What makes our letterpress green?
1% for the Planet member:
1% For The Planet is an alliance of eco-minded businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide. Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, helped dream up this group in 2001, and its business members have donated $30 million so far. Bella Figura is proud to be part of this cool organization where both large and small businesses all are striving to do good. This organization often quotes David Bower of the Sierra Club: "There is no business to be done on a dead planet." It's true. Businesses and individuals have to work together if we want to save the world.
Co-op America Green Business Network member
Co-op America's Green Business Network is the oldest, largest, and most diverse network of socially and environmentally responsible businesses in America. The businesses that are part of this organization believe in sustainable, socially just principles and are truly cutting-edge green. We're proud that our care for the environment and our eco-way of business has allowed us to be a part of this organization. From Co-Op America: "Green businesses operate in ways that solve, rather than cause, both environmental and social problems. These businesses adopt principles, policies, and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, their employees, communities, and the environment." Our thoughts exactly.
NativeEnergy powered
NativeEnergy is a Native-American owned business that builds renewable energy projects for Native Americans, Alaska native villages, family farmers and rural communities. For our letterpress shop to be wind powered, we figure how much energy our print shop uses monthly, then we purchase that same amount in green-E certified RECs (Renewable Energy Credits) from NativeEnergy. The amount of energy that we use is then put back into the grid via NativeEnergy's wind farms and other renewable energy sources. A lot of environmental companies that we admire (Stonyfield Farm, Aveda, Clif Bar, Annie's Homegrown) partner with NativeEnergy in this way as well.
Here at Bella Figura, we believe in the power of letterpress to do good. And for a print shop to do good in this day and age, more is required than simply using recycled papers and soy inks and creating feel-good statements. We need to do stuff. Being an environmental print shop means researching and developing and striving and challenging and setting goals. So here is what makes us an eco-friendly letterpress shop.
We support environmental causes. Through 1% for the Planet, we donate 1% of sales to environmental organizations who are doing essential work to save the planet: The Conservation Fund, Conservation International, and the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) (read more). We're a member of the Co-op American Green Business Network, an organization of truly cutting-edge green businesses. We have partnered with American Forests (the country's oldest citizens' non-profit organization) to help slow global warming through the planting of trees—and we match our customer's tree donations. 100% of sales from our curated favorite packs is donated to the environment.
We reduce our carbon footprint. We are entirely wind-powered through Native Energy. In 2008, we aim to reduce our energy usage in our shop and office by 20%. We purchase bus passes for our employees to encourage public transportation usage. Also for our employees, we subsidize 20-week Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) memberships with a local organic farm, because we believe our food shouldn't travel 1,500 miles to reach us. Working with the Conservation Fund's Go Zero program, we've "zeroed out" our business's carbon footprint by planting trees.
We print sustainably. We use only vegetable-oil based and low-VOC inks, and we use low-VOC and citrus-based solvents. These are better for the environment and our employees' health. We recycle our photo chemistry, film, paper offcuts, and photopolymer printing plates. Empty ink cans and old rags are kept out of landfills. In our break room and our offices, we recycle and compost our waste. We reuse packing materials and corrugated that our vendors send us as well. We donate surplus paper and envelopes 1-2 times a year to Syracuse Public Schools. We reuse paper scraps for office notes.
We use environmental papers, either tree-free or a high recycled content. In our print shop, we use 100% cotton paper made from reclaimed fibers (this paper is made exclusively for us by a 500 year old European paper mill). Our envelope liners are made from 30% recycled paper.
We choose recycled materials. We use 100% post-consumer recycled materials in our shipping. We purchase recycled office products whenever available too.
We go electronic when possible. We send our invoices electronically. Our faxes come to us digitally. We encourage electronic documents in our office. When printing is necessary, we use Boise Aspen 100 (100% post consumer recycled paper) in our office.
We conserve energy. We turn off lights, computers, and equipment in our office and printshop when not in use. All of our lighting is efficient fluorescent lighting.
We challenge ourselves to do better. Check out the environmental goals of our parent company, Boxcar Press.
