BLOG: Mia Shurey of TOAST
Mia Shurey, Graphics Designer at TOAST, a unique lifestyle brand renowned for its thoughtful and contemporary design, talks about how quality and sustainability is at the core of their ideas.
At TOAST we aim to design and produce wonderful pieces that will not only delight and excite our customers but in the process do no damage to the world around us.
Our clothing is made to last, reducing consumption of natural raw materials and the amount of clothing consigned to landfill. We’re proudly not a fast fashion brand and have a slow fashion approach. That means using the highest quality, sustainable, natural textiles to create clothing that is both durable in wear and style.
As a business we also aim to minimise packaging and where possible only to use recyclable or biodegradable materials. This is particularly the case in our design of printed material and the paper we use.
Using recycled material for print means that the paper not only has character but appeals to the values of our customers and to what we ourselves are trying to achieve as a business.
Our printed pieces, like our clothes, are of the highest quality and made to last. We give our customers printed materials designed to be kept and collected, rather than disposed of after flicking through a few pages. In the design stage, we choose materials that are textured and tactile with the lowest impact on the environment. As a brand we highlight that we are trying to reduce our impact on the environment, so using materials that are recycled and of a great quality is essential.
Cyclus Offset 100% recycled paper is being used in a number of our printed materials from clothing tags to posters, recipe cards, event invitations and look books. We initially started using Cyclus for our seasonal book, where the switch to recycled paper became part of our initiative to be more sustainable. This was influenced by the quality of the paper which feels raw and natural with an off white finish, rather than standard non recycled paper which is bleached.
This style reflects our choice to use the types of fibres we select for our clothing line. We were so delighted with the finished printed product that we started using Cyclus for a range of our other printed pieces.
It’s encouraging to know the direct effect of using sustainable material. Myself and the team have been fascinated by the figures that have come through, showing us how much of a difference this is making.
By choosing to use Cyclus Offset 100% recycled paper for TOAST’s printed applications rather than a virgin fibre paper during 2017 TOAST have reduced their environmental impact by* 28,313 kg of landfill, 6,785 kg Co2 and greenhouse gases, 664,700 litres of water, 88,274 kWh of energy and 46,000 kg of wood
*Source: Carbon Footprint data evaluated by Labelia Conseil. Virgin fibres from non-integrated mill data latest European Brief data