India's Flipkart & Myntra partner with Canopy to conserve forests

Flipkart and Myntra have joined Canopy’s Pack4Good and CanopyStyle initiatives to extend their sustainability commitment to move towards sustainable packaging and material sourcing, the two entities said in a joint media release.

Recently, the Group had also announced a shift away from single-use plastics in its packaging with the introduction of sustainable alternatives such as eco-friendly paper shreds, replacing poly pouches with recycled paper bags, replacing bubble wraps with carton waste shredded material and 2-ply roll to name a few.

As signatories of Canopy’s Pack4Good (packaging) and CanopyStyle (fashion) initiatives, the two Flipkart Group companies will shift towards sustainable sourcing of forest-derived products and pilot alternative next-generation solutions to transition away from forests for raw materials.

For the next three years, Flipkart and Myntra will focus on exploring sourcing or designing of reusable/refillable shipping boxes to reduce corrugated paper and paperboard; encouraging the use of recycled, reusable or FSC certified paper and packaging as well as sourcing products with responsibly sourced manmade cellulosic fibres; and design and implement e-commerce, shipping, display and wrapping systems that minimise the use of packaging materials.

Flipkart Group companies will also increase utilisation of recycled materials in packaging; utilise reusable packaging systems for intra business applications; increase the use of digital communication, marketing and accounting systems; adopt best practices including researching and applying emerging and circular economy innovations; and increase the use of responsibly sourced manmade cellulosic fibre for in-house products including rayon/viscose, lyocell and modal.

“India has incredible potential to be a global leader in the production of Next Gen packaging and clothing and this partnership with Flipkart and Myntra turbo charges efforts to scale these climate-saving solutions on a meaningful timeline,” said Nicole Rycroft, executive director at Canopy.

“Flipkart as a homegrown e-commerce marketplace is committed to creating a sustainable environment by sourcing responsibly while creating sustainable alternatives for business needs. In this endeavour, we are so pleased to be joining both CanopyStyle and the Pack4Good initiatives, in order to save the world’s ancient and endangered forests,” said Hemant Badri, senior vice-president and head of supply chain at Flipkart.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)