Focus on Sustainability

The UK is at a sustainability crossroads right now, with only one viable option to take. Rob Hutchins, editor and community manager of Products of Change, the sustainability membership organisation looks at how the greeting card sector is aligning itself with the economy of nature.

Below: Products of Change’s ceo Helena Mansell-Stopher and Rob Hutchins, editor and community manager. Below middle: The Seed Card Company is one of many publishers to have gone plastic-free, including on intransit banding.

It would be irresponsible to begin hitting you over the head with the Products of Change sustainability stick without addressing the elephant in the room first. At the time of writing, the UK’s economy is spiralling out of control while interest rates, mortgages, and the cost of living is soaring upwards.

It’s true, with every headline and Bank of England update, the idea of going hell for leather on slash and burn politics - or Investment Zones and as our new Chancellor would frame it - grows ever more appealing.

With the chips seemingly down, it’d be all too easy to put our grand net zero sustainability plans back in the ‘nice to have’ folder. Which is why we mustn’t.

The country has reached a crucial fork in the road of economic history. But the truth of it is, there really is only one viable option. Growth at all costs - at the cost of nature - is a fast-track road to disaster.

The reason of course, is that nature is our economy. You don’t need to be told that. A sector dependent entirely on the continual regeneration of the natural materials that drive its total revenue? Please, talk about preaching to the choir.

Food and water security, protection from climatic extremes, the carbon cycle, public health, and the air we breathe. These too are all dependent on nature. Tony Juniper CBE, the chair of Natural England really is onto something when he says: “growth that results in the destruction of nature will, in the end, cease.”

By contrast, economic development that moves towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions and the recovery of nature is a very different ball game. And it’s here that the greeting card industry really is coming into its own.

We are delighted to count a growing number of greeting card and allied companies as members of Products of Change - Danilo, Hallmark, Glick, Out of the Blue/Into the Green Publishing, Cath Tate Cards, Carousel Calendars, Talking Tables, Belly Button Designs and Amscan to name a few - and hope to see these joined by many others. It has been so encouraging to track how the greeting card community has made such impressive strides on the sustainability front right through the supply chain, from the paper and envelope companies, specialist printers, warehouse operators, publishers and retailers, from the largest companies through to the tinies. And the GCA recent Conference and AGM included some great insights, both from its members and consumer research findings from Kantar that signal the future green path (see News).

It was great to see that Card Factory, the largest greeting card retailer in the UK included news of its sustainability progress and commitment as part of its half year results, partnering with the Woodland Trust, appointing an energy consultancy to provide some enhanced insight and recommendations to reduce its Scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions as part of this.

There’s no doubt that sustainability is a tricky topic to navigate. But while the world’s focus is on money, it’s important to remember that sustainability measures can also be money-saving measures. It is also the right thing to do.

It's a fundamental principle of the Circular Economy to design waste out of your production cycle while products are retained at their highest value state. When a greeting card, at its end-of-life state, can be planted to grow food, we’re suddenly looking at a model that increases that product’s value at end-of-life. We’re looking at the future of regeneration.

At the recent Brand Licensing Europe show a few weeks ago the deputy director for the United Nations’ Regional Information Centre, Caroline Petit told an audience in attendance of her keynote address that “sustainability is not a limitation, but rather a trigger to bring more passion and real creativity into the industry.” The very same can be said of the greeting card sector. And when you’re an industry whose affinity lies closer to the regeneration of nature than most others, there’s even more reason to unlock the potential.

Below: The POC/Junk Couture Catwalk saw students share their creations made out of twine, bread packets, sweet wrappers, plastic bottles and spoons.

Inset: Saving vital trees and natural views like this is the reason to be sustainable.

Battening down the hatches may be an understandable reaction to the current cost-ofliving crisis, but saving the world is even more important. With industry campaigners like Carousel Calendars’ md Steve Plackett concerned that “none of the politicians are focusing on the environment and it’s all about cost-of-living”, PG shines the spotlight on what just some greeting card and stationery publishers have been doing to continue the sustainability push.

On a roll to eco-friendly wrap

On a mission to eliminate all single-use plastics, Caroline Gardner has taken another step towards its December 2023 deadline with the launch of plastic-free roll wrap.

