The new packaging for Microsoft's 'Office 2001: Mac' software can be labeled as decidedly 'green'. The package is reduced, weighing one-fourth of what the old cardboard box weighed, and is also reusable. It contains 50% postconsumer resin and has also has been engineered according to the European Union's essential standards. Besides, it complies with every environmental packaging and labeling law in the countries in which it is being marketed, according to company officials.

The entire shrink-wrapped package is radically different from the packaging for 'Office 98 Macintosh Edition' and as a unit, the new product weighs one-tenth of what the old one weighed. The package - a rounded jewel case about 6 inches wide, 6 inches high and 1.5 inches deep, and weighing 180 grams - has a clear frosted acrylic front and a graphite gray back made from 100% postconsumer recycled water bottles and CD cases. The package contains one CD and five polypropylene sleeves, which can hold 10 CDs. The instructions in the package suggest that the box be kept on the desk to hold CDs as the company encourages customers to use the extra sleeves to hold other CDs they may want to store.

At Microsoft, the normal timeframe for a new package is 26 weeks from the creative to the production stage, but this was not enough time for an injection-molded plastic package - just making the mold required a minimum of 16 weeks.

Environmental Packaging International (EPI) and Microsoft have been working together to develop an 'environmental packaging protocol'. The protocol would allow Microsoft to ensure that the new package system - and any new package - complies with all environmental packaging requirements worldwide, including the European Union's essential requirements for recyclability, source reduction and other attributes; California and Oregon's rigid plastic packaging laws; and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) labeling guidelines.

The packaging faced several environmental problems from the very beginning. First, the new package needed to fit the definition of a rigid plastic packaging container under California's S.B. 235. Hence it was to contain postconsumer material. Microsoft could have argued that the package complies with the law because it is designed to be reused, but instead chose to comply through the recycled content option.

The company wanted to find a very strong plastic so it would be durable, but since it's an RPPC, it needed to have recycled content. Though, Microsoft had originally intended the new box to be clear, the postconsumer material had specks. The company then decided to go with a clear virgin front and the back with colored postconsumer material to help mask the specks. This decision incidentally offered Microsoft the opportunity to have the new package to match the sleek graphite colour of Apple's iMac computer. Then the plastic injection molding company found a good source of clean postconsumer resin, from water bottles and CDs, with no specks but with a slight brownish tinge, which solved the California problem.

One of the European Union's essential requirements is that consumer product companies selling in the European market must pay, for each packaging component, recycling fees that may be based variously on weight, dimensions, volume or material, depending on the country. These fees are paid to third-party recycling organizations in a number of countries. EPI found that Microsoft would save about 13.5 cents per unit in Germany; the fee for the Office 1998 Macintosh Edition package, at 392 grams and 4,378 cubic centimeters, was 19.92 cents per unit, while the fee for the Office 2001 package, at 139 grams and 964 cubic centimeters, is 6.5 cents.

Transport packaging is another area both Microsoft and the environment benefit. The amount of transport packaging needed to ship Office 2001 is reduced by more than 50%, meaning lower recycling costs for Microsoft and reduced motor vehicle emissions.