The GiftSmith Promise

Sustainability and ethics are key in every decision we make, and we are a proudly plastic-free business.

As the business has grown, we’ve continued to ask ourselves how we can make the most sustainable decision possible, but we made a firm promise from the very beginning that sustainability is a core value that we will never compromise on.

The planet comes first, and we won't negotiate on that front.

Why gift secondhand?

It breaks our hearts to think of all of the unloved books that exist in the world.

That’s why we created our pre-loved book boxes, to connect them with a new home, and the recipient with the magic of a new story to lose themselves in.

When you purchase a beautifully packaged pre-loved GiftSmith book, you’re allowing the story inside to be enjoyed again (and hopefully they’ll continue the pattern and re-gift it to another book lover).

Every new book printed creates a carbon footprint of 7.5kg CO2. That might not sound like a lot, but when you consider that the UK publishes 200,000 books per year - more books per inhabitant than any other country by a long way - it really makes you stop and wonder whether you really need that shiny new hardback, or if you could find an alternative.

Packaging

It would be pretty ironic for us to preach all things sustainability and then wrap our products in layers of plastic packaging, wouldn’t it?

All of our books are packaged using minimal amounts of recyclable (and mostly also recycled) material…even our packing tape is paper and recyclable!

Our postcards are fully recyclable.

Our bookmarks are velvet laminated to make them durable and long-lasting.

Manufacturing

While we are unable to manufacture all of our products here in the UK, we still try to make the most sustainable choices available to us when it comes to creating our products.

We are a plastic-free business, and our tote bags and tea towels are made using GOTS Organic and Fairtrade cotton.

Ethics

We strive to ensure that all of our problems are ethically made and that the money we spend goes towards paying workers and good causes.

For example, the cotton used in our tea towels is grown by families working small land holdings, who are members of the Chetna Organic Farmers co-operative. The co-op's core principals are training & empowering families to increase their yields, profitability and quality of life.

We also use Fairtrade materials whenever we can.

Our partners

We've carefully selected the partners we work with to ensure that our core values align, and that we're proud to offer alongside the GiftSmith name. We only feature brands who value sustainability and ethical trading as much as we do - and of course, create brilliant (and delicious) products!

You can read about Teapigs sustainability promise here, and their ethical values here.

You can read about Tony's Chocolonely’s inspiring ethical promise here.