Our Mission
To design greeting cards and meaningful items, with both people and the planet in mind. To be flexible with the suppliers we use, be adaptable and innovative with evolving technologies, and in doing so, make good decisions for our planet & the environment, whilst encouraging the people we work with to do the same.
No Planet B
At Ink and Ivy, we want to touch human hearts whilst treading lightly on our planet. Our company was born from a desire to prolong the life and purpose of a greetings card whilst being respectful to the world we live in.
The giving of a greetings card is a meaningful and thoughtful gesture, that billions of humans across our planet use to communicate, express feelings, and connect to one another,
By their very nature however, greetings cards are short lived, often discarded or thrown into our recycling bins within weeks of receiving them. Whilst the giving of a card is such a meaningful act, we use valuable and often unrestored resources from our planet.
With a focus on longevity and the meaningful connections that greetings cards facilitate, we also want to be sustainably ambitious and considered in the full lifecycle of a greetings card. From the energy and emissions created in extraction, production and printing of materials, shipping of finished goods, through to consumer disposal, there are many environmental considerations including plastic waste and carbon emissions.
We want to be innovative in our thinking, going a step beyond sustainability, thinking regeneratively, giving back to our planet rather than taking.
Maintaining a Balance of resources extracted and resources restored.
As outlined in the 1987 United Nations Brundtland Commission, sustainable development is defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
Promoting a Circular Economy -
Promoting a Circular Economy -
Our long-term target is to avoid using any virgin wood fibres, ensuring the papers used in our products are made with either 100% post-consumer recycled material or upcycled from agricultural or otherwise wasted plant matter.
Make it stand out.
Our retailer ‘Point Of Sale’ display units are constructed from either FSC certified recycable corrugate or rigid ECOboard. The rigid ECOBoard stands are constructed from board made from agricultural residues such as straw, reeds and other agriculturally wasted plant mater. The wasted plant mater is bonded together with the natural lignine of the cellulose fibres, with only 3% additive without any formaldehyde nor other VOCs.
Crops and agriculture absorb more CO2 than most forests or trees. It’s faster growing, regenerating within 6 months depending on the country. By using excess and wasted argricutrial matter, bio-based materials like ECOBoards can save 1.78 kg of carbon for every kg produced.
FSC® CERTIFIED
Where virgin fibres are required for commercial or technical reasons, then we ensure that all components including the card, envelope and packing bands are FSC® certified with a chain of custody certificate.
FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council, a non-governmental organisation that certifies forests and promotes responsible forestry. FSC-certified forests are managed in a way that meets strict environmental, social, and economic standards. A chain of custody certification ensures the FSC materials we are using have been checked at every stage of processing, so our consumers can be confident that they are genuinely FSC® certified.
OUR CARBON STORY
‘Stories of the Sea’ Innovative papers
Our Stories of the Sea art card collection is printed on papers using harvesting waste from seaweed farming. By using seaweed by-products instead of Virgin pulp, we prevent up to 4 tonnes of trees from being cut down for every 1 tonne of seaweed. *This seaweed paper has 88% lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) than conventional virgin pulp paper. With 67% reduction in water usage.
*Notpla.com/paper
Using seaweed paper was a conscious decision at Ink and Ivy. When researching alternatives to wood fibres we found the credentials of seaweed astonishing. It’s one of nature’s most renewable resources whilst reports showing that some seaweed can grow 60 times faster and sequester 20 times more carbon than land-based crops. Globally abundant, it doesn’t require freshwater, land or fertiliser. Seaweed is one of our greatest weapons against climate change, reducing ocean acidification as well as effectively absorbing carbon.
The envelope you receive with our art card collections, is also a paper made with excess seaweed from marine environments. As well as being Recyclable and Biodegradable, the paper is made in a factory that uses self-produced hydroelectric renewable energy.
Tales of the Trees Innovative papers
Our Tales of the Tress card collection is printed on unbleached papers using harvesting waste from agricultural farming. This high-quality paper is produced with 100% green energy making the paper Co2 neutral. The manufacturer of the paper is B Corp certified meaning the company’s entire social and environmental impact has been measured.
* An environmental lifecycle study completed on this paper (from the use of raw materials, energy, water, chemicals, machines and waste over the life cycle of a product), concluded an environmental rating that is 47% better than FSC paper made from wood fibres and 29% better than recycled paper.
* calculated by the ReCiPe midpoint 1.07 method
CARBON OFFSETTING
The above steps we have taken, along with material and supply chain selection, certainly helps to limit our carbon emissions. We will always action what is technically and commercially possible for our business and as we grow.
Accurately quantifying carbon emissions is a difficult and often impossible task. With so changing variables, we will take a common-sense approach. We will continue to select materials that avoid virgin wood fibres, use waste and upcycled plant matter and seek converting & printing facilities with serious sustainability goals.
As we strive to become a carbon negative company, this will be obtainable through conscious decision making and environmental impact studies. At this early stage in our sustainability journey and business growth, we have also decided to make donations to Tree’s for All, buying carbon credits that contribute to a globally recognised carbon offsetting program.
Furthermore, through sales of our Tales of the Trees collection, we are also donating a percentage of our sales to the World Land Trust.
As a start-up company, we believe these actions show our genuine commitment and proactive approach to protecting the planet and compensating for any environmental impact from the full lifecycle of our products.
OUR SUPPLY CHAIN
Our team have years of experience, working with leading printers & manufacturers in Europe and Asia. We have carefully chosen to work with the leading suppliers & factories to produce our products. Our production partners operate with transparency, integrity, complying with international laws with ethical, sustainable and quality certification.
SUPPLY LOCATION
Whilst most collections are printed in the UK, we are printing our Wallypops collection in China. We would love to manufacture all our collections closer to home, but as a start-up company with many commercial challenges, printing and assembling our Wallypops collection is China is our only commercially viable option at this stage. Manufacturing in China gives the opportunity to test new designs a flexibility with printing that would otherwise but financially unobtainable closer to home.
We know there is a greater carbon footprint associated to importing goods from abroad, but we believe our carbon reduction initiatives mentioned above, and ensuring our Chinese partner is working to the highest environmental and ethical standards, is the best approach we can take at this stage in our journey.
Our Chinese Partner
Our manufacturing partner in China is a family run company who we have known and worked with for many years. We have visited their factory on many occasions and have complete trust and faith in their ethical, environmental and quality standards. There initiatives include the following:
1. Collects rainwater to flush the toilets and water the plants. This alone saves 280,000 litres of water a year or equivalent to 46,600 toilet flushes.
2. Recycles up to 95% of their production waste, including paper, plastics, corrugate materials, wood from our die cut plates and metal from our printing plates. What does not get recycled we make sure it is disposed of responsibly.
3. In 2017 switched from fluorescent tube lighting to a full LED lighting. In doing so managed to save 9.02 KWh of energy which is equivalent to planting 186 trees annually.
4. Dedicated to ethical production and improving the lives of their employees and local communities holding many ethical, environmental and quality certifications and accreditations. The factory is FSC certified and accredited to Sedex, Disney and Wallmart ethical standards.
