UK Greetings, one of the country’s leading publishers and manufacturers of greetings cards, has today announced all its cards will be offset through the global conservation charity World Land Trust’s Carbon Balanced Paper programme. The move, one of the largest commitments to date under the Carbon Balanced Paper programme, will offset close to 10,000 tonnes of CO2e relating to the manufacturing of the board used to produce UK Greetings’ 200 million cards per year.
Chris Shaw, Head of Sustainability at UK Greetings, says, “UKG is committed to reducing our impacts in every aspect of our business. Since 2019, we have removed over 250 tonnes of single use plastic from our cards and reduced our carbon footprint by 400 tonnes simply by improving our energy efficiency. With paper being our primary raw material, we work closely with our suppliers to help ensure that every single card and paper product can be physically traced back to sustainably managed forests. Choosing Carbon Balanced Paper was therefore a natural next step in our sustainability journey. We are thrilled to support World Land Trust in their efforts to protect the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats.”
By choosing Carbon Balanced Paper, UK Greetings will fund the protection of 635 acres of threatened habitat in the Khe Nuoc Trong region of Vietnam.
World Land Trust’s largest Carbon Balanced project, Khe Nuoc Trong, is spread over 52,000 acres in North-Central Vietnam. A precious remnant of biodiverse tropical forest in a land blighted by deforestation, Khe Nuoc Trong provides a sanctuary for a rich array of threatened wildlife, including Critically Endangered species like the Sunda Pangolin, Red-shanked Douc Langur, and one of the world’s rarest large mammals: the Saola, or “Asian unicorn”.
Dan Bradbury, Director of Communications and Development, World Land Trust, says, “WLT works with a network of local partners around the world – currently in 20 countries – to save, protect and restore critically threatened habitat for wildlife, and in doing so, lock up carbon and address climate change. WLT has been saving land to save species for more than 30 years, and today our work to protect existing tropical forest habitat is more urgent than ever to save what remains of these vital ecosystems for wildlife. We couldn’t do any of it without the help of our amazing supporters, and we thank UK Greetings for their commitment.”
UK Greetings’ decision to Carbon Balance its entire range of cards comes during a year of unprecedented environmental focus.
On 5th June (World Environment Day) will be the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature. And in November, the UK will host the 26th annual Conference of the Parties to the Convention, or “COP26”, in Glasgow. An event which seeks agreement amongst world leaders to tackle climate, but also acts as a focal point for brands and businesses to emphasise and energise their own net-zero and carbon neutrality commitments.
Sir David Attenborough, COP26’s People’s Advocate and Patron of World Land Trust, says of the charity, “The money that is given to the World Land Trust, in my estimation, has more effect on the wild world than almost anything I can think of.”
About Carbon Balanced Paper
Carbon Balanced Paper, in partnership with international conservation charity World Land Trust, offers a simple way for organisations to balance the impacts of their paper and printed communications by protecting some of the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats.
Since its launch, over 3,000 brands and organisations have taken positive action by choosing Carbon Balanced Paper, helping to balance over 200,000 tonnes of CO2e.
Carbon Balanced Paper is delivered on behalf of World Land Trust by CarbonCO.
Email: info@carbonbalancedpaper.com
Visit: www.carbonbalancedpaper.com
About UK Greetings
For more than 100 years UK Greetings have been proud to create products that help people connect. As part of the American Greetings family, we’ve grown to become one of the markets leading, direct-to-retail greeting card and gift dressing manufacturers in the UK. UK Greetings award winning portfolio of brands stems all genres and has been raising a smile for decades.
At UK Greetings ‘We care’ about people and the world we live in. Our primary purpose is to share happiness, laughter, and love by creating products that celebrate life’s most important moments in all our lives, making the world, that means the world to us, a more thoughtful, sustainable and caring place.
Email: sustainability@ukgreetings.co.uk
Visit: www.ukgreetings.co.uk
About World Land Trust
World Land Trust (Charity No. 1001291) is an international conservation charity that protects the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats acre by acre. Since its foundation in 1989, World Land Trust has funded partner organisations around the world to create reserves and give permanent protection to habitats and wildlife. To date, World Land Trust has helped secure more than 881,000 acres of threatened habitat in 20 countries.
WLT patrons include Sir David Attenborough OM CH FRS, Steve Backshall MBE, David Gower OBE, and Chris Packham CBE.
Visit: www.worldlandtrust.org
