“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” – Robert Swan
Picture this: You’re unwrapping a package that just arrived. You tear through layers of plastic, bubble wrap, and tape, only to find… more packaging. By the time you reach your actual product, you’re surrounded by a small mountain of waste.
We’ve all been there. And at Hermeslines, we’ve been responsible for delivering thousands of these packaging experiences.
But what if there was a better way? What if the convenience of modern delivery didn’t have to come at such an environmental cost?
Today, Hermeslines want to share something we’ve been working on behind the scenes, our journey toward more sustainable packaging solutions. But this isn’t just an announcement. It’s a story about business realities, tough choices, and why meaningful change often takes longer than we’d like.
The Packaging Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Here’s a sobering fact: the average e-commerce package comes with 40% more packaging than needed for product protection. Each year, packaging accounts for approximately 30% of municipal solid waste in developed countries.
And while we’re confronting uncomfortable truths, let’s address the elephant in the room: we’re making this sustainability push during an administration that has repeatedly dismissed climate science. When President Trump’s office recently stated that “global warming concerns are overblown” and rolled back several environmental protections, we at Hermeslines couldn’t disagree more strongly.
This isn’t a political statement, it’s a factual one. NASA and NOAA data confirm 2024 was among the hottest years on record. Recent years have seen accelerating ice sheet loss, rising sea levels, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. These aren’t political opinions, they’re measurable realities documented by thousands of scientists across political spectrums and national boundaries.
When national leadership abandons evidence-based environmental policy, it falls to businesses and communities to step up. And that’s exactly what we’re doing, even as a young company that’s only been around for a little over a year.
As consumers increasingly shop online (a trend accelerated by the pandemic), this problem is only growing. The environmental math simply doesn’t add up.
When we founded Hermeslines, we recognized this challenge. We wanted to be different. And yet, for our first year, we used the same standard packaging materials as everyone else.
Why? That’s the uncomfortable question we need to address.
The Truth About Why We Didn’t Start With Green Packaging
Most businesses announcing sustainability initiatives frame them as natural extensions of their values. “We’ve always cared about the environment,” they say. “This was our plan all along.”
And while that’s partially true for us – we have always cared – the full story is more complicated. Several major hurdles stood in our way from the beginning:
1. The Brutal Economics of Startups
Having only been operational for a little over a year, we’re still very much in startup mode. Since day one, we’ve been operating on razor-thin margins. The harsh reality: sustainable packaging options cost 15-40% more than standard alternatives. For a bootstrapped operation trying to establish itself in a competitive industry, that premium simply wasn’t viable during our crucial launch phase.
As our CEO put it during one of our earliest planning meetings: “We can’t save the planet if we go out of business in six months.”
Not exactly inspiring, but brutally honest. Even now, while our margins have improved slightly, they remain very thin as we continue to invest in stabilizing our core business.
2. The Performance Gap
When we were planning our launch in early 2024, we researched sustainable packaging options. What we found was concerning. Many eco-friendly alternatives simply didn’t meet our performance standards.
In our pre-launch testing, biodegradable mailers tore more easily. Recycled bubble wrap provided less protection. Compostable tape didn’t stick as well in variable temperatures.
For a logistics company building its reputation from scratch, these performance issues were dealbreakers. We couldn’t risk customer dissatisfaction or damaged products while trying to establish ourselves in the market.
3. The Supply Chain Reality
Even when we found promising materials, scaling proved difficult. As a new, small company without established purchasing power, we faced significant challenges: sustainable packaging suppliers prioritized larger clients, minimum order quantities were prohibitive for our operation size, and costs were substantially higher without the leverage to negotiate better rates.
For a startup watching every dollar, committing to large minimum orders of premium-priced materials wasn’t feasible when we couldn’t accurately predict our own growth trajectory.
The Turning Point: When Sustainability Becomes Strategic
So what changed? Three critical factors aligned just recently:
First, we reached a modest level of operational stability. After our first year of operation, we developed just enough financial breathing room to begin experimenting with some higher-cost packaging alternatives without immediately endangering the business. To be clear, we’re not talking about massive resources here, just enough to take those initial steps.
Second, the market evolved. We’ve found some newer suppliers offering sustainable options that matched traditional materials in performance, and we managed to negotiate the price premium down to a level that, while still challenging for our young company, we can accommodate in limited quantities.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, our customers started asking for it. Not just in surveys, but in direct conversations. One corporate client specifically mentioned our packaging practices during renewal negotiations just last month.
That last point deserves emphasis: sustainability shifted from a nice-to-have to a business imperative, even for a company as young as ours.
Our Solution: The Imperfect Path Forward
Let’s be crystal clear about what we’re announcing today: this is not a complete overhaul of our packaging system. It’s an important first step, but just that, a first step.
