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