The Greeting Card Association’s series of blogs covering Sustainability in the Card Industry is designed to share good practice, celebrating the work that is being done in our industry to reduce our environmental impact and inspire others.
G . F Smith and the Environment
Paper, by its very nature, is one of the world’s most sustainable and renewable materials. Continually recycled and natural, it can repeatedly be brought back to life and repurposed.
Our Papers
G . F Smith papers have a low environmental impact in their manufacturing, and many of the papers that we carry have specific environmental accreditations, which are detailed in our physical Collection Book and online.
Recycled Papers
The majority of our papers are made from virgin pulp, sourced from forests where trees are replaced or allowed to regenerate naturally, but we look out for good recycled papers too.
Several G . F Smith ranges include stocks that are wholly, or partly, manufactured from post-consumer (PCW) or post-industrial waste (PIW). Our Collection also features products that are carbon balanced at source, as well as papers that are manufactured using disposable coffee cup waste.
Our Long Term Goals
As a business we are committed to continually reducing our impact on the environment. We all create carbon and consume plastics. But we can all make conscious decisions to own our part of the problem and make changes to reduce our environmental footprint.
Through a combination of sustainable choices and significant investments we are committed to being a plastic free site by 2025 and a carbon free site by 2027; in fact, to date, we have invested over £250,000 in carbon reduction and energy efficiency programmes and we have reduced our site carbon footprint by over 250 tonnes from our 2019 benchmark, a 30% like for like reduction.
We also do not shy away from paper manufacturing being a carbon generating process. That’s why we are committed to developing ranges of paper with a reduced carbon footprint such as Accent Recycled, as well as developing alternate fibre solutions for our products. In addition, we are working with our principal suppliers to meet their own carbon reduction targets too, in truly innovative and sustainable ways.
We are committed to being a plastic free site by 2025 and a carbon free site by 2027
Abbie Ross, Director of Product Development GF Smith
If you have a story to tell, or information on changes you have made to your business to share, please contact the GCA so that we can share your story to inspire others.
Further information
For latest information and tips on reducing your environmental footprint see the GCA’s Into a Greener Future blog
For other case studies, changes to the law and other important information please visit our members’ library and see our Environment section (please log in to see all relevant information)