainability culture.

Take-aways: Free Recipe Sharing for green packaging, Near-by Sourcing Center offering complex PDQs or delicate carton structures with pallets, Professional Green Packaging Designers at your services on line globally.

Execution and delivery capability varies among different suppliers. Critical mass is key to save cost for green packaging. CJCHT has built a green packaging army in Greater China Area with 15 packaging mills capable of ZEO® green packaging requirements for delicate PDQs, complex color printings and robust paper pallets.

Further, if suppliers would like to use their own packaging suppliers instead, CJCHT and NANOZEO have agreed to share the green recipe with certified ZEO® recipe channels to provide the green recipe as required cost effectively, pending the due-diligence of sustainability compatibility and operational requirements on both sides.

For PDQs and Pallets, robust water resistant structural features make ZEO® solutions unbeatable in the marketplace. It is perceived as a good start for products from source to shelf carrying sustainability footprints. In this ZEO® solution toolkit, CJCHT highlights the business case for why suppliers should consider signing on to Project Gigaton and to leverage the benefits of NANOZEO solutions.