45 Environment | Sustainability Report 2024


Packaging and crates


For decades, cardboard has been the mainstay of removals, relocation and records management packing. But these packaging solutions have traditionally required the use of plastic tape and bubble wrap to secure and protect boxed contents.


We are now in the process of turning to more sustainable methods, with more and more of our operations switching plastic tape for paper tape – such as in Mexico – and using more recycled cardboard, while switching bubble wrap for paper wrapping. We are also encouraging service partners to switch to these more sustainable packaging options.


Fine Art crates


At Crown Fine Art (CFA), we recognize that due to the value of the assets we handle and the bespoke nature of crates within the fine art industry, these are typically a single-use packaging product.


Having researched the marketplace and thought about this challenge differently, we have been developing


SmART Sustain in the UK, a service which aims to create a secondary market for these items through resale and donation. In 2023, we introduced this internally and developed a website through which we will be able to offer these solutions externally from 2024. We hope that this will provide reuse opportunities for artwork packaging that would otherwise go for recycling whilst enabling smaller galleries and art colleges to access quality packaging materials at lower cost.


In addition to this, CFA’s SmART Pack & Ship provides agile, personalized solutions to ship low value artworks quickly and safely. As part of this innovation, we have looked to reduce the environmental impact of packaging these items and partnered with client Christie’s to explore, test and trial different packaging materials. As a result, we were able to increase the recyclability of our packaging from 40% to 99%. We are now looking at how we can further reduce the environmental footprint of packing and shipping artwork through SmART Pack & Ship.


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