Big and green
Big Green Moving Boxes provides exactly what’s in its name
Big Green Moving Boxes specializes in the rental of reusable plastic boxes for private and commercial moves.
Moving can be a hassle, but two entrepreneurs are attempting to bring a new form of service to the Oklahoma City market for those boxing up their belongings and heading out.
Steven Embree and Matt Damiani are business partners and owners of Big Green Moving Boxes — a company specializing in the rental of reusable plastic boxes for private and commercial moves.
The two met in college at the University of Oklahoma. Embree still lives in Oklahoma City, while Damiani lives in Dallas where, during a recent move, he discovered the box-rental service. Individuals in the process of a move can rent plastic boxes, have them delivered to their homes, and after a move is complete can arrange to have them picked up.
“There’s actually some companies that do it in the larger cities in the U.S. and I had no idea this service existed,” Damiani said. “It’s an environmentally friendly service and it’s cheaper than going out and buying cardboard boxes, so it seemed like a great idea.”
The Dallas market had several existing businesses, so Damiani reached out to his college roommate, Embree.
“I got this random text message (from Damiani) one day that said, ‘Hey, we should start one of these in Oklahoma City,’ ” Embree said. “He and his wife were moving earlier this year and I guess there were some similar companies down there, so they used one and had a great experience.
“The more we thought about it, the more we talked about it, the more we said, ‘If we don’t do it (in Oklahoma City), someone else will do it and we’ll be kicking ourselves,’ ” Embree said.
The pair began researching similar businesses, which they found across the country, as well as Canada and Europe.
Cheaper and greener
Damiani and Embree say Big Green Moving Boxes is advantageous to cardboard boxes for several reasons. Depending on the number of boxes rented, the price point is lower than the cost of most cardboard boxes of similar size, there is no need for assembly, the boxes are perfectly stackable and they are more durable.
“As far as pricing goes ... ours is around $2 to $2.50 per box for that size,” Embree said. “Depending on where you look ... you’re going to pay closer to $3 (for cardboard).”
The pair also hope customers opt to rent for the environmental friendliness the reusable containers bring.
The name and color of the boxes are an intentional nod to this fact.
“That was kind of a play on words with the green boxes,” Embree said. “We definitely wanted to get green boxes.”
The business launched this week. Embree and Damiani are starting with 1,000 boxes initially, with hopes to expand soon. However, the timing of their launch was intentional as they hope the fall and winter will be slower months in the moving season, giving them time to work through the process in the rental and delivery methods.
“This is just kind of the start of it,” Embree said.