Powered by SimpleLab: 48forty Solutions

Featuring Jess Bonsall, ESG Director

Welcome to another edition of "Powered by SimpleLab," a series where we spotlight real partners and customers using SimpleLab to simplify laboratory testing, verify quality, and deliver trusted results at scale.

48forty Solutions is North America’s leader in pallet solutions. It supplies new, recycled, and custom pallets, along with pallet retrieval, on-site services, and PalTrax™ pallet tracking, under the promise “Pallet Management Made Easy.” 48forty Solutions has grown into a network of more than 240 facilities, with more than 850 partners and a fleet of more than 8,000 trailers and tractors. Its pallet management process has conserved more than 12 million trees and diverted more than 2.6 million tons of waste from landfills. The company operates under three brands, 48forty Solutions, Relogistics and Paramount Pallet, working together as one company with one mission.

Environmental monitoring at its pallet manufacturing plants is part of how 48forty supports its compliance program and its commitment to being a good community partner. Coordinating that testing used to mean vetting and managing a separate local lab for every manufacturing plant. Now, 48forty uses SimpleLab to centralize the program: site teams order sample kits through a portal linked to the company’s compliance software, ship samples to laboratories in SimpleLab’s network, and track results in one place.

“Having the sample processing aspect of our compliance program in a web-based format has been a game changer - it’s not only helped our teams improve on-time reporting, it’s saved a huge amount of time in lab coordination efforts and sample reprocessing fees.” — Jess Bonsall, ESG Director, 48forty Solutions

Meet Jess!

Jess Bonsall, ESG Director, 48forty Solutions

For readers who don’t know 48forty Solutions yet, what do you do, and what does your role as ESG Director involve?

48forty is a wood pallet management company. We are located across the U.S. and Canada, and support industries of all kinds to better manage wood pallets in their supply chain network. Much of what we do is focused on reuse — keeping packaging materials in circulation, either through direct back-dock sortation or through repair and recirculation — which is how our teams are able to support resource conservation and waste diversion.

As 48forty’s ESG Director, I work within the Company’s Legal department, overseeing “all things sustainability” — from environmental compliance to community engagement and corporate governance — we’ve built a well-rounded sustainability program that externalizes the Company’s commitment to responsible operating practices.

48forty goes beyond what’s required when it comes to monitoring its sites. What’s behind that decision?

Two components: 1) Environmental regulations evolve. We’re a large entity and it’s important for us to stay ahead of the curve to support our compliance program. 2) We want to be good community partners, and sometimes that means going above and beyond, particularly when it comes to environmental stewardship.

What did coordinating testing across all those sites look like before you centralized it?

We undertake vendor screening for every company we engage with. Which means that, with over 70 plants needing to perform environmental testing, we had over 70 different local vendors that needed vetting and regular coordination to ensure sample kits were received in a timely manner, that samples were processed in a timely manner, and that the testing results were directed to the right party. Many of our sites are located in remote areas, so that also meant we needed to either coordinate courier service or dedicate employee time to picking up/dropping off samples. It was both time and labor intensive.

What were you looking for in a testing partner, and what made SimpleLab the right fit?

We needed nationwide coverage, easy shipping, and centralized ordering/reporting. We contacted a handful of national labs and struggled to have our needs met consistently. SimpleLab solved the challenges from day one, without complicated contracting mechanisms to work through. It was a no-brainer!

With sites spread across the country, how do you keep track of it all?

We have a dedicated software solution we use for monitoring compliance activities. SimpleLab is integrated through a weblink portal that’s set up to allow our sites to order sample kits as they’re needed, and the online results repository hosted by SimpleLab makes it easy to keep track of testing.

Who’s actually collecting the samples at each site, and how do you set them up for success?

Samples are taken by our plant leadership teams. We host in-person and online training for our teams to help with a consistent sampling approach. The SimpleLab kits are also great, as they’re streamlined and contain everything the teams need for sample collection and return — even the freezer packs to keep samples chilled during shipment. I also love that the kits come shipped in reusable packaging (not a cumbersome cooler) — which makes them easy to store until they’re needed and easy to prep for shipment to the lab.

Once results come back, what do you do with them?

We use the results to inform our compliance program — both the regulatory reporting aspects as well as housekeeping/site maintenance practices.

What’s changed for you and your site teams since bringing testing onto SimpleLab?

Fewer headaches! Having the sample processing aspect of our compliance program in a web-based format has been a game changer — it’s not only helped our teams improve on-time reporting, it’s saved a huge amount of time in lab coordination efforts and sample reprocessing fees.

Looking back, what would you tell another multi-site company that’s thinking about starting a monitoring program?

I was a bit hesitant to jump into an enterprise solution given some of the challenges we had in the past with lab coordination, so I would encourage teams to think about trying the platform out sooner rather than later. And look for software solutions to help with tracking compliance schedules. Excel is great, but it only goes so far when it comes to coordinating across multiple locations!

What’s next for 48forty’s sustainability work?

Our current focus is on waste minimization. Our teams have a high recycling rate — over 90% of the wood materials that come into our facilities are reused — but that remaining 10% adds up. We’re testing out some interesting end-of-life management techniques — including biochar production partnerships! — and look forward to being able to share the benefits of these programs with our customers.

At SimpleLab, we’re proud to support companies that treat environmental stewardship as part of how they operate. We’re grateful to Jess and the 48forty team for sharing how they built a monitoring program that works across a national network, and for showing what it looks like to stay ahead of the curve.

Stay tuned for more stories from our growing network of labs, businesses, and changemakers.

Follow 48forty Solutions, Relogistics, and Paramount Pallet

Want to learn more about 48forty? Visit 48forty Solutions, Relogistics and Paramount Pallet online to explore their pallet management solutions, or follow them on LinkedIn to keep up with their latest work. 

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