Whilst recycled papers and sustainably forested pulps are all incredibly important - there are other elements to our company that we have also chosen to ensure ecological and ethical practices are at the forefront.
By producing here in England, and largely only within the south-east we ensure our carbon footprint is small. We don't ship huge orders of notebooks in from Europe or the Far East, or run up any huge air miles buying in overseas product. We source locally, and produce all we can ourselves, in house.
Back in 2019 we pledged to be '
Plastic Free by 2020' which we successfully achieved. More specifically this meant an end to plastics in our packaging and a push towards more ecological methods. We supplemented plastic packaging for natural alternatives and use our own 'shredded seconds' as padding where needed. We have also replaced our cardboard tubing with more eco friendly card board wraps that don't have plastic ends and all our products, and their packaging are fully recyclable.
For the cards and products we print in house, we use a hand operated Adana letter press. We use ink containing a selection of organic and earth pigments dispersed into a traditional vegetable oil varnish, so once again our hand printed cards are environmentally friendly. The samples and off-cuts are reused as test cards and we donate our surplus stock to a local hospice and school for fundraising events.
As a sustainable stationery brand, we are also proud to ensure that when it comes to our team they feel valued. We are a small family-run business and we want our team to feel part of that. We ensure we are a living-wage provider and are flexible and encouraging of everyones work-life balance. For me, running a sustainable business is about the people and the planet, and we are doing our bit, in our little paper corner of the world to make the small differences we can.
Here is a little more about they sustainable stationery journey many of our products go on before they become the products you know and love. All our
cards are made from raw materials supplied by paper experts;
GF Smith. They have been making paper here in England for over 135 years, and in my opinion their quality is unrivalled.
A few years ago they introduced their Extract papers; They follow the above step by step process to become our best loved recycled card stock. It helped us journey to a more sustainable stationery brand without compromising on design.
It sees post consumer coffee cup waste repurposed into beautiful paper. From our
Christmas collection,
Kids Range and many of our
best selling everyday cards are all made using this process. We have then foiled our designs onto the cards, but this doesn't interfere with their ability to be fully recyclable should you wish to or better yet, hold onto the cards you receive and treasure them to look back on over the years.
Our
kids collection showcases this very process as all the cards have been foiled upon the moon shade of the extract up-cycled card material.
It was so important to me that this collection was fully recycled as we aim to educate the next generation about a more sustainable world.
The
Kids Animal gift wrap is another recycled product in the collection. Made up of 80% de-inked recycled waste and 20% chlorine-free pulp. It is also, as with all our products made from 100% FSC.
(FSC is a certification that promotes responsible management of the world's forests via timber certification.)