In its latest development towards improving sustainability across the greeting card, wrap and gift business - from retail shop, through to every stage of the production process - the company’s new product is made entirely of paper, including the sticker.

Senior account manager Luca Bridges explained: “The eco-friendly rolls are created without the need for an inner core, leaving space for an additional two extra metres of wrap and, where plastic wrapping has previously been used to prevent damage to the edges of the roll, an extra 10cm of paper has been added to allow for trimming instead, so no paper will be lost due to wear and tear.”

Since 2020 all finishes on Caroline Gardner greeting cards have been dispersible and biodegradable, so both cards and envelopes fully and naturally biodegrade after use, or are completely recyclable.

The publisher also has a full patent for the plastic-free packaging solution InFold, which fits over the corner of a card and envelope to keep them together, and every order dispatched from its warehouse uses biodegradable paper packaging and is taped with a paper alternative.

Left: No plastic wrap required on Caroline Gardner’s new rolls, and its InFold clasp has a full patent.

Push on plastics

Reducing plastic usage is a big push at Zebra MTD, home of Carousel Calendars, Otter House and Calendar Club, where 65% of its product range is already in plastic-free packaging, and this improves every year. Covering greeting cards, wrap, gift and calendars, the group is signed up to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), having measured its carbon footprint back in 2019 to give an important baseline against which to set the targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Managing director Steve Plackett heads up the group’s sustainability team, known as Zest, which is tasked with reducing plastic and carbon and also covers its wildlife project and mapping waste streams. Above: Steve Plackett “To reduce our carbon leads Carousel’s push footprint we took a long hard on sustainability. look at offsetting, and decided against it - it felt like an easy way out,” Steve said. “Our facilities manager Andy researched the SBTi scheme and we felt it was what we were looking for as it’s a way of planning how to cut carbon by 46% by 2030, and is aligned with what we need to do as citizens, companies and countries to get to net zero.” The group has also changed power sources to renewable energy and biogas, its small car fleet is now electric or hybrid with EV charging points in the car park, and it uses simple tricks such as LED lighting, cutting thermostat levels, switching off lights and closing doors. The company is encouraging the use of sustainable materials in its supply chain as well as aiming to persuade at least half its key product suppliers to sign up to SBTi by 2025.

Riding the recycling route

Cath Tate Cards was one of the first publishers to recognise the importance of being eco-friendly: “As a business we’ve printed on 100% recycled paper for almost 40 years,” said director Rosie Tate. The business was started by Rosie’s mum Cath four decades ago but the recycled paper she began with was low quality, thin, and it was very hard to achieve a crisp, bright-white look to the board. Rosie added: “Now recycled paper really has come on leaps and bounds. Mark Rawson from Paper Gould helped source and develop our 100% recycled version of the Veltique paper with an Italian paper mill, and the board we have is really premium board. “Being an eco/green publisher has always been very important to us and we’re keen to encourage other publishers to print on recycled paper. We might all produce a single-use product but that doesn’t mean it has to be completely Top and above: Cath Tate’s new Max Made Me Do It range is on 100% recycled board. single use - if you see what I mean!”

Designs on reuse

Continuing on from the LED lighting installation and other key environmental projects Danilo completed last year, the company has made significant progress across many areas of its sustainability plan.

“We’ve been working closely with the Climate Partner organisation to evaluate our carbon footprint and find ways we can reduce this going forward,” md Daniel Prince said. “We’ve installed electric vehicle charging points at our office and are in the process of getting solar panels fitted.”

Embracing sustainability challenges as opportunities to innovate and improve, Danilo now includes labelling on all products to help consumers with the recycling process, with its desk easel and desk block calendar range completely plastic-free and recyclable, and this year has worked hard to double the amount of plastic-free wall calendars in its portfolio.

And by putting reuse as well as recycling at the forefront of product design, innovations include the monthly prints in the deluxe calendars being able to be detached and framed, while the postcard desk easels have removable pages for posting off to friends and family, and the new PAW Patrol gift bag has a game of snap cards on the sides that can be cut out and played with. Daniel added: “We continue searching for new and cost-efficient ways to reduce our cellowrapping even further, ensuring we communicate frequently with our suppliers to discuss ideas. We also appreciate that tackling the climate crisis requires collaboration at all levels so we remain an active member of Products of Change and the GCA, where discussions are ongoing within the greeting card industry on how we can all work together to improve sustainability.”

