1.
Small Items
Big Boxes
Massive Impact
RIGHTSIZING: HOW A RELATIVELY SIMPLE SOLUTION COULD ELIMINATE
OVER A BILLION TONS OF CO2 OVER THE NEXT DECADE
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 1

2.
2
Freight transportation and
logistics contribute 8-10% of
global emissions and are on pace
to double emissions by 2050*
Adopting existing technologies
and packaging best practices
could avoid over a billion tons
emissions over the next decade
* Image and data sourced from the Global Logistics Emissions Council
Framework for Logistics Emissions Accounting and Reporting
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES

3.
Today, poor packaging practices result in the average box
being 20-40+% bigger than required
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 3
Generating huge
amounts of easily
avoidable C02, other air
pollutants and packaging
waste
3 drill bits
3 boxes

4.
And ecommerce growth will make everything worse!
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 4
36
103
140
225
0
50
100
150
200
250
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Annual Number of Parcel Shipments*
Parcels Shipped (Billions)
The number of parcel shipments and the e-commerce packaging market
from 2019 to 2025 is expected to double
* Source = 2019 Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, with a 40% spike added for 2020, and then a 10% CAGR afterwards

5.
Driving inefficiency, waste & GHG emissions in tandem
Poor Packaging
Practices
Transportation
Impact
20-40% Increase in miles driven & flown
Building & maintaining extra aircraft &vehicles
Larger than needed aircraft & vehicles
Energy required to move additional package weight
Packaging
Impact
Additional trees cut
Extra packaging manufacturing energy & pollution
Additional packaging waste
Increased dunnage to fill empty space
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 5

6.
Optimizing packaging practices could easily reduce global
logistics emissions between 15 & 150 million tons annually
Mode
2015 Total
C02 Amount
Million Tons*
% Reduction Reduction in Tons
Conservative Optimistic Conservative Optimistic
Air 174 -5% -20%
(8,700,000) (34,800,000)
Sea 783 0 -1%
- (7,830,000)
Road 1,798 -0.5% -5%
(8,990,000) (89,900,000)
Total (17,690,000) (132,530,000)
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 6
More analysis is required to better quantify the potential reductions in C02 from transportation,
plus calculate C02 emissions from manufacturing packaging, additional trucks, planes, etc.
Or Between
180M and
1.3B tons over
the next
decade
*Global Logistics Emissions Council Framework

7.
Cargo-plane utilization on a weight basis has already dropped
below 50% on average, and is expected to get even worse!
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 7
“The surge in e-commerce traffic
will further decrease the average
density of the cargo flown.”
Niall van de Wouw, Managing Director
CLIVE in AirCargoWorld
Today Future
The problem has gotten so bad that The International Air Cargo Association wants to change to a volumetric
model to make aircraft utilization look better!
In theory, could increase air cargo capacity by up to 50% without adding any new flights, but realistically
increase by at least 20%.

8.
In the US, trucks almost always cube out before they weigh out
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 8
*Twin 33 Foot Truck Trailers: Making U.S. Freight Transport Safer And More Efficient Commissioned By
Americans For Modern Transportation
“62 percent of twin trailer trucks are loaded at 10,000
pounds or more below the maximum allowed weight of
80,000 pounds. For single-trailer trucks, the percentage is
even higher: 73%.”
- Ronald R. Knipling, Ph.D. *

9.
Which is why parcel & LTL carriers have advocated for 33-ft
trailers which offer 18% more space than the current 28-ft trailers
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 9
Since the expectation is that rightsizing packages should reduce the average package/box size
by 20-40%, rightsizing could deliver up to two times the benefit for the parcel & LTL industry.
Courtesy of Americans for Modern Transportation

10.
Just shrinking 30B parcels, or about 20% of the ~140B shipped in
2020, from 10X10x10 to 9X9X9 would eliminate the equivalent of…
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 10
Or enough trailers to stretch from Los Angeles to Hong
Kong and back!
2.8M 28-ft
Trailers

11.
Since trade flows tend to be lopsided, each full outbound trip often
results in one less empty trailer trip back so get 2X savings
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 11
Ships, planes & trucks leave net export
locations like China to Rest of World, or Los
Angeles to rest of United States full
And come back empty

12.
In addition, shrinking parcel size enables smaller delivery vehicles
Thereby reducing:
◦ Fuel usage
◦ Pollution
◦ Traffic
◦ Parking
◦ Etc.
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 12
Plus, it reduces the costs associated with switching to electric
delivery vehicles, since can trade down to smaller vehicles

