Compact by Design helps customers discover more-sustainable products.
We created Compact by Design to identify products that, while they may not always look very different, have a more efficient design. With the removal of excess air and water, products require less packaging and become more efficient to ship. At scale, these small differences in product size and weight lead to significant carbon emission reductions.
How can you tell that a product is more efficient? We’ve put together a few examples.
LESS PACKAGING
Many products have been designed to stand out on a store shelf. Products don’t need eye-catching packaging online and Compact by Design has identified products without this excess packaging.
LESS AIR IN CONTAINER
Some Compact by Design products have less air, which can mean less packaging. You can get the same amount of product in a smaller container.
MORE EFFICIENT SHAPE
Compact by Design highlights products whose shape allows them to deliver the same amount of product while minimizing cubic inches.
LESS WEIGHT
While two containers can hold the same volume, lighter packaging materials make the product more efficient to ship.
WATERLESS TECHNOLOGY
Products can be transformed in exciting, new ways. One example is water-based products that are transformed into solids. This drastically decreases product size and weight.
CONCENTRATED PRODUCTS
Compact by Design products can be more concentrated than similar products. A concentrated cleaner, when diluted at home, can make many gallons of cleaning solution.
Here's how we qualify products for Compact by Design:
To qualify for Compact by Design, products must have best-in-class “unit efficiency.” We used product attributes such as item package dimensions, item weight, and the number of units to calculate the unit efficiency of a product. Unit is defined as the total amount of product in the container we are evaluating. This is standardized across a product category, such as fluid ounces in cleaners, loads in laundry detergent, and ounces in coffee.
Unit efficiency is calculated as (cubed volume per unit) x (weight per unit). This metric allows us to calculate the volume and weight utilization for the number of units a product delivers. In this equation, a lower unit efficiency value means a more efficient design. For example, a concentrated laundry detergent can deliver the same number of units (loads) in a smaller volume and weight than a non-concentrated detergent, resulting in a better unit efficiency.
Unit efficiency is calculated as (cubed volume per unit) x (weight per unit). This metric allows us to calculate the volume and weight utilization for the number of units a product delivers. In this equation, a lower unit efficiency value means a more efficient design. For example, a concentrated laundry detergent can deliver the same number of units (loads) in a smaller volume and weight than a non-concentrated detergent, resulting in a better unit efficiency.
To set thresholds, we calculated unit efficiency across items in a product category. We set these thresholds to recognize the most efficient products within each product category. Products with a unit efficiency better than the category threshold qualify for Compact by Design, and get to be a part of Climate Pledge Friendly.
See our category thresholds >
See our category thresholds >
