Building healthy communities and being good corporate citizens includes leaving our world a better place for those who follow. That's why caring for the environment is both a longtime tradition at Hallmark and a promise for the future.

A Tradition of Responsibility

We began recycling paper in the 1940s, have used recycled paper in products and packaging since the 1970s, and established a corporate-wide environmental conservation program in the 1990s. Some of the measures we have introduced in years past are routine business practice at Hallmark today:

• Hallmark sponsored an e-waste event to collect and responsibly dispose of employees' discarded electronics.
  We actively participate in the Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWi$e and Energy Star Building programs.
• Since the early 1990s we have reduced solid waste by 70 percent and hazardous waste by 90 percent.
• School-age youngsters have been turning scraps from Hallmark's manufacturing processes into art projects at Kaleidoscope, a creative experience for children, since 1969.
• A waste-to-energy program at our distribution center in Enfield, Conn., has resulted in an ongoing zero percent waste program since 1998. Materials not recycled are used as electrical generator fuel.
• An active van pooling program established in 1978 makes company-owned vehicles available to employees who organize ride-sharing groups at headquarters. Reduced-price bus passes are available to headquarters employees as well.
• Surplus stationery, greeting cards, partyware and other products are donated to educational and human service organizations for redistribution to people in need.

Environmental Care Begins at Home

Some current initiatives in our own "backyard" go beyond the ordinary and engage Hallmark employees in environmental care:

• Hallmark employees have built a rain garden on the grounds of our headquarters.
  A rain garden on the grounds of our corporate headquarters is part of a Kansas City-wide "10,000 Rain Gardens" initiative to help control drainage and soil erosion as well as reduce pollutants to the water supply.
• Excess food from employee cafeterias in all locations is donated to area food banks, and food waste from employee dining facilities at our headquarters is composted by a local facility that turns it into high-quality soil additive used in professional landscaping.
• We also are members of the Kansas City By-Product Synergy Initiative to turn unwanted waste materials of one group into raw materials of another.
• We provide collection points for employees to recycle office paper, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, batteries, and "e-waste" such as computers, desk and cell phones, CD and DVD players, and PDAs.
• An active EcoTeam of employee volunteers whose members share an interest in environmental issues keeps "green" topics on employees' minds and involves Hallmarkers in a variety of community clean-up initiatives.

Today's Products

• Some greeting cards, including Shoebox, Saturdays and other humor lines, and part of the Hallmark PRODUCT (RED)™ initiative, are produced on paper with recycled fiber. Greater use of recycled and alternative stocks is anticipated in 2008.
• In spring and summer 2008 Hallmark is introducing collections of cards produced on stock with 50% sugar cane pulp and 50% recycled paper.
• Most other products are produced on paper stock from sustainable forests. Sustainably managed forests meet the criteria of any of several forestry certification programs that set forth rigorous requirements for tree replanting, habitat preservation, elimination of illegal logging and other practices.
• Beginning mid-2008, cards produced on paper with recycled or non-tree content or on stock from sustainably managed forests will bear a special icon on the back of the card, along with relevant labeling.  

Future Goals

Enriching lives is our business, our passion and our promise for tomorrow as well as today. This point of view informs our environmental vision, which calls for:

• Manufacturing scraps are put to colorful use at Kaleidoscope, a creative experience for children in Kansas City.
  Seeking new and sustainable ways to minimize our business impact on the environment.
• Challenging employees to look for new and effective ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.
• Partnering with consumers and the communities in which we work to make the natural world healthier.
• Collaborating with customers and suppliers to be responsible and impassioned stewards of our planet.

In support of this vision, we intend to obtain 100 percent of our paper from sustainable sources by the end of 2008. By 2015, we will strive to reduce energy and water use, as well as solid and other waste by 25 percent, and to significantly improve the recyclability of our products.