8 Places to Get Eco-Friendly Business Cards Printed

Are you starting your e-commerce outfit or becoming a solopreneur hair stylist in your community? No matter your venture, you can publicize your wares with eco-friendly business cards. Learn more about what constitutes a planet-friendly card and where to grab it today to start your journey on the right foot.

What Makes a Business Card Eco-Friendly?

The base components of an eco-friendly business card are the card’s material and ink. The material should be post-consumer recycled materials. If a company makes a card from new materials, it should be ethically sourced options that are not stressful for local environments. It will depend on the region and climate, but options include cotton, bamboo, hemp, paper, or seed. Companies innovate all the time, and more opportunities exist beyond these.

Ink is a more complex situation. Most traditional inks are a byproduct of petroleum, and if they’re not, they contain toxic chemicals and metals that pollute soil and waterways and harm biodiversity. Eco-friendly ink options include soy-, algae-, solvent-, vegetable-, plastisol-, or water-based options. Keep your eyes peeled for inks that advertise these terms, but some contain a percentage of oil-based products. Digital printing options are available at companies that use less energy and produce less waste.

Other things to watch for are green certifications, like the Forest Stewardship Council, and if the material is potentially compostable. However, green corporate behaviors extend far outside the product into:

• Worker treatment
• Sustainable material sourcing
• Shipping methods
• Upstream emissions
• Additional eco-friendly efforts
• Transparency

Companies cannot get away with making one eco-friendly product nowadays. If they show off a sustainable item without embracing eco-awareness throughout their business model, customers will accuse them of greenwashing. 

8 Eco-Friendly Business Card Printers

Your front doors, whether digital or physical, open tomorrow, and you need something to hand out to people. Here are some of the best companies in 2023 for eco-friendly business cards. Some are innovating on what a business card can entail, stretching its limits into innovative creations.

1. MOO

MOO touts their cards are 100% tree-free and recyclable. Instead of paper, they use unbleached cotton linters with varied weight options. Feel free to write on them since they have an uncoated finish. You can get a batch as small as 50 or as large as 8,000. They have their brand-specific MOO Size and a square option with rounded or sharp corners. MOO updated their packaging based on customer feedback to produce less waste and promised to research even more options, such as plastic-free tape.

2. Botanical PaperWorks

Admit it — you’ve taken business cards from people to make use of them, but they end up in the recycling or trash anyway. Not everyone will use that card, so you might as well make it go toward something good. Botanical PaperWorks considered this and made their eco-friendly business cards from seed paper that grows. Just plant the card in a pot of soil and watch it flourish. Buyers can choose from several seed variants, which generally include annual wildflowers like Bird’s Eyes and Snapdragons.

Similar options to Botanical PaperWorks are Plantable Flower Seed and Vega.

3. Green Lemming

All materials that go into Green Lemming’s earth-friendly cards are locally sourced. They have every card variant, including strips and cards shaped like cameras. When it ships to you, it includes no single-use plastic. They are FSC-certified and plant native trees in the Caledonian Forest with every order.

4. Lady Fortune

If you want an advertisement that doubles as a snack, have you considered edible business cards? Lady Fortune creates graham cracker-based cards perfect for an opening extravaganza or conference. They contain sprinkles surrounding an edible photo. Just be sure to read their transparent ingredient list available if you have food sensitivities or preferences.

5. CottonPaperDreams

If you can splurge, consider an attentive handmade option from CottonPaperDreams. These are cotton rag paper with deckled edges that look like classic books. The owner takes recycled office waste and makes pulp with added cotton. She uses compostable, biodegradable packaging for a genuinely eco-aware shopping experience.

6. Tricia Made This

This is the first truly upcycled option on this list. Tricia Made This takes business cards to a new level by hand-cutting food and cereal box cardboard for the base, making many cards eye-catching. They are yours to print or draw on, but the shop provides the template for eco-friendly cards. Because they are food boxes, they have a durability other cards may not have. 

7. VistaPrint Kraft

This offering from VistaPrint makes cards out of post-consumer materials. They have two of the most important certifications for this kind of business, including FSC and Rainforest Alliance seals of approval. One of the most critical aspects of an aspiring eco-friendly company is to publicize continued efforts. VistaPrint wants to expand its FSC product offerings for a more robust chain of custody. Their goal is to become carbon-neutral by 2040 with greener technologies and an ethical supply chain.

8. Jukebox Print Tea Bag Cards

We have to admit this is not a business card you can purchase. Jukebox Print made this prototype for the Secret Garden Tea Company, but we hope it inspires more people to think outside the box for fun ways to make cards. These have the potential to be entirely zero-waste if other companies try to expand upon their already incredible product.

Honorable Mentions

Here are a few other shops that didn’t make this list that still provide fantastic eco-friendly business card services:

• The Sustainable Print
• Instant Print
• The Plastic Card People
• The Green Logo
• Eco Stationery
• Rustic and Simple

Advertising With the Planet in Mind

You could use the digital business card route, the most eco-friendly option. However, if you want something physical, it may be eco-conscious. A company that uses recycled materials is already better than one that doesn’t, but when shopping around, be discerning. 

Hold companies to a higher standard and ask questions if you’re confused about what a term means or where a material came from. This type of curiosity will make you a better environmentalist in the future and make companies face their practices to learn and grow.