Cutting out the core

Super eco-friendly Christmas roll wraps have arrived at Deva Designs where the sustainablysourced and recyclable 50cm x 5m rolls have been made in Italy without the customary central cardboard tube, so cutting down on waste.

Available in 15 designs, the festive wrap has biodegradable packaging and is an extension to the full range of rolls available, some of which is also sustainably-sourced and recyclable.

Above and below: Deva Designs has lost the cardboard core.

Luxury which does no harm

After 18 months of research, design, and planning, Flame Tree has pulled off the feat of turning its entire 2023 calendar range shrinkwrap free. “That’s allowed us to print several hundred thousand calendars plasticfree, printed on and packed in recyclable materials,” md Frances Bodiam said. “It’s a significant contribution to improve the long-term sustainability of our publications. This has totally removed our calendars’ single-use plastic so that it doesn’t harm our oceans or environment.” The calendars stand alongside Flame Tree’s eco-friendly range which also includes ethical, sustainable, and earth-friendly jigsaw puzzles - locally sourced with renewable board and a recyclable bag - as well as the use of FSC-certified paper on all new art diaries, planners and fiction books. Frances added: “We all live on a planet that needs protecting and, with climate change concerns at an all-time high, Flame Tree is actively striving to promote ethical development and environmental conservation. We look forward to a greener future, developing luxury products sustainably that will protect generations to come.”

Above and below: No plastic at Flame Tree.

Inset: Sue with a WLT certificate for carbon balancing.

Long-time campaigners

The clue is in the name at The Ecofriendly Card Company, the long-time campaigner for saving the planet has been banging the sustainability drum since starting producing greeting cards back in 1993, winning various awards along the way.

“Our relationships with World Land Trust (WLT) and Carbon Zero are really important to us as a way of both off-setting carbon emissions and also making a positive contribution to the environment and impoverished communities,” co-owner Sue Morrish explained.

Having moved to compostable cello bags over 15 years ago Sue, who runs the business with husband and photographer Scott, has been offering a card clasp alternative since February, and she said: “Now 50% of our orders are going out clasped, and we only supply independent retailers, no supermarkets or brokerage, so our percentage isn’t skewed by large volumes of unbagged stock going to big chains.

“The only issues we’ve had are from a handful of retailers who price their cards individually and use non-peelable price labels. We’ve also developed two different labels with different glues, one for our gloss-coated cards and another for heavilytextured boards.”

Despite current stock shortages and spiralling costs, the company remains fully committed to using 100% recycled papers for all cards and envelopes, Sue added: “The only thing that isn’t is our calendar which is 40% recycled and that was due, in part, to issues with paper availability.

“We’ve also designed a new format calendar that doesn’t need a bag. It has an extended fold-over cover, sealed with an easy-peel calendar label. This removable flap is hidden inside the calendar when it's labelled. The flap holds the grey-board stiffener in place inside the calendar and protects the base of the pages. However, retailers still have the option of adding a compostable bag if they want.”

Building circularity

Right: UKG’s Julian McGowan.

Having put sustainability front and centre of the company for several years, UK Greetings’ goal is to do the right thing and only use materials and processes that are ethical and do not prohibit the recyclability of the card. When planning, creating, and launching each design into the market, this is the publisher’s key principle. “Naturally all our boards are FSC,” explained Julian McGowan, creative director of creative services and sustainability product pillar lead. “This is a standard now for all ethical publishers but, in addition, we’ve introduced boards that are from 100% recycled content. To add to this, we partner with World Land Trust and every single card and envelope we produce has been carbon balanced. “At UKG we go beyond the basic expectation of paper sourcing, by directly protecting threatened areas and offsetting our carbon emissions. “While our goals are clear, we also need to take consumers on this journey with us, so they understand the choices they make. Our insight shows many consumers believe greeting cards are recyclable anyway. So, where elements of cards aren’t recyclable our job is to advise the consumer what they need to remove before recycling. All new designs released from our studios will do just that, with special sustainability messaging on the back page giving clear direction how best to recycle the card. “All these key approaches are enabling UKG to build circularity into its product. We’re all very proud of the journey we have been on, excited for the one ahead and continue to challenge ourselves with our sustainability goals.”

