The concept of letterpress first surfaced more than a thousand years ago when woodblock printing became a medium for expressing spirituality in Eastern civilizations. After Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, this technique evolved and became the standard method throughout the 19th century. Although less widely used today, letterpress printing has emerged again as an art form. Fortunately, there are green options.

Here’s a list of the five fabulous resources to help spread the word.

With extensive customization options, Bella Figura is a great place to shop for eco-friendly invitations, save the date cards, baby announcements and more. Powered entirely by wind energy, this green company uses vegetable-based and low-VOC inks and cotton paper, donates a percentage of profits to environmental causes and is a proud member of the Co-Op America Green Business Network.

Members of 1% for the Planet, Smock uses wind energy to print stationery, gift tags, invitations and more on sustainably harvested bamboo paper. Plus, you can find a plethora of information about eco letterpress by visiting their blog.

Offering a variety of handmade stationary and art prints on post-consumer recycled paper, Sweet Beets artisans use 100% post-consumer recycled paper to craft their eco-friendly creations. Check out their blog to find out more about this family-grown operation.

Bird Dog Press prints their paper goods on 100% post-consumer recycled pulp and makes their envelopes from recycled grocery bags. Visit their blog for the latest news, shop on their site or find their work at EcoEtsy.

The Bay Area Business Program considers Julie Holcomb Printers to be an environmental leader, and we can see why. This green company uses tree-free cotton paper for their stationery, recycled paper for their envelopes and recyclable steel-backed plates for printing.

Image: Birch SF

The post Love Letterpress? 5 Great Eco-Friendly Resources appeared first on EcoSalon.

Most people will require the services of a commercial printer at some stage in their lives. (Perhaps you need business cards for your new green career!) What questions should you ask in order to make sure you are choosing the best option, not only for you but for the environment, as well?

Does the printer have any certifications in environmental management, such as the ISO 14001 Environmental Management, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) award and the Carbon Trust Standard?

Where is the printer based? Try to avoid “print miles”; don’t outsource to a supplier on the other side of the country.

Do they offer recycled paper? If so, what percentage of the final product is recycled? The quality of recycled paper is just as good for most purposes and has been proven to produce lower carbon emissions over its life cycle than paper from sustainably grown plantation forests. Waste & Resources Action Program, or WRAP, says there are 100% recycled papers suitable for every job, but 50% recycled content should be the minimum for printing paper and 70% for copier and office paper.

If the paper includes non-recycled (or virgin) fiber, is it FSC-certified? This means that it comes from sustainable sources and is not contributing to the destruction of old-growth forests.

Can you get away with printing on a slightly lighter paper stock? If you can print on a 90 gsm, rather than 100 gsm stock, you will use 10% less raw material to make your paper but the difference will not be noticeable. It’s the printing equivalent of turning down your thermostat a couple of degrees.

What sort of inks do they use? Conventional mineral-oil based inks emit harmful volatile organic compounds – nasty toxins, basically – as they dry, and use non-renewable petroleum-based oils. Ideally, you want a printer that uses either vegetable inks or water-based inks. If it’s the former, ask for 100% vegetable inks if possible as some printers will be using 60% vegetable ink mixed with conventional ink. This may mean avoiding fluorescent colors and metallic inks, which are not available as vegetable inks, while metallics usually contain heavy metals that are bad for the environment. The greenest options also reduce environmentally-damaging dry catalysts such as cobalt, but this does mean they dry more slowly than conventional inks.

How does it need to be finished? UV varnishes should be avoided, since they are mineral oil-based, the process is energy intensive and it also disrupts recycling. Aqueous (water-based) coatings can be used instead. Cellulose coatings are an eco-friendly alternative to laminates, which are an environmental no-no because they render the product unrecyclable.

Image: arquera

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Send your holiday thank you’s promptly with these lovely sustainable cards. Artisans from Salay Handmade Paper in the Philippines help out local farmers by collecting cogon grass that grows among the crops in their fields and craft cards, albums, picture frames and more from these wild plants.

Before this non-governmental organization was formed, the inhabitants of Mindanao had endured dire financial difficulties throughout years of political unrest. In response to this crisis, entrepreneur Loreta Rafisura founded the People’s Economic Council, consisting of only ten supporters at the time, to provide these disadvantaged people with steady employment. After discovering the surplus of cogon grass, PEC experimented with methods to make use of this pesky weed, and the rest is history.

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