Designing Sustainably to Create Responsibly

Create with Less

For Closer Than Together's album print production, Cast Iron Design specified a six-panel, tri-fold jacket design that utilizes a custom diecut, which is a great sustainable production technique that requires no ink or chemicals and only a small amount of energy. 

Another example of creating with less is Dropps. The household detergent brand created a simple and smart mailer by merging its shipping box and product packaging together. Rather than shipping a box within a box, Dropps pods are packed inside two twin cardboard boxes designed to fold into one another. Once folded, the singular box is sealed together with a simple shipping label. Not only does this design require less material, but its compact nature is more economical for shipping and leaves customers with less waste to deal with.

Ecovative Design was recently featured in Vogue in an article titled, How Mushrooms Could Help Solve the Beauty Industry's Waste Problem. Ecovative grows mycelium beauty and skin-care products, and partners with beauty, fashion, art, and technology brands to customize sustainable packaging.

Hudson Hemp (another Upstate NY neighbor) a farm and CBD company, learned about Ecovative through Seed, and decided to integrate mycelium packaging into their CBD line, Treaty. Maria Geyman rightfully cites in the Vogue article that, "this ethos of open-source sharing when it comes to sustainability is one that is inevitably moving the industry forward."

Hudson Hemp grows hemp as part of a dynamic crop rotation alongside grains that supply flour to local bakeries, livestock feed for dairy farms, and rye and hops for brewers and distillers. Part of their mission is to develop soil that relies on nutrients that come from the farm itself, and since mycelium goes hand in hand with soil health, mushrooms just made sense. Since its launch, all Treaty products have been shipped in custom-made Ecovative products.

Smaller companies are adopting reusable packaging too. By Humankind, sells reusable dispensers with their deodorant. When your deodorant runs out, you can hang onto the dispenser and just buy the refill.

Beyond recycling, there's a wealth of natural plant and textile materials that are typically considered waste — but are a great source for making paper. Mohawk Renewal, our newest portfolio of papers are made with hemp, straw, and recycled cotton fiber, represents a fresh expression of what responsible papermaking with can look like. 

Mohawk Renewal was born out of a desire to redefine the contours of how we source fiber and expand the existing definition of sustainable papermaking. Hemp grows rapidly, maturing in as quickly as 90 days. Turning hemp into pulp requires less chemicals, water, and energy than wood. Making paper with straw eliminates the need for "fall burns" set by farmers to clear straw from their wheat fields, creating acrid smoke and carbon emissions. Recycled Cotton paper is made from t-shirt and denim scraps diverted from millions of tons of textile waste sent to landfills every year.

By using annual crops which regenerate in a year or less, and by using scraps that would've otherwise been disposed of, Mohawk Renewal helps reduce waste and pollution while creating something beautiful.