OUR COMMITMENT TO RESPONSIBLE GIFT PACKAGING
In keeping with our commitment to business and consumer transparency, we explain below the steps we have taken to provide responsible gift packaging and we proudly introduce the wonderful folks who have helped us along the way.
When we began to design our gift packaging, we started with two of our core Elegant Roots principles, namely that we strive to 1) operate our business in a socially and environmentally responsible manner; and 2) delight our gift recipients with luxurious but responsible gift packaging.
Those two principles led us to make three basic decisions that informed all of our subsequent choices. In order to lower our carbon footprint and save landfills but still delight our recipients, we decided to offer 1) gift boxes, paper and ribbon entirely made in the USA from the most eco-friendly materials we could find; 2) beautiful, luxurious gift boxes suitable for re-gifting or reuse; and 3) gift packaging / wrapping at no extra charge.
We think we have met our objectives and hope you agree. We send the vast majority of our gifts—free of charge—in our entirely USA-made custom green and black, three-piece boxes finished with our USA-made organic cotton ribbon. We gift wrap —also free of charge—the few oversized items or gifts already nicely packaged. When gift wrapping, we use the same lovely eco-friendly green paper and organic cotton ribbon found on our signature gift box.
Our Packaging Expert, Ryan DeBisschop of California Retail Packaging
In order to meet our demanding goals, we started with team member Ryan DeBisschop. Ryan advises the Elegant Roots team on a wide range of business issues. But luckily for us, Ryan also is a packaging and paper expert who runs California Retail Packaging with his father.
California Retail Packaging is a Marin County, family-owned business with over 30 years experience in retail packaging. The company goal is to afford every retailer the opportunity to grow its business and enhance its brand identity through custom packaging, expert advice and exceptional customer service, including low minimums and fast delivery.
As a valued team member, Ryan shares our strongly-held view that we can and should operate in as eco-friendly a way as possible. Armed with our core principles, Ryan used his boundless energy, creative thinking, limitless resources and extensive experience to meet our challenging goals.
We are proud of the eco-friendly results Ryan and California Retail Packaging have achieved for us. They have designed and assembled a wonderful group of box, ribbon and paper suppliers we are pleased to highlight below.
Boxes
We believe our beautiful custom-made, three-piece box contributes to a memorable gift experience while lowering our environmental footprint. Why? Two major reasons: First, our boxes are constructed entirely in the USA and covered with American-made, eco-friendly paper. We believe that by partnering with American companies, and especially companies close to our warehouse, we minimize the wasteful energy use required to ship empty boxes. Second, our boxes are so luxurious that they encourage reuse as storage or for re-gifting. Indeed, we purposefully chose NOT to brand our boxes with our logo in order to encourage reuse.
For the construction of our custom boxes, Ryan engaged an American family-owned and operated business soon to celebrate 100 years of service. This responsible family business uses recycled materials whenever possible.
Gift Wrapping Paper
Ryan and California Retail Packaging selected another wonderful vendor, Ecological Fibers, Inc., to produce our gift wrapping paper, which is the same paper used to make our custom-made boxes. Ecological Fibers is a world leader in manufacturing environmentally sound covering materials for the book, decorative packaging, photo mount and CD/multi-media packaging industries. This model company pledges to 1) aggressively explore and evaluate alternative environmentally responsible resources; 2) employ only ecologically sound manufacturing processes; 3) provide a healthy and safe work environment; and 4) manufacture environmentally safe products.
Under its Rainbow® trademark, Ecological Fibers has remained committed to protecting the environment since its 1972 inception. Ecological Fibers created its high design Rainbow® products (which we use) to meet or exceed environmental, health and safety standards, using clean state-of-the-art technology. To that end, Ecological Fibers 1) discharges only clean process water; 2) creatively recycles coating waste materials into ingredients for potting soil; 3) recycles scrap paper into new raw materials; and 4) converts non-recyclable waste materials into energy by incineration.
