The Consortium has developed Tru-Green with inventor Prakash Korde, whose company Valueform
specialises in producing packaging and other items from biodegradable plant materials.
The production of the envelopes provides income for hundreds of people who manufacture the envelopes
in one of the poorest regions of mid-West India.
Tru-Green has several features which help the environment, at the same time benefiting poor and rural
communities in developing countries, including:
- Crop fibre padding made from jute, the growing and harvesting of which provides income to thousands
of people in north-east India and involves minimal processing; by contrast, current padded envelopes use
plastic padding made from plastic granules produced from an ever depleting source – oil.
- Designs which lend themselves to using other crop fibres and plant waste found in many poorer regions
of the world - providing employment where most needed; by contrast, the current plastic padded envelopes
on the market go to land fill and because the plastic is joined to the paper, cannot be separated for
proper recycling.
In the life cycle of the product from raw material to manufacturing, subsequent despatch to customer
and its post use disposal, our aim is to minimise transport costs to reduce carbon emissions. In fact,
while the product is currently being manufactured overseas, there is potential to work with farmers
in the UK who produce waste natural crop fibres, which will make the whole process even more sustainable
by removing the need to transport it long distances. Furthermore, for every 200,000 tru-green envelopes sold
we plant 7 trees and as a result we are officially certified as offsetting our carbon footprints.
View our carbon offsetting certificate