A few months have passed since Mina started her internship at Roseish. She’s learned so much about the industry and how Roseish is paving their own path when it comes to sustainability. While she shadowed every part of the company during her first two weeks, she spent the following month learning about the design process and the brand’s core fabrics. Usually, when coming up with a new style, Taylor always started out with a hand-sketch before refining it in Illustrator, which had now become Mina’s job while Taylor developed the pattern in CLO3d. When Taylor explained her process to Mina a few weeks ago, she’d said, “one of my biggest motivators for Roseish is my desire to design my dream wardrobe and having the opportunity to share my clothes with other people too.”
Spring was in full bloom. The cherry blossom trees that lined the promenade were in their first bloom of the year, filling the outdoor space with a sweet aroma. When Mina arrived at the office, Taylor, and Elise were huddled around one of the pattern-making tables. They were reviewing two samplers from potential packaging manufacturers.
Weeks before Mina started her internship, Elise had been searching for sustainable shipping materials to replace the industry standard polybags. In her search, she came across two potential companies that both specialized in recyclable and compostable packaging. Two weeks ago, she placed orders from both companies for their samplers.
“This sampler is from noissue.” Elise said as she removed the contents from the first package. “It comes with a compostable mailer, recyclable mailer, custom tissue paper, stickers, and tape. Noissue’s products are made of plant-based or recycled materials, making them 100% compostable, recyclable, and reusable. Additionally, they offset all their carbon emissions created when shipping materials out and plant new trees for every order placed with them. Noissue’s pricing is also significantly cheaper than the latter, but they don’t offer customizable packaging for all their products. However, they sell QR compatible products so we’d be able to create our own custom QR code that we can link to our website.”
While Elise spoke, Taylor examined the compostable mailer and recyclable mailer from noissue.
Elise picked up the second sampler. “This sampler is from Tishwish.” She said while laying out the package’s contents. “It comes with four compostable mailers, 4 compostable bubble mailers, tissue paper, an assortment of stickers, and a swatch of raised ribbon. All their products are customizable and come in different colors. Similar to noissue, with every order placed, they’ll plant trees through their Timber Re-Leaf Project. Their products are also made of plant-based materials and bio-plastics that are made from biomass such as vegetable starch, vegetable oil, straw, woodchips, or food waste.”
Taylor nodded while she sorted through the samples from Tishwish. She placed the compostable mailers from both companies next to each other. “Do they have garment bags?”
“Yes, I double checked to see if they make garment bags. They’re both 100% compostable.”
“Do you have a cost breakdown?” Taylor asked.
Elise set her iPad on the table, presenting the spreadsheet she prepared. “Noissue’s compostable mailer comes in four different sizes, starting price is $15 for 50 mailers. The noissue compostable garment bags are $25 for 100 pieces. It also comes in three sizes. Tishwish’s compostable mailer comes in three different sizes, starting price is $135 for 50 mailers. It’s the same price for 50 of their customizable compostable garment bags.”
“Hm,” Taylor studied the spreadsheet. “I like the personalization tishwish offers for all their products, but I don’t think it’s a necessity. I’d rather opt for noissue’s pre-designed compostable mailers since they’re more affordable. Plus, they’re dedicated to reforestation and offsetting their emissions. Is 100 the lowest quantity we can purchase for their garment bags?”
“Yeah,” Elise answered. “Unfortunately the lowest MOQ they offer for the garment bags is 100 pieces.”
“Okay, let’s place an order for 100 compostable mailers and compostable garment bags each.” Taylor said. “Do you know exactly how the QR codes work?”
“According to Noissue’s website, hang tags, boxes, cards, and stickers can be paired with a branded QR code that can be linked to your website, microsite, show off your sustainability efforts, or run a special campaign.”
“It would be awesome to start incorporating that element into our packaging, but I want to test it to make sure it works properly.” Taylor said. “So let’s order the minimum number of cards with a QR code that links to our sustainability page on our website. And also can you place an order for 100 hang tags with our logo, no QR code?”
“Yeah, I’ll place that order right now.” Elise said. She gathered her iPad. “Just to double check, you want 100 compostable mailers, 100 compostable garment bags, 100 custom hang tags without QR code, and 25 cards with a branded QR code?”
“That’s right. I’ll take the compostable and recyclable mailers from noissue for now.” Taylor said. “I want Laurel to make some content talking about our new packaging. Thanks so much for looking into all this, Elise!”
“No problem.” Elise smiled as she picked up the samples, leaving Noissue’s mailers on the table. Taylor picked up the two mailers and walked over to Laurel’s desk while Elise returned downstairs.
“Hey Laurel, we’re going to start using these new compostable and recyclable packaging. Can you batch a few posts for Instagram and TikTok?”
Laurel received the two mailers, placing them on her desk. “Sure, I’ll get started on the content after lunch.”
“Thank you!” Taylor beamed. “Also, do you mind adding the Eco-Alliance badge to the website?”
“Not at all.” Laurel said, writing a reminder for herself on a sticky note.
“Perfect! I’ll have Elise send you all the details on the packaging.” Taylor said as she sat at her desk. She wiggled her mouse, bringing her computer back to life, and opened a new message thread on slack with Laurel and Elise.
After lunch, Laurel got started on the new content. Per Taylor’s request, Elise sent over all the research she’d done on Noissue’s mission and products, including links to their website. Laurel laid out the compostable and recyclable mailers on the mini photo studio, located on the second floor of the office. She strategically placed a couple of the stickers that were sent along in the sampler, which she borrowed from Elise. She took a couple photos for Instagram and their website first before switching the camera settings to video. She filmed a couple of b-roll shots to use in the TikTok video, along with some close up shots.
Laurel came up with two video ideas to show off the brand’s new packaging. The first video was going to be more informational to share our reason for switching to eco-packaging, what materials are used to make the packaging, and the environmental impact. For the second video idea, Laurel recruited Faye and Elise to film “Pack an Order with Me” videos to promote the eco-friendly packaging.
–
Author’s Note:
I’m really excited to be a part of Noissue’s Eco-Alliance. I’ve been keeping an eye out for sustainable shipping products since the release of my first short story. I discovered Noissue’s products shortly after, but I wanted to keep my options open. A couple weeks ago, I heard about Tishwish and decided to do some further research on their products. Both companies offered compostable packaging, in addition to compostable garment bags. This was super appealing to me because I wanted to find an alternative to the fashion industry’s standard polybags that they use to package garments in. After comparing Noissue’s and Tishwish’s products, prices, and learning more about what each company is doing to help the environment, I’ve made my decision to use Noissue’s products for all of Roseish’s shipping. While both companies had great products and awesome action plans to benefit the environment, Noissue’s mission and goals felt more aligned with my goals and mission for Roseish. Additionally, since I am still in the beginning stages and funding Roseish out of pocket, Noissue’s products and prices are best fit for my current budget.
Sincerely, Taylor
–
Sources:
https://noissue.co/community/eco-alliance/
https://noissue.co/sustainability/compostable
https://tishwish.com/pages/sustainability
