Sustainability – Product

Sustainable by design

We recognise that the nature of many of our products makes it even more important that we leverage our innovation to create sustainable collections to promote to our customers and beyond. As the world develops, populations are consuming more, which becomes an issue when a large proportion of goods are not only single-use but also not recycled.

This leads to more waste going to landfill and being burned, contributing to global warming and contamination of our oceans. Design Group are committed to promote positive change; to use sustainable sources, to design sustainable ranges and reduce the use of single-use plastics across both our products and their packaging.

Responsible sourcing

The integrity of our product starts with responsible sourcing from both an environmental context as well as a social one. As a business where paper is one of our largest raw materials, we are committed to ensuring that only sustainable sources of paper are used in the near future, to go beyond compliance and certify high standards of forest management. Further to this, our values extend to the fair working conditions and human rights at all stages in our supply chain.

Sustainable product and packaging

We are in a position where we can offer sustainable product ranges at a time where popularity and demand are only going to increase. Now is a key time for us to support the transition to a circular economy whereby not only are our products made from recycled raw materials, but they are also either reused, recycled or composted at the end of their lifecycle.

Around the Group we are championing the reduction in unsustainable packaging. We are creating more sustainable packaging, with more greetings card packaging than ever before becoming plastic free.

We are actively researching and designing ways to reduce the single-use plastic content of our products to reduce the waste and pollution that our business is responsible for. As well as the specific examples detailed over the page, our businesses globally have reduced plastic packaging content in many of their products, including gifting, wrapping paper and cards.

As part of the world’s collective mission to become more sustainable, it is key that people are better informed so that they can consciously make better decisions. Communication and transparency of the sustainability and recyclability of products is becoming increasingly important to our customers. We are striving to increase the simplicity and clarity of this message further by referencing on the front of product packaging, in addition to the ‘On-Pack Recycling Label’ (OPRL) symbols on the back of packaging. We believe that education is paramount in our endeavours to promote environmentally friendly products and habits.

Proposed KPIs

→ Recycled paper content in products and packaging
→ Elimination of single-use plastics in packaging and single-use products

Innovative designs and solutions

We aim to leverage our design and innovation skills to continue to develop new, sustainable ideas to promote to our customers.

In various regions we are successfully designing, producing and selling eco-ranges. These are sustainable greetings collections which use 100% recycled paper amongst other environmentally friendly raw materials and only have recyclable packaging. By promoting these collections, we are encouraging a circular economy which reduces waste and the impacts of production, consumption and disposal on the environment.

Our priorities include:

→ Focusing on the success of the Group’s eco-ranges around the world to further leverage the talent of our designers, along with our trusted and valued relationships with our customers to promote the adoption of eco-ranges going into 2022 and beyond.

→ Working with the leading retailers of the world, such as Walmart, to deliver more sustainable solutions with reduced packaging and to achieve reduced carbon footprint.

Proposed KPIs

→ Fully recyclable product ranges