Sustainable

FLAME TREE PUBLISHING actively strives to promote ethical development and environmental conservation. This page should be read in conjunction with our Ethical Policy (link).

Calendars

Our biggest change, and for us the most impactive, was the removal of shrink-wrap from our entire calendar process for the 2023 calendar season, allowing us to print several hundred thousand calendars plastic-free, printed on and packed in recyclable materials. Eighteen months of research, design and planning have enabled this significant contribution to improve the long term sustainability of our publications.

Other Actions

The timescales in planning, making and marketing require very long lead times and a range of partnerships to deliver our publications in a global supply chain. In the last four years at Flame Tree we have explored a number of different elements of sustainability. We've also experimented with retail pricing to see if our customers are prepared to pay a little more for demonstrably sustainable work. The first practical outcomes of this are:

1. All new fiction books are printed on FSC paper from renewable sources. For more information on FSC and how it is governed please see here.
2. The inside pages of our art diaries and planners are printed on FSC paper from renewable sources.
3. We've introduced a range of Jigsaw Puzzles manufactured from sustainable board in the Netherlands. A high-quality, 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, it is locally sourced with FSC^® certified, renewable paper and board, sturdy pieces and a recyclable bag.
4. All new and all reprints in our 1000 piece jigsaw range are printed on sustainable board, without shrinkrap on the outerbox.
5. Increasingly many of our gift publications confirm to specific human rights and environmental standards in our supply chain, particularly our manufacturers who are required to conform to WCA (Workplace Conditions Assessment, which takes account of Labour, Wages & Hours, Health & Safety, Management, Environment and Business Practices) and GSV (Global Security Verification, which assesses security risks within the supply chain and incorporates C-TPAT, PIP and AEO security initiatives).

Ethical Policy and Code

Sustainability and acting responsibly at the corporate level, and in our everyday working lives lies at the heart of our formal Ethical policy which can be found here.