ggg… green

mmm… paper has always been green – not because it’s trendy but because of the papers we work with are inherently good for the environment. We source papers from all over the world, many of which have long histories of making only small ecological footprints. While working with recycled paper is beneficial to the environment, we also look for papers that are tree-free and come from mills that conserve their use of energy.  Many of our papers are from highly renewable plants rather than forests of trees.  And, some of our papers are made by hand, eschewing the electricity-intensive paper machines.

The Japanese have been making paper since 600 AD when Buddhist monks brought the art from China. The inner barks of three plants are primarily used in making Japanese paper. Kozo (paper mulberry) is the most widely used fiber, and the strongest. It is grown as a farm crop, and regenerates annually, so no forests are depleted in the process.  Because the papers are screen-printed by hand, Japanese papers inherently conserving of energy.

Our selection of Italian paper comes from factories that use a water turbine to generate power, rather than electricity. The majority of the Italian papers are also chlorine-free which means that chlorine is not used in the whitening of the paper.  (Chlorine can be damaging to the environment as it often makes its way into water runoff.)

Many of our domestic papers are also environmentally friendly.   Some American producers of paper have made an effort to use 30-80% post-consumer waste paper. Post consumer waste (PCW) is paper made out of paper which has been used by the end consumer and then is collected for recycling from various recycling programs. This is the best paper to buy, as it uses and creates demand for paper which would normally end up in the landfill and no trees are cut down for making the paper.

Lastly, we make all of our invitations the old fashioned way:  by hand.  Other than laying out text on the computer and printing a portion of your invite, all of the labor is done by hand in our Seattle headquarters. We don’t rely on a great deal of technology or machinery; thus, consuming less power. The business was founded on the principle of using our tactile ability to create something beautiful. And if we save a little piece of the environment in the process, that pleases us too.