This is a guest article written by Playpress founder, Matthew Wright.
We are PlayPress Toys and we design and make buildable play sets. They are, of course, made from sustainable FSC certified paper and board and are very durable, but the main thing is they are great fun and engaging.
From the very start we wanted our products to be sustainable, so they were designed with that in mind. The materials and design went hand in hand, so it's not like we had something made from an unsustainable material and then tried to rectify that. I guess being a core principle, it's always at the front of all the decisions we make and hopefully that comes across in the final product, the FSC certification is, of course, a big help.
We wanted to be sure we were sourcing materials in a sustainable way, and we work with a number of charities and companies for whom sustainability is incredibly important. Clients specifically asked for FSC products and with FSC being so well known with business and consumers alike for us it was an easy decision to choose to become members of an FSC Certified Group Scheme.
All our playsets are made from FSC certified paper and board. You can find them here: https://www.playpresstoys.com/pages/shop
There are companies and organisations for which being an FSC certified group member like ourselves is a requirement, so without it we would not have them as customers. It's a very clear way to show that our materials are sustainable. It makes it very easy for us to show the sustainability and sell the product when you have that well recognised respected FSC certification. As the origin and sustainability of products gets more important to more companies and consumers there is no doubt it has gained us business.
When we were just starting out, it was a little daunting being a tiny little company and wondering how we go about getting certified. But it was absolutely fine. We found a great company called Print and Media Certification, run by John and Ursula, and we were able to gain FSC Certified Group Membership through them. Having no background in compliance, there was some learning involved, but they are experts who have been terrific in educating us and are also at hand with any questions or support we need. Joining the group was also a cost-effective way for us, at the time a really small start-up, to process FSC certified products.
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