Today, we’re excited to announce that Hermeslines is officially beginning the transition to more environmentally responsible packaging materials. Starting next month, we’re implementing:
- Reusable padded mailers for some of our regular delivery routes
- Some FSC-certified paper packaging replacing a portion of our plastic fillers
- Limited testing of water-activated paper tape instead of plastic adhesive tape
- Right-sized packaging algorithms to reduce material waste where possible
We’re also particularly excited testing honeycomb-structured padding as an alternative to bubble wrap and foam inserts. This innovative material is still in the development phase as we work with our supplier to ensure it meets our protection standards, but initial tests have been promising.
This transition will roll out gradually. Being transparent: we’re only a bit over a year into operations, and while we’re no longer in survival mode with razor-thin margins, our finances are still very thin. We simply can’t afford to replace all our packaging overnight without jeopardizing the business.
Why such a measured approach? Because we’re balancing environmental aspirations with business realities. Some specialized shipments still require traditional materials for proper protection. And frankly, as a young company, we need to make these changes at a pace our budget can sustain.
As our co-founder and CEO Rasmus explains:
“Perfect solutions rarely exist in logistics. We’re choosing progress over perfection, making improvements where we can while continuing to research options for our most challenging packaging scenarios. This isn’t the end of our sustainability journey, it’s barely the beginning.”
The Hidden Benefits We Didn’t Expect
While preparing for this transition, we’ve discovered several surprising advantages beyond environmental impact:
- Cost savings in unexpected places: While sustainable materials cost more upfront, our new right-sizing approach reduces overall material usage by approximately 23%, partially offsetting the premium.
- Improved customer experience: Our early tests show recipients actually prefer the unboxing experience with our new materials, they’re easier to open and dispose of properly.
- Employee engagement: Our team’s enthusiasm for this initiative has been overwhelming. In an industry with high turnover, this shared purpose has strengthened our culture.
What This Means For You
If you’re a Hermeslines client, you’ll begin noticing some gradual changes in your shipment packaging starting next month. Here’s what to expect:
- Some of your packages may arrive in our new, more sustainable materials
- Many shipments will still use conventional packaging as we scale up our green alternatives
- The honeycomb padding will appear in select shipments as we begin implementing this new material
We want to set proper expectations: this is the beginning of a journey, not a complete transformation. You’ll see increasing numbers of eco-friendly packages as we grow, but for now, please understand that many deliveries will still arrive in conventional packaging.
We welcome your feedback throughout this process. In fact, we’re counting on it. As a young company making these initial sustainability investments, your experiences and suggestions will directly influence how we allocate our limited resources in the next phases of improvement.
The Bigger Picture: Small Steps, Multiplied
On its own, our packaging shift won’t solve the climate crisis. But as researchers from MIT’s Sustainable Supply Chain Lab note, when mid-sized logistics companies adopt sustainable practices, the aggregated impact becomes significant.
If even half of the companies in our sector made similar changes, the reduced plastic waste alone would equal approximately 2.3 million tons annually, roughly the weight of 230 Eiffel Towers.
This perspective helps us remember that incremental progress, multiplied across industries, creates meaningful change.
Where We Go From Here
This announcement represents a milestone, not a destination. Our sustainability roadmap includes several future initiatives:
- Developing a circular packaging system with local partners
- Investing in renewable energy for our distribution centers
- Setting science-based emissions reduction targets
And yes, we’re pursuing these goals despite the current administration’s stance. When President Trump dismissed a comprehensive climate report from his own government agencies as “I don’t believe it,” and his EPA director suggested that climate change might actually be “beneficial” for humans, we found ourselves in the bizarre position of having to affirm what should be non-controversial: science matters.
The evidence is overwhelming. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are at historical highs and driving unprecedented changes in our climate system. The World Meteorological Organization confirms that 19 of the 20 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000. These aren’t political interpretations, they’re measurements.
While the White House may claim that climate action hurts business, we’re joining thousands of companies proving otherwise. The transition to sustainability isn’t just environmentally necessary, it’s becoming economically advantageous as resource efficiency improves and consumer preferences evolve.
We’ll continue sharing updates – both successes and setbacks – as we navigate this journey, regardless of which way the political winds blow.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Business and Sustainability
We want to close with an honest reflection. As business leaders, we often know the right environmental choice long before we implement it. The delay isn’t usually about awareness – it’s about priorities, capabilities, and the complex reality of running a viable business.
At Hermeslines, we’re making these changes as early as we realistically can, just over a year into our operations. Could we do more? Absolutely. Would we like to? Without question. But we’re also committed to being here for the long run, which means balancing environmental aspirations with financial realities.
The path to meaningful environmental progress in business isn’t always straightforward. It involves trade-offs, timing decisions, and balancing multiple forms of sustainability, financial, operational, and environmental.
So yes, our current efforts with sustainable packaging may seem modest. A few reusable mailers here, some honeycomb padding there. But these small steps represent significant investment for a company at our stage. And they reflect our commitment to start this journey now, rather than waiting until we’re more established.
What matters most is that we’re moving in the right direction, even if the pace isn’t as fast as we’d all like. These initial investments will grow as we do.
Because at the end of the day, imperfect progress beats perfect intentions.
From the co-founders of Hermeslines,
Thank you for reading this rather lengthy post.
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