Indeed, on the 25th celebration of Earth Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) honored Ecological Fibers with an environmental award recognizing it as innovator and leader in the manufacture of covering materials.
Ribbon
Ryan and California Retail Packaging also met another one of our very difficult goals: to find pretty but non-petroleum-based, eco-friendly ribbon made in the USA! Ryan worked tirelessly on this challenging requirement and solved the problem in magnificent style.
Partnering with Lawrence Schiff Silk Mills Inc., Ryan was able to supply us with ribbon made in the USA from 100% certified organic cotton. This low-impact ribbon is an all-natural color, with no dyes of any kind used in the manufacture. And it is perfectly reusable—simply smooth out or iron and it is ready to delight again.
We are pleased to support the American weaving industry and particularly proud to be partnering with Lawrence Schiff Silk Mills, which was founded in 1918. With Ryan’s support, Elegant Roots was the first to purchase Lawrence Schiff’s 1.5” USA-made organic cotton ribbon! We applaud Lawrence Schiff for making this wonderful product available to us and many others who want a responsible alternative to petroleum-based ribbons manufactured in questionable facilities overseas.
Tissue
Champion that he is, Ryan also developed our eco-friendly Elegant Roots’ tissue paper. California Retail Packaging, partnering with Seaman Paper, provided us 100% recyclable tissue paper that is 10% post-consumer fiber from SFI-certified pulp and fiber suppliers. Our logo is printed in earth-friendly, water-based and soy inks.
Seaman Paper is another model company we are proud to patronize. Seaman Paper is dedicated to providing the highest quality tissue paper in a responsible, earth friendly manner. In fact, it is Seaman’s explicit company goal “to keep paper out of America’s landfills.”
To reach this goal, Seaman Paper utilizes power from renewable wood chips recycled from shipping pallets, reducing the impact on landfills and effectively reducing emission of greenhouse gases by 85% compared with its old oil-based power system. Since 2005, the company’s on-site water treatment reduces solid waste by over 99% and its water “recycling” has reduced fresh water usage by 22%, saving more than 89,000,000 gallons of water. And that is not all. Seaman Paper also transports all of its paper fiber from waste water to a 300-acre composting facility to be converted into top soil.
Story and Gift Cards
Each Elegant Roots gift comes with two cards. We tuck a Gift Card bearing a personal message (created at checkout) from gift giver to recipient under our organic cotton ribbon. Inside our gift box, we place a Story Card briefly explaining to the recipient why, beyond its beauty and function, the gift carries special relevance.
Once again Ryan and California Retail Packaging found an eco-responsible partner, Mohawk Fine Papers, to meet our card requirements.
We run our Story and Gift Cards on Beckett Concept, part of the Mohawk line of papers. This paper is Forest Stewardship Council and Green-e certified, manufactured with wind-generated electricity and made carbon neutral. It contains 100% post-consumer recycled fiber. And our master print uses soy-based inks, while the individual cards use digital images to reduce the amount of waste paper and eliminate the use of disposable printing plates for short runs.
We are proud to use Mohawk Fine Papers, a company whose goal is to make its environmental footprint smaller and smaller. This means doing more with less, taking decisive actions to eliminate impacts and moving forward with a passion that inspires others to adopt an ethic of preservation and conservation. Mohawk prevents and reduces pollution at its mills and in its industry by using as much renewable, non-polluting energy in manufacturing operations as possible.
Packing and Shipping Materials
In keeping with our commitment to operating in as eco-friendly a way as possible, we work closely with our warehouse partners to provide the best practical options available for packing and shipping our gifts. As a result, we use a variety of materials, depending on gift size and type. We generally use brown, industrial-grade, recyclable cartons and packing paper. We strictly avoid the use of petroleum-based products, but on rare occasions may wrap highly fragile gifts, such as ceramics, in recycled and/or reusable bubble wrap to ensure safe delivery.
We constantly look for new and improved ways to pack and ship with practical, eco-friendly materials and welcome suggestions.
