One of the hardest parts about reducing your home’s carbon footprint is figuring out how to get the things you need from the places that sell them to your house. Even if you’ve got a great eco-friendly, locally supplied grocer within walking distance from your house, there’s the issue of how those goods got from where they were made to the grocer’s. How do you ensure that the supplier of those goods did everything they could to improve their fuel economy and reduce the carbon footprint of the trip?

This problem compounds when it is you who runs that grocery shop or co-op. All business owners, really, have reported problems getting the supplies and inventory they need in eco-friendly ways. The fact is that a lot of how “green” things travel is up to the human actually transporting them. Sure, a lot of companies are only using eco-friendly shippers and delivery vehicles but what if the driver doesn’t know how to economize properly on his fuel consumption?

A lot of company owners are choosing to “green up” their supply chain by using recyclable and reusable containers. These containers often hold more goods per container so the number of shipments needed to stay stocked is reduced. If you do run a grocery or other food based business, reusable containers have proven to be better for the keeping and storing of perishable merchandise (food stays fresher and is less prone to pests when stored and moved in airtight containers). Moreover, because the containers are made of plastic, metal or wood, they can be reused over and over again reducing the need for container manufacturing. Even better, as you can see in the infographic below, using recyclable containers reduces a company’s greenhouse emissions by almost thirty percent.