Inspired by Nature
Publishers use green claims because they want to tell consumers something positive about their products. We believe green claims should always be environmentally meaningful and verifiable. We have thought long and hard about how to communicate the environmental credentials of our products, and this has resulted in the unique set of eco-commitments listed above. They apply to every product in this brochure, and indeed, to the brochure itself. We summarise the environmental reasoning behind each eco-commitment below.
Recycled envelopes According to Friends of the Earth, using just one tonne of recycled paper saves approximately six mature trees and 3.3 cubic yards of rapidly diminishing landfill space. Back in the 90’s we took the simple step of switching to the exclusive use of recycled papers for every envelope we use. 95% of that paper is manufactured in the UK- the only exception being the red and green paper that we use for our Christmas cards envelopes. That paper is manufactured in France.
Recycled content papers
Selecting paper for cards is more complicated than for envelopes, as print quality and consistency are real considerations. The paper industry will always need some virgin pulp as recycled fibres can only be re-processed 6-8 times before they become too broken up to bind together. The good news is that continued technological improvements result in better ways of producing high quality recycled-content papers. Now every product we make contains a percentage of post-consumer waste (25 - 80%), which varies depending upon the paper in question. For more information click here for individual product profiles.
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
The Forest Stewardship Council is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), dedicated to promoting responsible management of the world’s forests. It is the only certification scheme endorsed by the WWF, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and The Woodland Trust. Forests are inspected and certified against the 10 Principles of Forest Stewardship, which take into account environmental, social and economic factors. In addition to forest management and certification, the FSC Chain of Custody tracks the timber from the forest to the paper mill and then to the printer. We became FSC certified in 2006, which means we have a unique chain of custody number (SA-COC-001654 BN). This helps to ensure that virgin fibres used in our papers are ‘verifiably’ sourced from responsibly managed forests. The FSC logo on our products means card buyers can be confident that the paper has not contributed to illegal logging or the destruction of the world’s ancient forests. Every paper we use is either FSC certified, 100% recycled, or a combination of both.
Vegetable based inks
The environmental impact of inks should also be considered. Traditional petroleum oil-based inks are not sustainable and can contain both VOCs and heavy metals. Admittedly some heavy metals are essential to human life (in tiny quantities), but at higher concentrations they can lead to poisoning. Accordingly we only use vegetable based inks.
Green energy
We only work with printers who have attained ISO 14001 and are powered by green energy. The use of green energy is a simple way of reducing pollution, and is also a logical step towards more sustainable business practice. There are not many printers who can meet all of our eco-commitments... yet!
Recycling and recyclability
Many people assume that all paper based products can be recycled; but it isn’t always that simple. Certain finishing techniques can make it difficult to recycle paper. Therefore we do not use any plastic laminates (there are compostable alternatives), or large areas of glitter, foil, or metallic inks, because we want to ensure that all of our products can be easily recycled.
Compostable bags
Most greetings cards are still wrapped in Polypropylene which is an oil-based plastic that can’t be recycled by consumers in the UK. Plastics derived from oil are neither sustainable nor compostable. Unfortunately a huge quantity of plastic waste accumulates in landfill and will outlive us all. We wanted to move towards the use of more sustainable materials, whilst reducing pressure on landfill. This led to us becoming the first greetings card publisher to switch to the use of compostable bags in May 2006. We use films which are made from GM-free cornstarch (Polylactic acid) and are certified as compostable by the Composting Association. They meet the EU standard EN13432. In practice this means that in industrial composting conditions (min 56°C & 95% relative humidity) the bags will break back down into natural elements, (water and carbon dioxide), in just 45 days. We print the “seedling” logo on every bag so that consumers know that the material is fully compostable. The bags won’t break down so fast in most garden compost heaps, simply because they do not get hot enough. Click here for further information about disposal of compostable packaging.
Made in the UK
We could manufacture all of our products half way around the world and cut our costs substantially; but at what environmental cost? We live in the UK as do most of our customers, so we remain committed to printing everything in the UK.
CarbonNeutral®
We have chosen to take voluntary action on climate change and are now the UK’s first CarbonNeutral® greetings card company. We are having our carbon footprint assessed by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management. The assessment will provide us with a baseline from which we will endeavour to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions as far as is possible. Unavoidable carbon emissions will then be ‘offset.’ In practice this means that our net output of greenhouse gases is neutralised. ‘Offsetting’ simply means that the carbon emissions that we cannot reduce are environmentally compensated for by carbon emission reductions elsewhere in the world. We have chosen to offset our carbon footprint by supporting green energy projects.
Low-or-no-alcohol print technology
According to ‘Paper, Print, Environment’ (www.ppe.net), less than 200 of the UK’s 10,000 printing companies have gone beyond the minimum legal requirements to reduce their environmental impact. In other words, 98% of UK printing companies still need to be convinced that the environment is their responsibility too. The print industry is believed to account for about 10% of the UK’s Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions. As ink dries, industrial alcohol (IPA) evaporates at room temperature and releases VOCs. These are colourless, odourless gases that are harmful to human health; they also contribute to global warming and the production of ozone. Since 2000 we have managed to print about 95% of our products without any industrial alcohol. In fact, our 2010 brochure and every card in it, has been produced using 100% alcohol-free print technology.
Our unique eco-commitments include:
• Low or no-alcohol printing techniques
• Vegetable-based inks
• Compostable packaging
• Recycled envelopes
• Forest Stewardship Council and recycled content boards
• Green Energy
• Printed in the UK
• CarbonNeutral® Company
FSC Certified Cards
All our products in our current collection are FSC certifed mixed sources, with the exception of Higgledy Piggledy designs with codes lower than H30882 and MP codes between 054 and 102. Our Chain of Custody Number is SA-COC-001654 BN. |
