By the numbers — latest audited year.
Where the numbers come from.
Our yard scale weighs every inbound and outbound truck. Our warehouse management system logs every gaylord by grade, dimension and customer of origin. Each month we reconcile the two, hand the results to an independent auditor, and publish the delta here in Q1. If the auditor flags anything we print the correction, not just the headline.
How we convert to CO₂, water and trees.
We use the U.S. EPA WARM model for corrugated containers, which gives us a per-ton CO₂e avoidance factor. Water savings use the AF&PA kraft pulp water-use factor. Trees are calculated using the Environmental Paper Network’s standard fiber-per-tree baseline. All three factors are footnoted on the downloadable PDF.
What we’re not great at yet.
We still burn diesel. Roughly 61% of our tractor fleet is diesel-powered, with a plan to be 80% electric-assisted by 2028. Our facility lights are LED but our dock doors are not yet sealed to passive-house standards, so we lose heat in winter. We are not carbon-neutral and we don’t buy offsets to claim that we are. Those are all real gaps and we’re working on them.
A note on “recycled” vs. “reused.”
Recycling is baling and re-pulping corrugated. It’s useful but it destroys fiber length and consumes water, chemicals and energy. Reuse is keeping the same box in service for as many trips as structurally possible. Reuse always beats recycling on the footprint math. Our business prioritizes reuse first, recycling second — that’s the whole point.
Want our full report?
Request the audited PDF through the form above and mention “Sustainability Report” in the message. We send it out in 24 hours — no gated marketing funnel.
Year-over-year tonnage trend.
| Year | Diverted (tons) | Reused (units) | CO₂e avoided (tons) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 4,820 | 180,400 | ~3,800 |
| 2020 | 5,680 | 205,200 | ~4,300 |
| 2021 | 7,140 | 248,900 | ~5,200 |
| 2022 | 8,920 | 312,800 | ~6,400 |
| 2023 | 10,210 | 374,600 | ~7,300 |
| 2024 | 11,240 | 428,000 | ~8,100 |
How we calculate the carbon math.
For each metric ton of diverted corrugated, we apply the U.S. EPA WARM (Waste Reduction Model) factor for “corrugated containers” in the “source reduction” pathway. For 2024, that factor is 4.99 metric tons of CO₂e per short ton of corrugated diverted from landfill. We multiply our annual tonnage by this factor and round to the nearest hundred to get our headline avoidance number. The full methodology document is in the audit appendix.
Where the avoidance comes from.
The CO₂e avoidance breaks down into three buckets. About 60% comes from avoided virgin pulp production — the kraft mill that didn’t have to chip a tree, cook the chips, or run effluent treatment. About 25% comes from avoided landfill decomposition — corrugated in a landfill emits methane as it breaks down, and methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO₂. The remaining 15% comes from avoided transportation for new boxes from converters to customers. The reuse pathway captures all three.
Water savings, in detail.
Kraft pulp production uses approximately 20,000 gallons of water per metric ton of finished board. The water is used for wood washing, cooking, bleaching (for some grades), and final forming. While modern mills recycle most of their process water, the net consumption per ton remains substantial. Every ton of corrugated we divert represents about 19,500 gallons of water that didn’t leave a watershed.
What we’re working on.
- Electrifying 80% of our truck fleet by 2028.
- FSC chain-of-custody certification target for 2026.
- A monthly per-customer dashboard showing live diversion data.
- Expanded closed-loop programs into the Pacific Northwest.
- An open-source version of our diversion calculator for other small recyclers.
What we’ve already accomplished.
- Audited reporting for 4 consecutive years.
- 91% loaded-mile ratio across our entire freight network.
- Zero reusable boxes baled by mistake in 2024 (audited).
- 14 active closed-loop programs.
- ~428,000 gaylords kept in circulation in 2024 alone.
- ~8,100 metric tons of CO₂e avoided in 2024 (audited).