Growing Woodland Trust partnership

Left: All Hallmark card-stock is sustainably sourced.

Sending cards is helping trees thanks to a partnership between Hallmark and the Woodland Trust which sees 20p from every order placed on the publisher’s www.hallmark.co.uk website going to the environmental charity. The monies aid the UK's largest woodland conservation charity in its efforts to create, protect and restore more of the country’s native woodlands, where it owns and cares for more than 1,000 free, public woods.

“We’ve been FSC-certified for the last 14 years,” explained Hallmark head of brand marketing Jess Lovelace, “but we want to do all we can to protect our environment and to sustain the woodlands that provide so much for us all, and we know this exciting new partnership will help us to do even more.”

The 20p donation from each order is at no extra cost to the customer, and each online sale helps the charity protect and restore Britain’s precious ancient woodland and plant native trees and woods, creating resilient landscapes for the benefit of people and wildlife.

Jess added that sustainability is at the core of everything at Hallmark: “We’ve always been driven by the desire to put more care into the world, and our goal is to help people live a more caring and connected life, whether that be caring for and connecting with people or caring for the planet.” Continued on page 35

Know your carrots

Post-consumer waste and vegan-friendly inks are par for the course at The Seed Card Company, and the publisher has now added to its seed store with a brand-new 12-design collection embedded with carrot seeds so the card can be planted once the occasion is over. With seed cards gift tags supplied with twine, and the newlylaunched wrapping paper completing the company’s offer, customers can gift the perfect card and present in a great sustainable fashion.

Natural inclinations

Committed to building a “truly sustainable business model”, IG Design Group has launched phase two of its Eco Nature brand, including a move into single cards, offering 33 designs featuring affirmations, positivity, coordinated designs and honest sentiments, along with eco facts. With the company’s mission being to make a difference through producing carbon neutral, recycled, sustainable and ethical products made in the UK, the whole Eco Nature range uses 100% recycled papers, and is fully recyclable - even the brochure is printed on recycled material. “IG Design Group UK is committed to building a truly sustainable business model,” stated commercial director Adrian Coates. “We’re achieving this by creating a sustainable organisation of like-minded colleagues who truly believe in using methods that do not harm the environment and so contribute to securing natural resources and quality of life for future generations.”

As a global manufacturer and producer of commercial celebrations products, Adrian said the group “understood it’s our duty to launch a brand which steps away from Far Eastern manufacture and transportation, in favour of supporting and celebrating UK manufacturing and UK employment within all participating functions”.

The UK arm of the global group is continuing to invest in its manufacturing capabilities with a third bag machine arriving in 2023 to secure UK jobs and offer shorter lead times.

Above: Showing off IG Design’s eco credentials.

Having a truly ripping time

Danielle Vaughan enjoys a thoroughly ripping time every day as tearing up waste paper is what she does for a living.

As a mixed-media artist, Danielle rescues rubbish from landfill and is best known for her paper collages where she makes detailed portraits that she then photographs and turns into greeting cards, which she sells under the Paperpeutic brand.

And she also runs workshops in places such as prisons and schools, where the therapeutic benefits of tearing up paper go down well on the mental health front: “Every workshop I’ve ever run, someone always says ‘this is so therapeutic’, so that’s where the name came from.”

Danielle’s latest product is art boxes which contain everything needed to make a version of one of her portraits which will be unique to the maker as “every box will be different because of what paper I get in - even the box is recycled as the backing for the cardboard canvas I include.”

She turned her large portrait of the late Queen into a card which was sent to Her Majesty for her platinum jubilee in the summer, and Danielle received a letter from a lady-in-waiting. She now hopes the original could go into the Queen’s portrait gallery.

Above: Paperpeutic’s Danielle on her stand at Top Drawer.