13.
Technology & techniques exist today to reduce shipment size
Packaging
Postponement*
Postponing packaging
to much later in the
supply chain in order
to minimize the
weight, space and
damage while
maximizing labelling,
etc. flexibility
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 13
Rightsizing
Technologies
Packaging software
and hardware that
automatically selects
the ideal box size or
creates a box on
demand in order to
minimize empty space
& damage
Logistics-Optimized
Product & Packaging
Design*
Designing products &
packaging to maximize
trailer/container and
pallet utilization
*Kevin Howard is the guru of these two concepts

14.
Logistics-optimized packaging & design
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 14
Optimizing products to maximize fit on pallets and in truck trailers, ocean containers, etc. can
drive massive increases in utilization. In the example below, a 14% reduction in package
size resulted in a 137% increase in the number of boxes that fit within the same
space, from 27 to 64
3
inches

15.
Packaging postponement
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 15
Designing products and supply chains so you can ship items with minimal to no packaging as
close to the end customer as possible so you can minimize the space and weight associated
with the packaging
Ship items from origin
with minimal to no
packaging
4X4X4 = 64
Once close to
recipients, then insert
into final packaging
3X3X3 =27
Hewlett Packard was able to more than double the number of printers in
the same space by implementing packaging postponement and designing
their products and packaging to maximize space utilization!

16.
Rightsizing technologies
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 16
Rightsizing
Technologies
Software-only
Identifies right-size
box to select
Easier to deploy
15-40% reduction in package size
Box on Demand
Creates optimally-
sized box for that
specific item
More challenging to deploy
20-80% reduction in box size
Technology that either selects the best fitting box for the item being shipped, or that creates
an optimally sized box

17.
Rightsizing example
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 17 17
CEO Internet Fusion Group in Quadient testimonial
Cardboard
Transportation
Trees
If 100K more similar businesses adopted, would eliminate 388M ft3 of carboard, 900K truckloads & save 560M trees!

18.
Despite benefits, adoption has been limited
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 18
Less than 5%
Adoption
Lack of understanding
impact
C02 Calculations based on weight not
size
No one’s ever calculated national &
global impact
Lack of Awareness of
solutions
Newer Practices & Technologies
Smaller companies with limited
marketing
Lack of Pressure
No public policies to force right sizing
Limited/no advocacy
Complexity
Requires alignment across multiple
organizations & disciplines
Why?

19.
Need national/global organizations to help drive changes
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 19
Increase
solutions &
Adoption
Quantify Impact
Incorporate impact of volume and packaging
practices in sustainability calculations
Calculate global impact of poor packaging
practices
Drive awareness of
problem,
opportunity &
solutions
Evangelize issues, benefits & solutions to
government and business leaders
Increase focus and investments in space
Increase Pressure to
act
Drive public policies such as taxes on
packaging & penalties for failing to rightsize
Launch public pressure campaigns
Create benchmarks and scorecards to
measure and hold actors accountable
Simplify adoption
Bring key players from across the supply chain
to develop industry-wide standards
How

20.
Ultimately, success will require one or more organizations
to start investing the resources required to make progress
Provide funding or resources to:
1. Develop new methods that incorporate volume in C02 emissions calculations
2. Develop new models that enable organizations to measure impact of their packaging practices
to environment, productivity and shipper finances
3. Quantify total impact of poor packaging practices at global and national levels
4. Develop metrics and scorecards to measure, compare and hold key players accountable
Launch education and public-policy campaign to drive:
1. Awareness, investment and adoption of enhanced packaging techniques and technologies
2. Public policies such as taxes on packaging & penalties for failing to rightsize, and tax credits for
investing in new technologies
3. Commitments from key players regarding the adoption of packaging best practices
4. Development of industry-wide standards, best practices and certifications
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 20

21.
About the author and the project
This is a passion project that came about after I received the
iPhone pictured. I measured the item and the box, and was
shocked to discover that box was about 90+% empty space. I
then used Excel to calculate the annual cubic feet resulting
from shipping millions, and was blown away by the sizes
involved.
As a former reporter with 15 years of logistics and e-
commerce experience who loves solving really hard problems,
I was hooked by the opportunity to make an impact at global
scale. Since then I’ve been working to understand the root
causes, quantify the opportunity, identify potential solutions,
find collaboration partners, and ultimately, define and
execute the steps required to drive progress.
And so I hope you’ll join me on this important journey!
Yours truly,
Kevin J. Mireles
©2021 KEVIN J MIRELES 21