Wooden boxes: delivering sustainability and a premium customer experience

Qasim Mirza of secondary packaging specialist Custom Craft explores the benefits of using wood to create beautiful, sustainable and premium presentation packs.

There’s no denying that sustainable practices are the future – we’re all aware of the damage non-recyclable plastics and single-use products can cause as they litter the landscape and pollute our waterways. Consumers are now educated about how their choices affect the environment, and they want to do their part by being discerning about where they spend their money.

An independent report by SmartestEnergy revealed that 81% of people want to buy from sustainable brands, meaning a customer’s decision about whether to buy your product or your competitor’s may come down to the packaging. Whether you’re looking for an economical packaging solution or luxury packaging, you can’t afford not to give the sustainability of your solution some serious thought.

When most people think about sustainable packaging, they think of cardboard recyclable solutions. We think differently; cardboard solutions often include the use of unenvironmentally friendly dyes or are unremarkable to look at if they don’t, but our custom wooden boxes are a superior solution. Here’s why:

Five incredible benefits of wooden boxes as product packaging

1. They’re reusable 

We often think about eco-friendly packaging in the context of how sustainably it can be thrown away or recycled, but it’s also important to remember that reusing and repurposing is also an eco-friendly practice.

Here at Custom Craft, we offer both solutions. For companies serving an eco-conscious customer (especially at lower price points), our all-natural wooden boxes are the ideal solution. Our natural boxes do not use toxic varnishes or waxes so they’re reusable and biodegradable. That means your customer can repurpose them around the home or throw them away without doing any harm to the environment.

Alternatively, our luxury boxes are a gift in themselves – our finished custom wooden boxes can be used in the home and are beautiful enough to be passed down through families. Building their reusability into your marketing can not only increase the value of your offering but also ensure your customers understand how to use your packaging sustainably.

2. Sustainably sourced wood 

We use 100% sustainably-sourced wood from FSC-certified plantations for all our boxes, leaving the lightest possible footprint we can. Of course, our environmentally friendly practices help reduce our customers’ carbon footprints, too.

3. Completely bespoke 

We say to our customers that the only limit to our custom wooden boxes is your imagination! Our natural wooden boxes can be laser-engraved without losing their biodegradable nature and we offer hundreds of other options and finishes for producing luxury packaging that will last a lifetime. Whether you’re looking for a sustainable gift box for your vegan wine brand or a luxury varnish-finished box for your timepieces, we can bring your vision to life.

4. Increases brand awareness

What happens to cardboard packaging? It gets thrown away the moment the product is removed from the packaging. In other words, there’s no staying power to your packaging and your brand is only in your customer’s field of view temporarily. The same cannot be said for custom wooden boxes.

Custom wooden boxes can be engraved with your brand and display your branding within your customer’s home. Instead of being a blip on your customer’s radar, your packaging may stay in their home for weeks, months, or even years if they decide to repurpose your packaging (which you can encourage them to do!).

5. An unlimited solution 

It’s not uncommon to see wooden boxes used for packaging limited-run products or used by companies producing just a small number of products, but with us, there’s no limit. We marry custom boxes with sustainability and volume. 

Whether you need a run of 1,000 custom wooden boxes or 100,000, we can meet your needs and maintain our high quality from the first box to the last. Our convenient positioning between Europe and Asia also means we can work with your brand in multiple markets.

Sourcing more sustainably 

It’s also important to consider where you’re sourcing your sustainable products; even a biodegradable cardboard box will become unenvironmentally friendly if it’s shipped to Europe from the other side of the world (commonly the Far East) without any thought to the carbon emissions produced by getting the packaging to you.

Shipping products is a huge carbon producer, but it’s also an unavoidable part of doing business. That said, you absolutely can make better choices. Here are some of our top tips:

Find manufacturers closer to home – our factory is based in Istanbul on the European side of the city. The closer the manufacturing facility is to your home base, the smaller the carbon footprint will be in getting those products to you. The pandemic accelerated the rate of brands moving away from Chinese manufacturers, and now more and more brands are choosing to look closer to home to reduce costs, improve quality, and reduce their carbon footprint.

Consider carbon offsetting

Carbon offsetting is a great option for companies with an aim of going carbon neutral (or as close to it as they can get) or for offering their customers more opportunities to make their lives eco-friendly. Carbon offsetting is the practice of doing something (or paying another organisation to) that counteracts carbon emissions.

There are large-scale carbon offsetting programs you can take part in, but smaller companies are joining smaller programs and allowing their customers to opt-in at the checkout for a small fee (usually less than £1, depending on the product) to offset the carbon produced by their order.

If you’re looking for the most sustainable option for your product packaging, choosing our natural finish wooden boxes and pairing them with carbon offsetting will make your packaging solution fully eco-friendly.

While single-use recyclable packaging is a great solution for low-cost products, it rarely offers the premium feel many brands want to offer as a part of their customer experience. Our boxes offer the best of both worlds; sustainability-sourced wood turned into reusable high-value packaging.

Custom Craft is registered in the UK and owns its own production facilities in Istanbul, Turkey. The company exhibits at London Packaging Week and will at the next edition on 21 & 22 September 2023 at Excel, London. For more information and to contact the company, visit its website at the link below.