If buying greener products is one of your priorities for your home office, then an easy place to start is with your day-to-day desk essentials. When looking at the best green stationery for working from home, we discovered The Green Stationery Company and interviewed the founder, Jay Risebridger on what to think about before we buy that new stapler!
The Green Stationery Company
It’s no surprise that a business dedicated to sustainability and protecting the environment operates on the Schumacher Principle that ‘small is beautiful’. This means Jay Risbridger and his wife, Gill, keep their company’s physical size as small as possible to achieve the lowest ecological footprint.
This ethos permeates their entire business and has done for the past 30 years since they started selling recycled paper. Since then, it has become The Green Stationery Company, selling all manner of eco-friendly office and stationery supplies from paper to
Financial vs environmental cost
It is an unfortunate fact that green usually means more expensive. It’s not an easy sell admits Jay when they are “always at a price disadvantage.” Most of their customers are green businesses who want to make a difference. “They’re more concerned about their environmental impact than maximising their profits.”
Since Covid-19 entered our lives, he has seen a small shift as people become more aware of the environment and what the future might hold.However, until there is a real change in mindset or political will, buying green may not be a priority for most people.
Green stationery for working from home
Their products now include a beautiful bamboo range so you can even buy a mouse, computer keyboard, and calculator made from renewable resources rather than plastic.
These chunky, tactile items have their numbers etched into the wood so they won’t rub off. “Wood products tend to last longer and get a nice patina from use,” says Jay.
But they aren’t completely against plastic – as long as it’s recycled. In fact, they sell A4 recycled plastic wallets and recycled bubble wrap for packaging. “We need to use recycled plastic products otherwise we just have a mountain of plastic products in landfill,” he explains.
He is keen to stress the difference between something being recyclable and recycled. The process of recycling is more than just collecting waste. “It needs to be turned into another product for people to use again,” he says. “People do the collection but don’t buy enough recycled products.”
Buying recycled paper will go towards helping the landfill issue. In the US, paper still accounts for 25% of landfill waste. Most of this can degrade over time but gives off methane in doing so.
Eliminating toxins in your workspace
The Green Stationery Company are also keen to eliminate toxins from our work environments. “A lot of marker pens have xylene and toluene in them, and there used to be trychloroethylene in correction fluid,” says Jay.
Their glue sticks are made from potato starch and almond, their recycled paper made from such things as elephant dung, reclaimed bank notes, and straw. They also provide recycled adhesive tape and packaging materials.
As a business, they are also keen to promote longlife products, moving away from the fast, disposable culture that is a drain on resources. Their heavy-duty metal staplers come with a lifetime guarantee. “We don’t want things to be used and thrown away,” says Jay.
He says the key is in education. “We need to understand what the issues are if we don’t use renewable resources, and about pollutants and plastics, and then people can make choices about the products they use.”
Find out more about The Green Stationery Company and their range of products:
The Green Stationery Company
sales@greenstat.co.uk
This article first appeared in The Sustainability of The Homeworker Magazine.
In Collaboration with The Green Stationery Company
About the author
Louise Goss
Louise is an award-winning journalist and speaker who focuses on working from home, remote work and wellbeing. She is the founder of The Homeworker, which is dedicated to helping you thrive when you work from home. The Homeworker publishes articles that are designed to keep you healthy, happy, fulfilled, and more productive in work and life.
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