In Canada only, Universal Studios is releasing the Hollywood comedy Evan Almighty in a rail-thin, cardboard sleeve, the Winnipeg Sun reports (via Sustainable Life Media).
Except for the shrink-wrap around it and the plastic security tag inside, everything about the new package is eco-friendly, according to Richard Bicknell, vice-president of marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment Canada. That includes the use of soy ink, waterless printing and sourcing of the paper products from green-managed forests.
It’s not clear whether or not this is part of Universal’s “Get On Board” program to reduce greenhouse gases and raise awareness. General Electric, with its ecomagination initiative, is NBCU’s parent.
DVDs are one of seven products included in Wal-Mart’s pilot program to look for new ways to make its entire supply chain more energy efficient.
One supplier in Wal-Mart’s pilot, News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, initiated a supply chain analysis of the carbon impact of the production, manufacture and distribution of its DVDs. More than twenty of Fox’s key suppliers delivered detailed information on their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, according to Wal-Mart. Analysis of that data led to an industry standard for measuring the carbon impact of DVDs and provided a methodology for other consumer packaged goods.
Universal’s new package will affect the whole supply chain – boxes holding 30 traditional DVDs hold 100 of the new ones.
The only other green DVD packaging was for “An Inconvenient Truth,” according to the Sun.