Solar flight pioneer Bertrand Piccard’s Solar Impulse Foundation has embarked on a hunt for 1,000 innovative ideas that prove that sustainable solutions can also be economically attractive. The foundation has come up with an illustrious list that has featured a familiar name since November: squAIR-timber. Developed by trilatec GmbH, this system replaces wood pallets and beams used in air freight transportation with comparable solutions made out of cardboard fiber. squAIR-timber products are 80 per cent lighter than wood, dramatically lowering fuel consumption and helping to reduce CO2 emissions from global air freight transportation.

These innovative lightweight elements from trilatec GmbH are manufactured out of 100 per cent recycled paper using the carbon method. These products weigh up to 80 per cent less than conventional wooden pallets and beams without making any concessions on payload capacity.  Each meter of material can carry up to 5 tons with a tare weight of just 1.2 kilograms. By way of comparison, wood has a tare weight of 3-4 kilograms per meter. squAIR-timber is also made out of recycled materials and can be easily returned to the recycling loop together with other separately collected waste paper. The pallets and beams made of cardboard fiber can be use

"When transporting pharmaceutical products by air freight, some of our customers already rely completely on squAIR-timber, because the transition to our sustainable solution is easy and reliable, especially with standardized packaging," explains Andreas Langemann, Managing Director of trilatec GmbH, and adds: “We are particularly honored to have been awarded a label from the Solar Impulse Foundation because we believe that squAir-timber perfectly embodies the combination of economic and environmental benefits. On the one hand, squAir-timber features massive cost and weight savings for airlines, and handling agencies have to spend less time setting up our transportation system. On the other, the weight savings are already reducing CO2 emissions from global freight transportation today”.

Jettainer, the global leader in unit load device (ULD) management and the exclusive sales partner for squAIR-timber, would like to congratulate trilatec GmbH. “squAIR-timber is a really innovative system with huge potential to make air freight transportation more sustainable. We were extremely excited about this solution from the outset. It’s a perfect fit with our portfolio of innovative loading equipment and control solutions and with our mission of making logistics more sustainable,” remarked Thorsten Riekert, Chief Sales Officer of Jettainer GmbH.