Season’s Greetings: Eco-Friendly Options for Holiday Cards

Despite an economic slump and record high unemployment, more than 2 billion boxed and individual Christmas cards were sold in the United States last year, and more than 500 million E-cards were sent worldwide, according to the Greeting Card Association. Chances are, you either sent a holiday greeting card or received one last December to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or the  American or Islamic New Year.

If you have yet to send out holiday greeting cards this year, you still have some time to decide whether your signature style for 2010 will include cards made from recycled paper stock or other eco-friendly materials. IzzitGreen has checked out some of your green greeting card options:

Backed by Certification, Pay-It-Forward Benefits

Don’t assume a product is eco-friendly without some explanation and ideally, a label or guarantee. Recycled cards identified as “Forest Stewardship Council” (FSC)-certified, for example, have an assurance that fiber travels from a certified forest to a paper manufacturer, merchant and finally, printer who have FSC chain-of-custody certification.

Artline Greetings carries a number of FSC-certified cards and matching envelopes made from recycled paper, with 30 percent post-consumer fiber. In addition to traditional sentiments, some of the cards feature eco-friendly messages like, “Reduce, Reuse, Rejoice!” And if you support a particular cause, Artline offers a selection of Charity Holiday cards, with a portion of the profits dedicated to a number of worthwhile organizations. Prices vary but most are $1.65 per personalized card, with a minimum order of 100-200 cards depending on style.

All recycled cards carried by Pleasantrees.com are FSC-certified and its parent company, Baudville, is an FSC-certified organization, which means it works only with other companies that are also FSC-certified. Many available card styles are produced on 100 percent recycled, post-consumer stock. A bonus of a Pleasantrees purchase is the company’s partnership promise that for every card order placed, American Forests’ Global Releaf program will plant three trees. With free personalization, lower minimum requirements ($2.59 per 25 cards) and discounts for larger quantities, this is a great green option.

If paying-it-forward is an important factor in your card selection, Cards for Causes offers its customers the option of designating 20 percent of the revenue generated by their order to a charity they select. And although Cards for Causes does not officially endorse any of the 200 charities listed, it serves its customers by making donations on their behalf. The site is very user-friendly, taking you through every step of customization and charitable selection. Prices are competitive with other recycled card retailers, with discounts for larger quantity, sold in multiples of 25.

A number of environmental and conservative organizations sell their own lines of cards and a portion of each purchase benefits their programs and projects. The Sierra Club, for example, offers 20-card boxed sets produced by Pomegranate on FSC-certified paper with soy ink. Many selections, at roughly 75 cents per card, feature stunning images taken by renowned landscape and wildlife photographers. Personalized options are available.

Ducks Unlimited, an organization dedicated to the conservation and restoration of wetlands and associated waterfowl habitat, also carries boxed cards printed on Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)-certified paper using EcoSmart® vegetable-based inks. Boxed sets range in price from $12-$15, with quantities ranging from 12-20 per box and options for personalization.

Personalized Photo Cards

More and more people are sending photo greeting cards, and with design options galore and user-friendly ordering and file uploading, nearly anyone can turn a digital image into a highly stylized, personalized holiday card. Although you may not find many green options on large sites like Snapfish (they have four) or Shutterfly, there are a number of emerging photo card sites that tout eco-friendly papers and processes.

Cardstore.com highlights its commitment to sustainability including maintaining an FSC-certified facility which uses Mohawk recycled papers with 100 percent post-consumer fibers for many selections and participates in the Carbonfund.org program to offset its corporate and shipping carbon footprint. From $1 to $1.69 per card for an order of 100, these highly unique cards and postcards are eco-friendly and memorable.

Another Carbonfund.org participant, Paper Culture, offers an array of modern designs printed on FSC-certified papers, with 100 percent post-consumer fibers, and stands by its promise to plant a tree for every order through its Paper Culture Cares program, a Cards-to-Trees partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. The company also offers a unique, tiered pricing system which allows you to order, say, 50 holiday cards and 50 thank you notes for the 100 quantity pricing discount at $1.59 per card.

Tinyprints.com manages to combine eco-friendly paper — either FSC-certified or recycled with 30 percent post-consumer fibers — with some of the most unique designs on the market, including tri-folds, die-cuts and more traditional postcards and cards. With the ability to order as few as 10, and an array of designs and pricing, this site offers quality, style and green options for the photo buff and custom card designer in you.

My Good Greetings is another site offering custom photo cards with FSC-certified, New Leaf paper, a 100 percent recycled stock that includes a high volume (68 percent) of post-consumer recovered fibers and is manufactured with electricity that is offset with green/e-certified renewable energy certificates reinvested in wind power projects. Cards are reasonably priced, with most starting at $1.69 and a minimum order of 20.

Tree-Free Trends

There are a number of online retailers carrying tree-free paper cards made from a variety of materials.

Tree-Free Greetings – which come in boxed sets of 15 cards with sleek, modern designs — are sold wholesale to retail outlets like Sweet Organics & Naturals ($12.80 a box), and are printed on 100 percent Sweetpaper (50 percent sugar cane bagasse — a waste product of sugar refining — and 50 percent recycled fiber comprised of 30 percent post-consumer and 20 percent post-manufacturing recovery).

Grow-A-Note Plantable Seed Cards, offered by Green Field Paper Company, are seed-embedded holiday cards made with 100 percent post-consumer pulp and printed using soy-based inks. The cards are biodegradable and include growing instructions printed on the back of each card as well as a list of expected wildflower blooms. With coordinating recycled envelopes, options for personalization, and at about $2 per card, they make a nice gift on their own.

And while you are there, check out Green Field’s Hemp Heritage and Junk Mail holiday greeting cards, the latter of which is produced using contributions of shredded junk mail from employees and friends.

These are just a few of the options for eco-friendly holiday cards if you are dreaming of a green Christmas or other special celebration this year. And while recycled cards may be more expensive than the box you purchase at a discount store, it may be worth it, not only conveying your social consciousness with style and flare, but in inspiring others to do something good for the Earth heading into the New Year.

By Courtney Johnson-Woods

Image credit: Pleasantrees.com.