Sustainability

We’re committed to sustainability, and work hard to optimise the impact of our activities on the environment, and on the communities we’re part of. This page explains our philosophy and practice, and gives perspective to what we do.

Our philosophy

We believe “sustainability” is about our responsibility to the world we live in — both to the natural environment and to the communities we live in — and we aim to be a force for good in both.

We understand that every human product impacts the environment, including ours. It’s our responsibility to choose the best materials, from the most trustworthy suppliers, to expend the least resources transforming them, and to minimise our carbon footprint.

We also understand that the “once-in-a-lifetime” products we and others in our industry make have a vanishingly small impact compared to our everyday practices and purchases as consumers, from our daily food and drink to our travel, online purchases, vacation and entertainment choices.

Finally, we’re very proud that our books and albums find homes around the globe. We live at a time when almost nothing is truly local. We’ve always aimed to be the best at what we do, and — provided we play our part as good citizens — to buy the best seems like the best possible reason to buy from the other side of the world.

Our practice

Materials: To ensure the longevity of the albums themselves our policy is to use only the best time-honoured materials and hand binding processes, and our sustainability policies reflect that mindset. In general we maintain “narrow and deep” relationships with suppliers, with a strong focus on quality, dependability and sustainability. For example we selected our micro leathers not only for their beauty and durability but also for the environmentally responsible policies of their manufacturer, with no heavy metals, formaldehydes etc used in their production. Our leathers too are sourced from fine European suppliers, not just because they offer beautiful hides and continuity of supply, but because they care deeply about animal welfare and the environment.

Handmade: Because our products are handmade, our bindery consumes little energy compared with intensive machinery-based operations, and offers rewarding jobs to our skilled team. That team is our pride and joy. Many of us have worked together for decades. We're very proud to deliver a world class product. Proud too that we're a team not because we work together but because we trust, respect and care for each other.

Recycling: To reduce both our costs and environmental impact we closely monitor all production inputs, and recycle all recyclable waste, such as the silver from our Lab, and paper and card from the Bindery. (Local schools and kindergartens love our offcuts!)

We build our products to last for generations, but not the packaging we deliver them in. We aim to minimise inorganic packaging, and ship our products with recycled/recyclable cartons and biodegradable plant-based pellets that can be reused or composted, and break down within minutes when wet.

Logistics: To ship our albums we use German logistics company DHL, which is committed to zero carbon emissions by 2050, and, equally challenging, by 2025, to a 50% Increase in carbon efficiency levels compared to 2007. It's easy to overlook that in this interconnected world almost nothing is truly local, and that inbound supply chains are equally important, which is why we use DHL wherever possible for our inward freight as well.

Proudly New Zealand: Finally, we're proud to come from a country where most energy comes from renewable resources, workplace and environmental practices are carefully regulated, our clean, green image is a source of national pride, and where our parliament has almost unanimously committed to zero carbon emmissions by 2050.