We haven’t changed the content, we’ve simply made the whole package even more beautiful and more environmentally friendly! And you can order our new version now…
In fact, this is now the only box set we’ll be sending out from here on in – yay! If you order yours over here, the first orders will go out on Monday.
It’s been a long research and redesign process, with lots of learning and good advice along the way, but we now have a product that I’m really proud of – and I can’t wait to share it with you all… so here goes!
“My soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me.”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
What have we changed?
Any card we use that’s not made of recycled materials comes from sustainable sources.
It’s also fully recyclable, vegan, and printed solely with mineral-oil-based inks.
And we’re making the most of that gorgeous image of the steps that I walk down into the sea in Penzance most mornings – by splashing it all over the front cover.
The cards inside the box remain the same size, but we’ve removed their plastic laminate coating, and we’re printing these on stronger paper stock instead to ensure they’re still durable, (but not so durable that they’ll stick around for another thousand years…)
“Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the
heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself,
but always in the experience which is going on around me.”
Albert Schweitzer
And removed the small organza bag that had previously held the cards.
In place of that not-very-sustainable organza bag, we’ve created a very special display case within the cardboard box.
This means that you can now select your favourite cards to display for the day or week ahead – creating a beautifully presented reminder of your blessings and the sea.
The new box is bigger than the previous version – as yet, we haven’t been able to find a way to make a sturdy enough tiny box without using laminate coatings, or card sourced from less sustainable sources.
But my hope is that all the other benefits are more than worth it.
It’s such a treat to open it up as a gift now – that’s a precious little ritual in itself, before you even draw yourself a card…
How else are we becoming more sustainable?
We’re continuing to use the Royal Mail for delivery as we believe this is the delivery route that currently has the lowest carbon footprint.
And we’re reducing our carbon footprint by keeping the printing, manufacture and fulfilment in one UK location.
This means that your orders can now be sent out direct from the very same place in which they’ve been produced – with no travel miles wasted along the way. We’ll also post your order out to you in recycled cardboard, using waste paper or biofil as protective packaging.
If this box set is popular enough (fingers crossed) we’ll be able to move on to printing with water-based inks too…
Raising funds to save our oceans
We’re continuing to donate to environmental causes from every purchase you make – with environmental charity, Surfers Against Sewage, as our current beneficiaries.
What’s next?
Sustainability is an ongoing journey.
We started by doing our best with what we knew then (read more about that over here) – using partly recycled materials, local printers when we could, and keeping things small.
And the more we learnt, the more changes we realised we could make. So consider this our next iteration – and I’m sure there will be many more lessons yet to learn about what it really means to be as sustainable as possible. Here are just a few of the things we’ll be looking at next:
We want to find strong enough card that fits the printers’ machines that comes from recycled stock – we’re working towards a product that is made entirely from recycled material, allowing us to become a fully fledged member of the circular economy.
And continuing to explore all the different postal/packaging options that might be available to us, in case there’s something more we could do here. We’re exploring the possibility of an app that could deliver cards to you without any of the environmental costs of manufacture and delivery.
And right now, I’m busily updating everything on this website to show off the new design – so bear with us as I head through and update all the info!
Thank you so much for your support, and for helping us to get this far! We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on what to improve next… I so appreciate your company on this big adventure.
And please, if you can, do purchase some Sea Soul Blessings for yourself and your loved ones. Together, we can bring a little more peace, clarity and compassion to people’s daily lives – and raise a lot of funding to save our seas as we do so.
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean.
But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
Mother Teresa