Stripping down bio bags

Compliments were flying at the recent Autumn Fair where Sabivo Designs debuted its unique biodegradable strips that keep the cards and envelopes together as well as offering some protection for the jewels and foiling. Founder Sabina Kovacheva explained: “I partnered with Transwrap to design them so I’m the first to do this. I had the bio bags and first my idea was to cut them in half, just using the bottom half of the bag, but I didn’t like it, so we’ve gone for the band. “I did them because I have foil and jewels that I wanted people to see. The band can be moved up the card to cover my sequins.”

Above and left: Sabina with Transwrap owner Peter Yorston and the new bio-strips.

Going for the eco ethos

The Creative Ox owner and founder Kirsty Tizzard has set up her company with an ecofriendly ethos as everything is sourced in the UK and she uses post-consumer pulp paper made from recycled coffee cups and the like. There’s 100% renewable energy for the production process with the cards hand screen-printed in Wales by Peris & Corr and even the packaging is compostable.

Below: Kirsty Tizzard sources everything in the UK.

Seeds of change

Hannah Marchant creates eco-friendly cards with a difference as they’re all made of seed paper, including the envelopes as well as her business cards, which she works with a manufacturer local to her Somerset base to produce. Hannah said: “The paper is collected from schools and offices and pulped with mainly a wildflower mix added, although I do have some carrots and a few herbs, and lettuce and veggie seeds. “I have to be careful with the size of the seeds as I print them all myself so the paper has to fit through the rollers!”

Below and right: Hannah at Top Drawer and her latest designs.

Finding a use for offcuts

Lizzie Parker and her Penguin Ink team are doing lovely things to make sure the offcuts of 100% recycled paper from their letterpress-printed cards don’t go to waste.

All the bits are collected up to make belly bands for the publisher’s tea towels, hang tags for aprons and pot holders, and a whole new range of Tiny Notes luxury florist cards.

Lizzie said: “In the past our offcuts have been used for our lovely correspondence cards and compliment slips but we're really excited about our newest additions and how they're helping us to reduce our waste. Also, we're excited that about 95% of our cards now go out naked and those that don't are wrapped in biodegradable cellos.

“Sustainability is very important to us as a company and utilising the way letterpress cards are printed to reduce waste is just a no brainer for us.”

Below: Penguin Ink uses its offcuts.

No opportunity wasted

As Christmas approaches there can be a balancing act for retailers to stock festive ranges but not be stuck with it on Boxing Day as it can be harmful to the environment if stock simply ends up in landfill.

Vent For Change founder Evan Lewis has a trick for this: “We’ve created simple Merry Christmas page markers for our standard notebooks - presented and displayed well these give a highly effective Christmas feel to the range, yet once the big day has passed they can be removed so no stock is wasted.”

With ethical options set to be a cornerstone of retail for many years, the stationery brand is a great example of how a small company with a sustainable and social philosophy can capture the attention of both retailers and consumers.

Set up in 2017 by Bristol-based environmental and social entrepreneur Evan to highlight the issues surrounding both people and planet, the brand also supports children’s education projects worldwide with every item sold.

While offering a full range of recycled, reclaimed and sustainablysourced items such as its new refillable, recycled and sustainable nondated weekly planners with covers made from recycled leather and 100% sustainable paper refills, Evan said: “Beautiful design is still paramount! Gone are the days when consumers were happy to accept poor design and bland colourways to help the planet, these days eco-friendly options absolutely have to stand alongside their competitors from a design and quality perspective.” As consumers become more discerning, another issue facing retailers is how and where products are made. The Vent range is all produced in the UK and mainland Europe.

Above and left: Vent For Change’s beautiful design is reclaimed and recyclable.

Seeing red on climate change

Redback believes that a quality product can only be classed as such if it can be disposed of and brought into being in an ecologically-responsible way - owner Chris Stanley said: “We may only be a greeting card company tucked away in a sunny corner of Devon, but we’re doing our bit! As Greta Thunberg would say, ‘no one is too small to make a difference’.” And the artists Redback works with are keen to make sure the cards are printed on sustainable board with Amber Fossey, the illustrator behind the Zeppelinmoon range, specifically requesting recycled envelopes and boards for her cards which Chris and the team enthusiastically agreed to. Chris added: “We’re proud to say the board we use is FSCcertified, and we use compostable cello to transport our naked and clasped cards. These efforts mean we can sleep easy at night knowing Redback produces its products in a sustainable and future-focused way.”