Green Practices at our factory and offices:
Although our fabricating, printing and packing staff would like it otherwise, our 6,000 sq ft factory is not heated or air-conditioned. We open the back garage door, front garage door and the ceiling windows and let the fine Pasadena air blow through.
We use dissolvable cornstarch packing material. Clean shipping boxes are cut down and re-used as packing materials for our invitation kits. All other outer board is recycled. Our waste removal company also recycles. Next project is an onsite composter for a garden behind our warehouse.
ALL HANDMADE PAPER AND FINE PAPER SCRAP IS DONATED TO LA’S BEST AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM. LA’S BEST picks up about 5 bins of great art material twice a month.
Printing Presses we use, date from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century. We use vegetable based inks. All our storage and shelving was purchased second hand and salvage.
Recycled and Treefree Papers.
Invitesite has been dedicated to the promotion of treefree and alternative fiber papers since it’s inception (as Fine Paper Co.) in 1994-5. We have devoted all the resources available to us, to delight, educate and engage our customers. Over the past 13 years, we have accumulated experience with materials and methods, that gives us a unique perspective on the alternative fiber market.
Green Printing Practices.
We use vegetable based inks on both our letterpress machines and our offset presses. Letterpress is especially efficient, because so little ink is used, and we use handfed letterpress printers, so there is very little paper waste. Besides, our pressmen have about 30 years of printing letterpress and we have the processes down. Fred, our extremely experienced offset printer, squeezes amazing efficiency out of our offset equipment.
Offices
All appliances are Energy Star. Kitchen is stocked with ceramic dishware and real metal eating utensils. Coffee is organic and fair trade. No water bottles are allowed!!
Once a week, one of the owners goes to the farmer’s market and buys organic foods for the staff to snack on. Office cubicles were built by a local refurbishing and recycling office furniture company.
Owners’ Eco Bona Fides
Scott Rubel is a 25 year member of Co-op America and early member of Green Peace. His father was an anti-nuclear activist — Scott remembers the singer Joan Baez and her sister singing soothing lullabies to him as a little boy. Scott helped his uncle Michael build Rubel Pharms, a 2 acre castle which is considered to be one of the first recycled buildings in America. Scott’s first letterpress printshop is located there. He attended Midland School in Santa Barbara County, a school founded by the environmentalist Paul Squibb. Scott saves and reuses everything, which sometimes drives partner Helen Driscoll crazy.
Helen Driscoll has made the promotion of alternative fiber papers her life’s work. Firstly, paper that is used for books or important documents should be made from fibers that are naturally archival, such as hemp, linen, and cotton. Packaging materials, all disposable papers should be made from postconsumer recycled paper. Cradle to Cradle principles should be used. One day, postharvest waste will be converted into mundane paper usage, and fine paper will be made from hemp and other sustainable fibers.
Driscoll has been an advocate of a raw food diet for 20 years, and shops primarily at local farmer’s markets. (Especially the super fabulous Hollywood Farmer’s Market, since it opened in the early 1990’s)
