ModusLink Wins Fourth Consecutive Green Supply Chain Award

Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine recognizes ModusLink for designing sustainable, measurable and impactful new product packaging—

WALTHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 29, 2012– For the fourth year in a row, ModusLinkGlobal Solutions^™ Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNK) has been honored by Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine’s 2012 Green Supply Chain Awards. The Company was recognized for developing a creative and cost-saving package redesign for its client’s line of flash memory products.

In 2011, a global consumer electronics company and long-time ModusLink client requested assistance in reducing the amount of packaging material for its line of flash memory products, including USB and USB Mini devices, SD and Micro SD cards. This initiative was driven by both environmental and cost-savings goals, including reducing greenhouse gasses emissions, volume of packaging material, and logistics and shipping costs. With a completely redesigned package and an innovative approach to the product inserts and user manual, the electronics company was able to save money by eliminating excess materials and drastically reducing transportation costs. Specifically, the redesign resulted in:

50% cut in paper and fiber use and up to an 80% reduction with the smallest product
50% reduction in the amount of plastic used, while maintaining the integrity of the previous package
157% average increase in pallet density
45% reduction in shipping costs

Together, these improvements represent a 31% reduction in annual CO₂ emissions, which equates to eliminating 74 metric tons of CO₂from entering the atmosphere¹.

“A key challenge that many companies encounter in their sustainability efforts is the difficulty that comes with changing business as usual,” saidLorcan Sheehan, senior vice president of marketing, ModusLink. “An example in this case was the entrenched belief that each product should be accompanied by a comprehensive product manual. Our packaging engineers worked to find an innovative solution that allowed for printing instructions directly onto the blister pack. We helped the client meet its aggressive sustainability goals by eliminating the separate manual, but also took into account the company’s need to ensure all necessary product information was readily available to consumers.”

The 2012 Green Supply Chain Awards spotlight the different sustainable approaches that global businesses take to cut costs, save time, drive revenue and improve their carbon footprint in the areas of product lifecycle management (PLM), order demand capture, sourcing, technology and integration infrastructure, procurement and other areas of the supply chain.

Additional Resources

Read the latest blog post exploring sustainability on Value Unchained
Learn more about ModusLink’s extensive postponement and product configuration services
Download the ModusLink Corporate Social Responsibility report
Follow us on Twitter @ModusLink

About ModusLink Global Solutions

ModusLink Global Solutions Inc.(NASDAQ: MLNK) executes comprehensive supply chain and logistics services that improve clients’ revenue, cost, sustainability and customer experience objectives. ModusLink is a trusted and integrated provider to the world’s leading companies in consumer electronics, communications, computing, medical devices, software, luxury goods and retail. The Company’s operating infrastructure annually supports more than $80 billionof its clients’ revenue and manages approximately 470 million product shipments through more than 30 sites in 15 countries across North America, Europe, and the Asia/Pacificregion. For details on ModusLink’s flexible and scalable solutions visit www.moduslink.com and www.valueunchained.com, the blog for supply chain professionals.

ModusLink Global Solutions is a trademark of ModusLink Global Solutions Inc. All other company names and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

¹The process for calculating CO₂ savings involves weighing the packaging and evaluating the data through the Wal-Mart Scorecard, which determines the CO₂ generated in the lifecycle of the package from raw materials to the ModusLink Solution Center.