Our 9 product values, and what we refuse to stock

Every product in our catalogue is chosen against nine product values. This page lists all nine, sets out what we refuse to stock and why, explains how to test any merchandise supplier's sustainability claims (including ours), and covers the certifications that sit behind the range: B Corp and carbon neutrality.

What are our 9 product values, and how does a product qualify for the catalogue?

Our nine product values are the selection criteria every item must meet before it enters our catalogue. Each product has to satisfy at least one; meet none, and we won't stock it. The nine: Biodegradable (breaks down naturally at end of life); Low Mileage (made in the UK or Europe, cutting transport emissions); Natural Materials (made from materials found in nature); Organic (grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers); Plastic Free (no plastic, full stop); Recycled Materials (at least 50% recycled content where possible); Reusable (built for repeated use, not one outing); Social Mission (the product or its maker supports a social cause); and Vegan (no animal products or by-products). Together they cover materials, sourcing and social good, and we publish them so buyers can check our range against them.

Publishing the criteria is rare in this market. Most suppliers call their range sustainable without saying what qualifies a product, or what disqualifies one. Ours are set out in full in our annual impact report, along with the materials we exclude and why, so the claims on this page can be checked, not taken on trust.

How do I tell whether a merchandise supplier's sustainability claims are real?

Ask for the things that are difficult to fake: the written criteria a product has to meet, the list of materials the supplier refuses, the share of the range carrying third-party accreditation, what happens to the product at end of life, and who verified the carbon claim and against which standard. A supplier who has done the work can answer all five in writing. A supplier who has bought a green-looking catalogue will answer with adjectives, product photography and a single certified item. The table below is the check list we would want a buyer to run on us, with our answers filled in and an honest note on how often the market as a whole can answer each one.

Two further tests are worth applying to carbon numbers specifically. First, whose emissions are covered: our own greenhouse-gas accounting follows ISO 14064-1, and the supplier emissions data behind our products is ISO 14067-aligned and third-party verified by Bureau Veritas, ClimatePartner, Crowe and Green Element. Second, how much of the range that actually covers: 31.5% of products sold had fully accurate third-party-verified carbon data. That number is not flattering, and that is the point of publishing it. A supplier quoting a carbon figure for every single product without saying where the data came from is estimating, whether or not they say so.

Which materials do we refuse to stock, and what do we use instead?

Anything that meets none of our nine values, for a start, plus three materials that look green in a catalogue but do not hold up under inspection. Cork, rHIPS and jute with synthetic linings are all routinely sold as eco options. We have looked at each and decided the claim outruns the evidence, so we exclude them, and we won't source them on request either. Refusing an easy sale is a better test of a sustainability position than any badge.

Cork is a natural, harvested material, which is why it reads as the obvious sustainable choice for notebooks, coasters and tech accessories. The problem is what happens after harvest: processing cork into sheet and moulded forms is energy-intensive, and the finished product is often bound with synthetic binders, which stops the item being recycled at end of life. A natural raw material does not guarantee a clean finished product.

rHIPS (recycled high-impact polystyrene) is a petrochemical plastic that is frequently promoted as biodegradable. We exclude it on three grounds: it does not meaningfully biodegrade, it carries a microplastic risk as it fragments, and it contaminates end-of-life streams where buyers assume it will break down. Where a buyer wants the recycled-plastic story, genuinely recycled materials with at least 50% recycled content do the job without the biodegradability claim attached.

Jute with synthetic linings or laminates is the most common trap of the three, because the outside of the bag is exactly what it claims to be. The lining is not. A laminate or synthetic liner makes the bag wipe-clean and stiffer on a shelf, and it also makes a compostable bag non-compostable, because the two layers cannot practically be separated. We stock PVA-starch-backed jute instead, so the bag stays genuinely compostable and the claim on the product page survives contact with the end of its life.

Is recycled better than organic, biodegradable or reusable?

