Sustainability in the Card Industry – Hallmark

Hallmark was founded over 100 years ago, since that time care, love and connection has been at the heart of Hallmark’s values and beliefs.

At Hallmark, sustainability is a enterprise priority. As we operate in multiple locations across the world, we recognise the scale of the impact we can have as a global organisation; and we are committed to reducing that impact on the planet, and more specifically on the climate. We will do this by achieving our Science Based Target aimed at significantly lowering our global emissions by 2030.

Kristin Edie – VP Enterprise Sustainability at Hallmark

There are many pragmatic reasons for sustainability being such a priority. We understand that it is important to both our customers and our consumers, that the government will continue to introduce legislation, and that ultimately it is one of the biggest challenges we are facing as human beings right now. However, for us at Hallmark, there is also a deeper, cultural reason; our business was born out of a clear sense of purpose: We have always been driven by the desire to put more care into the world. Our goal is to help people live a more caring and connected life, whether that be caring for and connecting with people or caring for the planet. We all have a responsibility to try and leave the world a better place than we found it, and at Hallmark we intend to do just that.

We are proud of our achievements over the years, in the UK, the internal Hallmark sustainability team has spent the last couple of years working on two key priorities in particular:

• Make our products recyclable and eliminate plastic
• Understand our broader impact and how we can reduce it

Achievements to date

Below are a few of the great things we have already achieved, and some areas of continued focus

• In the UK, our products have been FSC certified for over 14 years.
• Over 99% FSC across our full product range, working towards 100% by 2023.
• We stopped using glitter and plastic componentry across all products in 2019.
• We removed cello bags from our cards, stopping 350 tonnes of plastic being used in our supply chain, in 2019.
• By the end of 2022 our entire model line will be fully recyclable and plastic free, extending to all product formats by 2023.
• We have significantly increased our UK manufacturing in 2022; and will continue to review and increase this where appropriate in 2023 and beyond.
• We are always looking at sustainable innovation, with the launch of our Croppers cards made from coffee cups, and our seed paper cards being recent successes.

Our roadmap to continually improve

• We have partnered with third-party sustainability specialists to undertake a greenhouse gas analysis of both our local and global impact. This will help us to understand exactly where our business is contributing to climate change and will help to inform our strategy moving forward.
• Our Global EARTH group (Environmental Awareness, Responsibility, and Transparency at Hallmark) was established over 15 years ago to help bring together passionate Hallmarkers committed to education and change.  
• We are partnering with a charity dedicated to the protection and restoration of forests.
• All electricity at our UK Head Office and Distribution centres is supplied by renewable wind energy, and we are continuously looking for ways to reduce our energy consumption further.
• We work continuously with our suppliers, and our own operations teams, to increase energy efficiency and reduce waste, ensuring zero waste goes to landfill.

Further information

For latest information and tips on reducing your environmental footprint see the GCA’s Into a Greener Future blog

For other case studies, changes to the law and other important information please visit our members’ library and see our Environment section (please log in to see all relevant information)