At ADVA, we’ve been focused on improving the sustainability of our products for a long time. From radically improving the energy efficiency of our solutions to circular economy ecodesign processes that enable efficient disassembly for optimized recycling, we’ve been making our technology and our customers’ networks greener every year.

But as well as ensuring the products and services we sell are more efficient and carbon-neutral, it’s important to look upstream in the supply chain to see how our suppliers can help us deliver truly sustainable connectivity. Let’s explore how we’re working with one particular partner, Knüppel Verpackung, to create greener packaging.

Eco-friendly redesign

Packaging has a much more significant environmental impact than people may think. And while we were already driving improvements in terms of the size and reusability of the packaging we use, we recently decided that we could do even more. That’s why we tasked Knüppel Verpackung with creating a new type of sustainable packaging for our FSP 3000 open optical transport platform.

The brief was to create a solution that didn’t use plastic (in this case polyethylene foam) but came with the stipulation that it had to be as just as shock absorbent as before. It was a huge challenge because something as complex and sensitive as telecommunications equipment must remain completely unaffected during its journey through the supply chain. When you consider all the buffeting and handling that occurs during shipping, you instinctively think of materials like foam as the optimum way to cushion equipment.

Packaging has a much more significant environmental impact than people may think.

Knüppel Verpackung met the challenge, producing an extremely robust cellulose-based alternative that simulates the same recovery forces you get with foam. By using multilayer elastic pads made of corrugated cardboard in place of foam pads, package contents are just as protected. A series of tests, including multiple drop tests, were performed on the new packaging by Knüppel Verpackung’s team and the new solution passed with flying colors. Our FSP 3000 packaging is now more environmentally friendly, just as robust as previously, and it’s also cheaper to produce.

And one of the best things about the design of this packaging is that it’s transferable to other products in our range, so we’ll soon be able to use it for shipping other devices. 

Knüppel Verpackung is rightly proud of the results of this collaboration and so they are entering the packaging solution to win the German Packaging Prize, 2021 in the sustainability category. 

Just like we’re doing for our customers, Knüppel Verpackung is helping its end-users to make a difference. And, like our team, it’s blazing a sustainability trail for others to follow, developing solutions that not only cost less but are also more environmentally friendly.