HEARTFELT PAPER GOODS
SUSTAINABILITY SERIES: ALL THE WAYS TO SAY
In a world where both brands and consumers alike are increasingly (and quite rightly) concerned about the effects of our buying habits and how this is impacting on the environment at a growing rate, we decided to take the time to sit down with three of our favourite suppliers who we feel are making great steps towards change, through a series of blogs focused on sustainability. In our second Q&A in the series, we spoke to the lovely Claire Leina and Jean-Charles from illustrated stationery brand All The Ways To Say, based in France.
THE CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT
AWTS are a much loved stationery brand here at Mon Pote, both by our customers and staff alike. Their unique and always on-point illustrations are best sellers in our greeting card and art print departments and we honestly don't know how illustrator Claire manages to come up with so many beautiful and innovative ideas for her designs year on year, we had a waiting list for their 2021wall calendar to arrive into store last Christmas!
As well as their forward thinking designs, AWTS have always been on top of their packaging game and were one of the first brands we carried to make the decision to swap over their plastic packaging for biodegradable cello-bags without prompting and will always offer suppliers the option for minimal or no packaging of their products and within their deliveries.
Our Q&A with All The Ways To Say
1% of your sales are given to the 1% for the planet, how did you get involved with this organisation?
We feel very concerned about the environmental issue so we try to be active on a personal basis in our everyday life (waste sorting, composting, we became vegetarian, we use green electricity for our offices…)
When All The Ways To Say got bigger, we really wanted to support an organisation for environmental preservation and we heard about the Patagonia creator's foundation. So we started looking into it a little bit more we found 1% for the planet, which seemed very reliable to us and we really liked the idea of being able to give to several organisations through one.
You were one of the first stationery brands we stocked to move over to using biodegradable cellobag's for you greeting cards, are there any other ways in which you have been able to reduce packaging or waste?
Yes. We use strong paper instead of plastic for almost all the products wrapping whenever it is possible. We use PET, which is recyclable plastic, when we are not able to use paper. Furthermore, our envelopes are all made in recycled paper.
How do you think the impact on environment might have changed an All The Ways to Say customer's buying habits?
We offer our resellers the possibility of removing all packaging when they order, any many do take this up. We have noticed that they feel more and more concerned about environmental issues and they really appreciate buying products made from recycled paper or with recyclable packaging.
What are AWTS's hopes for improving on sustainability in the future?
We are working on the only non-recyclable plastic packaging we have. Unfortunately we have not succeeded finding a supplier who is able to produce recyclable packaging for keychains so far. So we are working on a strong paper packaging to replace this. We also plan to offer an option on our website for customers placing orders so that they could be able to choose products with no individual wrapping.
SEE THE FULL COLLECTION BY ALL THE WAYS TO SAY
