What We Do to Reduce Our Impact on the Taiao (Environment)

A blog about how we contribute to, and reduce our impact on te taiao (environment).

Our commitment to our Taiao (environment) is an ongoing process of improvement for our small business.  It is a part of our core business values as a Maori & Pacific owned business. The print industry has a large impact on te Taiao, so it is important to us to find ways to minimise our own impact.

Making quality products you keep

We aim to make quality products that our customers keep, and or fully use because they love it so much.  Think about how many products you have bought in the past that you stopped using, or casually threw away when finished, often adding to landfill. While some of our products (i.e. notepads and stickers) have a finite use, we know many of our customers keep their planners and notebooks for years – as they have retained their value over time.

 Vegetable or soy based inks

Our printers use vegetable or soy based inks which are both cost effective, have less impact on the environment, having a VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) rating of 4% compared to petroleum based inks that emit between 25 – 40% of VOCs.  Vegetable and soy based inks are also renewable, compared to petroleum based made from crude oil.

Fsc certified printers

All of our products (made in New Zealand or China) are printed by FSC certified printers.  FSC – Forest Stewardship Council is an international, non governmental organisation dedicated to promoting responsible management of the worlds forests via timber certification.  In addition, one of our NZ based printers is a Net Toitu carbon zero certified printer and member of the PEFC – Programme for the endorsement of Forest Certification.

Double side print & standard sizing

We work closely with our printers for their recommendations of best finished sizes to minimise paper waste.  Majority of our printed journals and planners are also double sized to get the maximum use of product

Digital Options

Where possible we provide digital options of our products so that people have the option to have a zero print product.

Carbon neutral deliveries

We pay for the Shopify Planet programme that automatically calculates our shipping emissions (based on all the orders made on our shopify ecommerce store) and ensures high quality carbon removal to neutralise our shipping footprint. In practice it means we pay between 3.5c- 15c per order towards the carbon removal program.

Repurpose all stock packaging

All of our stock arrives from our printers in various box sizes that we repurpose in sending out orders, as storage boxes within our pack house and any additional we give away for free to the public – which many people snap up for moving house as they are often thick durable boxes to hold our heavy planners!

Compostable & recyclable packaging supplies

All our orders are packed in either paper, or recyclable / compostable mailer bags. We use boxes and water activated tape for our larger shipments that are packed into cardboard boxes (no laminate).  

Minimise waste

We try to minimise the use of stickers and additional packaging inserts which may look lovely and make great ‘unboxing’ videos on social media – but they are un-necessary waste. We ensure our products are safe and secure when packed, but we do not add in un-necessary branding items that have a detrimental environmental impact. 

 Last Words

We know these are small steps so far, but each year as our business grows we identify more ways we can improve and reduce our impact on te Taiao. We value our customers feedback on further ways we can improve and lessen our footprint on te taiao as a small business