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Focus on…Sustainability
News from the Greeting Card Association last month that 80% of greeting cards sold in the UK are now cello-free made for some uplifting reading. In the same week that the UK’s Prime Minister reneged on his green policies and threw the country’s Net Zero 2050 strategy into total jeopardy, it’s heartening to see the greeting card industry taking the position of leadership on the sustainability front. With incoming legislation set to change the environmental landscape upon which business operate from EPR and CSRD to the European Green Deal – that will force businesses to act more responsibly or pay the hefty price, Rob Hutchins, editor and community manager of sustainable membership organisation, Products of Change fronts PG’s Focus on Sustainability section, by considering what this might all mean for the greeting card sector…
Inset: The UK greeting card industry is accepting the urgency of nurturing a circular economy.
The Paper Trail Short of making jokes about greeting cards having more spine than the current UK government, perhaps the country’s leaders could have done with tapping into the GCA Market Report just to get a real idea of the voting public. Referencing the 17% increase in GCA publisher members reportedly now removing cellophane from their greeting cards and a further 7% pledging to do so over the coming two years, GCA ceo, Amanda Fergusson applauded the industry for being
Joining the POC journey As part of its mission to help transition the greeting card industry to a positive and more sustainable future, Products of Change has established a Paper Goods Workstream to facilitate the connections and conversations that can kick start the positive actions in this voyage of sustainable development. Products of Change now has over 160 member companies, which include Amscan, Belly Button Designs, Danilo, Cath Tate Cards, Carousel Calendars, The Eco-friendly Card Company, GCA, Glick, Hallmark Cards, Out of the Blue Studios, Progressive Greetings and Talking Tables. www.productsofchange.com
“significantly more open-minded to investing in sustainable processes than a year ago, despite the economic backdrop.” No less than 63% of publishers already ensure their cards are fully recyclable, while a further 11%, Amanda explains, are “on a mission to make this so in the next two years.” Whether intentioned or not, that two-year marker bears remarkable significance. We’re on the cusp of a new era for business with incoming legislation promising to deliver some dramatic changes to the landscape upon which it operates. The European Green Deal, new laws on Extended Producer Responsibility, and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directives will each directly impact the way in which we
work, as gradually we experience a shift from the ‘take, make, throwaway’, linear model of operating towards a more circular economy. The rhetoric around these legislative changes coming through has been strong. An agreed draft UN Plastic Treaty, for example – a bill drawn up to curb the production of single-use plastic – wants to ‘cut off the head of the toxic single-use snake’, while the passing of the EU Nature Restoration law earlier this year was hailed a ‘victory for scientists, young people, and a lot of businesses,’ with promises made to safeguard biodiversity. New EU laws against importing products linked to deforestation will also have global reverberations, particularly among governments like Brazil (home to 60% of the Amazon rainforest) which must now decide how it will balance a domestic economy with its rich bioeconomic heritage. Okay, so what’s any of this got to do with greeting cards? Let’s take a closer look. Across the EU, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws will impact how products are packaged and how that packaging is handled throughout the product’s entire lifecycle. The legislation will make producers themselves responsible for the collection, sorting, recycling, or disposal of their product packaging by forcing businesses to pay for the management of it. Left: Products of Change’s founder Helena MansellStopher with colleague Rob Hutchins.
42 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE