Meeting the brief of saving energy, minimizing waste and working with materials already in abundance, cardboard seems to be the choice du jour.

FreshDirect, New York City’s popular online grocer, has reduced the number of cardboard boxes it uses by 1.5 million over the past year through a combination of software and packing optimizations.  Their cardboard footprint went from 3.5 boxes per order to 2.7 boxes per order after they acted on complaints from customers who were receiving orders with a single cheese product in a big box and a half full box of meat.  FreshDirect’s 300,000 square-foot headquarters in Long Island City are divided into three packing areas, one unrefrigerated, one for produce and dairy and another for meat and fish.  The [...]

A designer in Holland has revamped the interior of Amsterdam ad agency Nothing with interlocking cardboard. The office redesign by Joost van Bleiswijk used 500 square meters of reinforced cardboard and did not to use any glue or screw to interconnect the 1500 separate pieces.

More Photos on Jaachim Baan’s Flickr
Nothing
Joost van Bleiswijk
[via Dezeen]

Artist Mark Langan has figured out a beautiful way of reusing corrugated cardboard as a medium for his artworks. Using only found cardboard, non-toxic glue and cutting tools, Langan creates intricate three dimensional pieces that recontextualize the unique qualities of the different kinds of packing materials into new meanings.
Mark Langan
[via Treehugger]