[FrogBox delivers its re-usable moving containers in a biodiesel truck]

This guest post comes from writer Jennifer Cockrall-King.

Dumpster diving and trawling liquor stores for (relatively) clean boxes are just two of the unsavoury realities of moving. And that’s not to mention the massive stack of used boxes that you have to drag to the recycling depot afterwards. A new Vancouver company named Frogbox has a greener alternative: stackable, rentable, ergonomic 70-litre (2.4 cubic-foot) boxes. The company will even drop off the boxes at your old place and pick them up — in its biodiesel truck — at your new place a week later. Genius.

The company, founded by 36-year-old Doug Burgoyne, is just over a year old, and so far only operates in greater Vancouver and Seattle. But this is a business idea with legs: Frogbox estimates that Vancouver residents use 450,000 boxes every month for moving just within the city; Seattle uses more than 1 million. The idea is to make money and cut back waste. Frogbox is also making its namesake’s habitat a little more comfortable by donating 1% of its gross revenues – related to the 1/1/1/ philanthropy trend [Ed’s note: see more in Unlimited’s July issue] – to frog habitat restoration programs in the Pacific Northwest.

FrogBox is currently franchising in other cities in Canada. Now if only they could figure out a way to make the rest of moving less painful.