Green Paper - Environmental Responsibility
For us, creating a high-quality product should be an economic activity that minimises its effects on the environment.
This attitude guides many of our decisions: from using sustainable resources (timber from FSC/PEFC-certified forests), to choosing an independent clean power provider, to compensating for CO2 emissions, to optimising packaging for our shipments.We even offer curling ribbon made of cotton so it can be recycled along with the paper. For similar reasons we also have never used plastic shopping bags.
Green Paper - a Mark For Your Customers.
The consumer's purchase decisions are more and more influenced by how companies treat the environment. Studies show that higher-income earners are particularly sensitive in this regard.
You also support a sustainable economy by buying Disegno products. The Green Paper logo shows customers that you care about the environment. You can get the logo as a free banner for your website at our online shop.
Consider the Future - Even When Giving.
Of course, it would be best if we could avoid CO2 altogether. Unfortunately, we're not quite there yet. That's why we have been compensating for the CO2 we generate despite our best efforts since 2007. We use Prima Klima e.V. to support reforestation by planting young trees. Year over year, those trees absorb more carbon dioxide than we generate with office operations, cars, cellulose production, paper manufacture, printing, logistics, etc, even with delivering our goods to your business.
And they will do so for the next 50 to 100 years, or over the entire lifetime of a tree.
This means that new trees will be planted for every order you place with us. By the way, these reforested woods are contractually protected against any timber harvesting. Your contribution and ours thus creates a new habitat for animals and plants that also...
- cleans and cools the water and the air•prevents erosion and stores water
- prevents desiccation and flooding
- promotes biodiversity
- serves as a recreational area, and much more.
Our Reforestation Efforts With PrimaKlima:
The first step is to plant between 2,500 and 5,000 native tree saplings (30-100 cm tall) per 10,000 sq m. Over 25 to 40 years, the saplings grow into trees and are thinned out as needed during that time. The result is a healthy mixed forest of the kind typical in our area. After 100 years, 300 to 500 mighty trees remain per 10,000 sq m. We have supported the following PrimaKlima projects:
- 2019-20 - reforestation in Bolivia
- 2015-18 - reforestation in Nicaragua
- 2013-14 - reforestation in Latvia
- 2011-12 - reforestation in Nicaragua
- 2010 - reforestation in the Eastern Cape – South Africa
- 2009 - reforestation in Hirschstein/Saxony – Germany
- 2008 - reforestation in Sabah/Borneo – Malaysia
Avoid CO2 - Work From Home
We allow our employees to work from home. A home office is ideal for combining family and career - and the offer also benefits the environment:
- We can get away with a smaller office that is cheaper to heat.
- No more commuting to and from work.
- We don't have a field sales force that racks up tens of thousands of kilometres per year driving. Instead, we prefer to invest in an excellent, multi-lingual telephone customer service.
Sustainable - saves electricity as well as paper.
Of course, it would be best if we could avoid CO2 altogether. Unfortunately, we're not quite there yet. That's why we have been compensating for the CO2 we generate despite our best efforts since 2007. We use Prima Klima e.V. to support reforestation by planting young trees. Year over year, those trees absorb more carbon dioxide than we generate with office operations, cars, cellulose production, paper manufacture, printing, logistics, etc, even with delivering our goods to your business.
And they will do so for the next 50 to 100 years, or over the entire lifetime of a tree.
Our gift wrap paper - like an organic product
From an ecological point of view you could call our gift wrap paper an "organic product". The wood that provides the raw material for our premium kraft paper is sourced exclusively from FSC- or PEFC-certified forests.
This means that as a Disegno customer you're protecting a vital piece of nature. These forests have room for young and old trees as well as for uprooted ones. They're a refuge for plants and animals. This type of raw material is more expensive than wood obtained by overfelling, a practice whose true costs are, unfortunately, borne by all of us in the form of lost species, global warming, and erosion.
We mainly use wood for our paper that is unfit for use in sawmills and grinding shops. Waste timber from sawmills is another valuable raw material we use. Because of their long fibres we only use domestic species, such as spruce and pine, for our gift wrap paper. We do not use any tropical timber - even if it is certified. Aside from the long transport distances, those wood fibres are too short to meet our high requirements for tearing strength.
All wood comes from forests located close to our paper mill - and, as is the case for all our suppliers, in Western Europe. This reduces transportation costs and CO2 emissions. Our kraft paper is made from pure, unbleached granite paper. White paper is bleached without chlorine.
Our pulp mill saves energy, CO2 and produces electricity.
In paper-making, the pulp produced by the pulp mill is typically dried in bales, which requires a lot of energy. The bales are then transported to the paper manufacturer, where they are soaked, milled into paper webs and dried a second time.
Our paper supplier is mill and manufacturer in one and combines these production steps. Pulp is turned into paper while still wet. This reduces transport distances and, above all, the high amount of energy required for drying.
In addition, our paper supplier also burns the lye produced during cellulose production and turns it into electricity. A renewable energy source that does much more than just satisfy the mill's own energy needs.
Unwrap - then use for crafts later.
Durability, repurposing, upcycling and recycling are important pillars of a resource-efficient economy. The durability of our kraft paper contributes to that economy.
- It invites multiple uses - our paper shopping bags, in particular, are reused again and again for shopping.
- The colourful designs on our gift wrap paper invites kids to cut out images and characters and glue them onto things, make lanterns, or turn them into posters that can be hung on the wall. Instructions can be found on the bottom of every Disegno paper shopping bag.
