Our Green Policy

Because Beautiful Things Shouldn't Cost the Earth

We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously, so you can rest assured that not only does your wedding stationery look fabulous, but it’s as environmentally friendly as possible.

Our Environmental Policy means that:

We’re a carbon neutral company

Wnd have been since we started the business. This covers everything we do: from the energy it takes to run our design studio to offsetting the petrol used when delivering your wedding invites. In fact we were one of the first wedding companies to be carbon neutral – so it’s not about jumping on the eco-bandwagon – it’s a commitment we truly believe in. We offset our carbon by planting trees with the Woodland Trust through their Woodland Carbon Scheme, planting native trees and protecting woodlands. We are also committed to the 10:10 campaign to reduce our omissions by 10% by the end of 2010.

Our wedding stationery is printed on recycled card

All the card* we use is 80% post consumer waste (that's the paper you put in your recycling bins), 10% totally chlorine free virgin fibre and 10% elemental chlorine free fibre. It has been awarded the NAPM recycling mark, one of the most prestigious and internationally recognised recycling certificates available. It also has the FSC certification, which shows that the forests are managed in an environmentally appropriate way – better than sustainable which only replants trees for each one removed. More info can be found at www.fsc.org

Why isn’t it 100% recycled?

We would love it to be but unfortunately 100% recycled card can't be recycled as often as 80% and that makes it less sustainable. We want your stationery to have a long lifecycle going on to be newspapers, magazines and maybe even more stationery in the future.

*Unfortunately our seating plans aren’t on recycled paper yet but we are working on it!

Why should I choose Recycled Card for my invites?

Producing recycled paper uses up to 70% less energy than virgin paper* as well as using far less water. *Source Friends of the Earth

It also helps:

Reduce landfill - using recycled paper for our wedding invites stops waste paper from entering landfills. Landfills are a source of methane emissions, and contribute to global warming.

Continue the demand for recycled materials - recycling is only viable if the products made from recovered waste paper are in demand.

Reduce the strain on our forests - paper recycling makes maximum use of valuable materials and reduces the amount of trees that need to be cut down.

Also according to Waste Watch, for every tonne of 80% post-consumer recycled paper purchased instead of virgin fibre paper, we save:
At least 24,000 litres of water.
3000 - 4000 KWh electricity - enough power for an average 3 bedroom house for one year.
And when the quality of the wedding stationery it produces is just as good as from non-recycled card, we think it makes for a powerful argument.

You order and we plant trees

We support the sponsor a tree scheme in sub-Saharan Africa. For every unique order of over £200 received, we will pay for 2 fruit trees to be planted. By planting fruit trees we not only help to offset around 2 tonnes worth of carbon emissions, but also reduce soil erosion and help to give families in the developing world much needed extra food and a vital source of nutrition.

Modern printing techniques = less harmful chemicals

We use the most modern digital printing technology. This is the cleanest way to print without the use of harsh chemicals and wasteful print plates, yet it still delivers top quality wedding stationery. We avoid environmentally damaging printing processes such as metallic inks that contain carcinogens. When material printed with these inks ends up in landfills, the heavy metals can leech out and enter the ground water. We also print everything here in the UK so you know it has not been air freighted across the world before it gets to you, it also means we’re supporting UK jobs and companies.

Windpowered web hosting

Our website is hosting by Makehay, which is powered by wind power, a 100% renewable energy. It means that green energy powers their server, routers and air conditioning. This is really important to us as web and data servers are becoming a big contributor to global warming.

Recycled packaging

All the packaging we use is recycled: the cardboard boxes and tissue paper that we wrap your order in. Our packing tape is 30% recycled and biodegradable and so is our bubble wrap. We write our notes on the back of old envelopes, recycle as much of our office waste as we can and we make sure we always print on both sides of any paper we use. We also recycle our ink cartridges and generally try to be as green around the office as possible.

Cards with a heart

No animals, old-aged-pensioners or children are harmed in the making of our stationery.

When we say we make eco-friendly wedding stationery, we mean it. If you have any good ideas for making cherrygorgeous more eco-friendly, we’d love to hear from you.