No, and treating those four as a ranking is the most common mistake we see in merchandise briefs. They answer different problems. Recycled content diverts material that already exists and reduces demand for virgin feedstock. Organic addresses how a crop was grown, which is about pesticides, soil and the people in the supply chain, not about disposal. Biodegradable addresses the end of life, and only matters if the item will realistically be thrown away. Reusable addresses how many times the item gets used, which is usually the single biggest lever on total impact, because an item used two hundred times does not need replacing two hundred times.

So the useful question is not which value is best, but which problem your item has. A conference giveaway that will be handled once wants reusable or biodegradable, depending on whether it earns a second life. A cotton item wants organic. A hard-wearing plastic item wants recycled content. That is why we run nine values rather than one score: one number would force us to pretend these trade-offs do not exist. Each product page shows which values that specific item meets, so the choice stays with you.

UK and European production versus overseas: what does low mileage actually buy you?

It buys you three things: lower transport emissions, more reliable lead times, and quality oversight you can act on. Making in the UK or Europe cuts the freight leg that overseas production cannot avoid, and it shortens the chain between a proof and the person running the machine. Our standard rhythm is proofing plus roughly three weeks from final proof approval, with 2 to 3 weeks standard on most lines, and next-day UK dispatch on stocked items ordered by 11am. We hold UK and EU warehousing, deliver worldwide with duties and taxes pre-paid, and can send a free sample pack so you can check quality with your hands rather than from a photograph.

The honest trade-off is cost, and it is less simple than a headline unit price suggests. Comparing a UK or European quote against an overseas one on unit price alone will mislead you, because what you actually pay depends on where the goods are produced, which country your VAT registration sits in, and where the packs are being delivered. Two orders for the same product can settle at different totals for those reasons alone, which is why we quote on the real job rather than publish a rate. There are also product categories where nearby production simply does not exist at any price. Nearer production also does not make an item sustainable on its own: a badly made product with a short life is a poor choice whatever its postcode, which is why Low Mileage is one of nine values rather than the only one. What nearby production does reliably remove is the failure mode that costs buyers most, which is a container of merchandise that arrives late, or arrives wrong, with an event date that has already passed and a supply chain too long to fix it in time.

Why does B Corp certification matter for merchandise?

B Corp certification is an independent assessment, run by B Lab, of a company's entire social and environmental performance (governance, workers, community, environment and customers), with a legal commitment to accountability and transparency. It matters for merchandise buyers because sustainability claims in this industry are cheap to make and hard to check; certification swaps self-declared claims for a verified, published score. Certifying takes at least 80 points on the Impact Assessment. An ordinary business scores around 50.9. We first certified in April 2022 with a score of 82, and were recertified in 2025 with 93.4, an improvement that came from changes across the whole business, not just the product range.

How is carbon-neutral delivery handled, and what is actually being offset?

Delivery is covered because the whole company is carbon neutral; there is no separate delivery-only offset scheme. Our entire business, including the emissions of every order we deliver, is certified carbon neutral to ISO 14068-1, independently verified by Control Union. 2025 was our third certification, the first two under PAS 2060. Reduction comes first, offsetting second: our published impact reporting shows a 17.9% cut in emissions intensity since our first certification in 2024, 3.7% year on year, and 290 tonnes less CO2e than in 2023-24, with the remainder offset through verified credits via our Ecologi partnership. Then there's our Climate Pledge with 4ocean. For every £1,000 spent in a single order, 1 tonne of CO2e is offset and 4.5kg of ocean waste is removed, roughly 470 plastic bottles. Automatic, on every order. Nothing to opt into.

Cumulatively since 2021 that adds up to 242,920 trees planted, more than 5,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases prevented across 37 carbon-avoidance projects, and 1,723.5kg of ocean waste removed. We publish the cumulative figures and the year-on-year movement together on purpose, because a large lifetime total can hide a flat or rising current year.

Who are we not the right supplier for?

Three kinds of brief, and it is quicker for everyone if we say so up front. We would rather lose an enquiry in week one than deliver badly against a brief we were never suited to.