OUR GREEN POLICY ~ Environmentally Safe Art Supplies

photo by Garth Hagerman

We live in such a beautiful, grace filled place. Folks here know how durable AND fragile our environment is. Our economic base historically has been commercial fishing and logging. Many factors have contributed to its decline.

At Racines we realize we cannot take for granted or show disrespect to our planet and her resources. We also understand that we do not live in a "paperless society". I ask many questions and compare products before purchasing inventory for the shop. Some manufacturers have higher standards of environmental practices than others. These are the companies I like to do business with. I believe you don't have to comprise quality when using recycled or remanufactured products, and that is why we use environmentally safe art and office supplies.

As the demand for recycled products grows some manufacturers have responded. Smead has been a leader in the office products industry, manufacturing file products using post consumer waste since the early 90s. Stratmore paper was one of the first art companies to come up with an art tablet made from 30% post consumer waste. We are constantly looking for and stocking everyday office and art products made from post consumer waste.

Our next consideration is how this product is manufactured. Does the process use harmful chemicals in its production? Does it come from fair labor practices? Does the manufacturer have a good record of environmental practices?? While products with these characteristics are still not available in many mainstream markets, I believe they will become available on a routine basis, if the consumer demands it.

Check out your favorite pen. Is it refillable? It might be. Many stores do not bother with stocking refills, or they chose to carry only disposable pens. We have made it a policy to make available the refills for pens we sell whenever possible. In our pen department we avoid purchasing pens with shell packaging. We buy our pens in cardboard boxes and sell the pens individually, thus avoiding the shell packs. The card board boxes are then recycled.

We practice the 3 Rs. We have reduced our office paper use by using both sides of paper. We use the envelopes enclosed from the many credit card offers we receive whenever we can. In our shipping and receiving we reuse packing material from our suppliers, or give it away to other companies or customers. All our boxes (those not reused by customers) are taken to the recycle center. Our building is energy efficient using natural light from our skylights.