With Wal-Mart as the poster giant for sustainability in the United States, the thousands of vendors here are turning their focus to consolidation, reduced packaging, environmentally friendly products, materials and more. Wal-Mart is eliminating shrink wrap from its vocabulary and has made a pledge to reduce the gas burned and emissions given off by its massive fleet of trucks significantly through a variety of green-minded efforts.

"It reminds me a lot of what was starting to happen with Silicon Valley in the 1960 s," Sanker said earlier this month at a welcome ceremony held for CaseStack at the World Trade Center in Rogers. "That was such an agricultural area, and then all of these seeds were planted and business clusters started popping up. It's happening here, and it's gaining momentum."

The shift to green-minded thinking among vendors is one example. The newly constructed Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas is another.

Among the latest seeds to be planted in the growing sustainability cluster in northwest Arkansas is OptiLogistics, which officially arrived at 911 S. E. 28 th St. in Bentonville in November. And while its philosophy and innovative shipping platforms appear simple, the company - created by Scandinavian furniture giant IKEA - is among the world's greatest success stories when it comes to logistics and sustainability.

OptiLogistics markets a lean shipping platform system that replaces the heavy, bulky, wooden pallets that have been used to elevate and stack freight on truck, ship and train containers for decades. The system can be employed when shipping just about any flatpackaged goods, ranging from ready-to-assemble furniture, shelving, large exercise equipment, tool chests, fireplace inserts and more.

When people ask Amy Campbell, OptiLogistics' Wal-Mart and Sam's Club team leader, what the big deal is, she turns to the numbers.

An average of 60 traditional wooden pallets stacked with product can be loaded onto one truck. At about 55 pounds per wooden pallet, that's 3, 300 pounds of pallets and a lot of wasted space on every truck load. And that weighs heavily into the amount of fuel it takes to ship a load to its destination.

Using the innovative shipping platforms marketed by OptiLogistics, the pallet weight is cut from 3, 300 pounds to just 180 pounds. Figure in the extra freight that's now able to be loaded onto those trucks and multiply the savings in fuel by the thousands of trucks in the Wal-Mart fleet, and there's a big business advantage. Not to mention the footprint left on the environment is minimized immeasurably.

Every day Campbell shows up for work at her new Bentonville office, the first thing she sees is the phrase," A better everyday life," spelled out on the wall. That, she says, is what it's all about.

"We really keep that in mind each day," Campbell said. "It's cool to work for a company that values social responsibility. What we do has an impact on the environment and that's infectious. Even within our offices, you'll find that our employees pack up their empty water bottles, paper products and a lot of other waste and take it home to put in the recycling bin. It becomes a part of your life."

That focus on sustainability - and the OptiLedge shipping platform system marketed by OptiLogistics - began with the mind of IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad. IKEA was created in 1943 with the intent of offering affordable, green-minded, hip furniture and accessories. Since then, approximately 300 stores in 36 countries, most of them in Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia and Australia, have sprouted up, and Kamprad is considered one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.

Aside from the cutting-edge, modern design of its furniture and other products, much of IKEA's success has come from its practices in sustainability, which saves its customers money and contributes to the company's bottom line and a healthier environment. From the wood in its products to the energy efficiency of its distribution network and focus on renewable energy, IKEA follows a set of standards years ahead of its time, according to Opti-Logistics vice president of business development Jeff Lamb.

That green-minded dedication led to the development of the OptiLedge shipping platform system. The lean OptiLedge - basically a lightweight, L-shaped, earthfriendly plastic load transport device - was spearheaded by Kamprad and is revolutionizing logistics practices around the globe. It not only allows more freight to be loaded onto trucks, but eliminates considerable man hours in loading and unloading product, reduces fuel consumption considerably and more.

The system proved so successful with IKEA fleets that Kamprad decided to start up a separate company, OptiLogistics, to market the product to companies other than its own. OptiLogistics is an international company, with it's U. S. headquarters in Atlanta, but opening a satellite office in Bentonville made a lot of sense, according to Lamb.

"IKEA developed a very different approach to moving goods around the world," Lamb said. "IKEA thinks in decades, not quarters. We've spent a lot of time with Wal-Mart and they've shown great interest. This fits nicely with the sustainability scorecard initiative Wal-Mart has going on."

Still, the majority of the globe - the U. S. included - is in its infancy when it comes to sustainability practices. But this is one more example of those efforts taking hold in northwest Arkansas.

"No one has all of the answers yet, but we're here to help," Sanker said. "A lot of people and companies are coming here to get involved in what's going on. They're tapping into that research and sharing ideas. Sustainability is a new technology that will change the world."