Earth Greetings was founded on a love of nature.
Our founder Heide Hackworth has a long held and deep love for Australian nature. Growing up surrounded by kookaburras and koalas in the Adelaide foot-hills, she loves bushwalking and spotting native wildlife. Heide is a committed vegan, lives a low-waste lifestyle and prefers to walk or cycle where possible. She is passionate about the plight of animals, and protecting the land she loves from pollution, deforestation and the impacts of the climate emergency.
"I believe that the choices we make every day really can make a difference, if we all share the same purpose and vision for a kinder world."
Inspiring Feel-Good Giving
Made in Australia
For higher quality and lower emissions.
100% Recycled
Leaving forests intact for our planet’s future.
Carbon Neutral
All products and shipping are 100% offset.
10% For The Planet
Contributing to a brighter future for wildlife.
Every Order Grows A Tree
Through our partnership with Trees for Life.
A Vision for A Brighter Future
After working behind the scenes in the publishing industry in her early 20's, Heide witnessed many wasteful practices first hand. She wondered if there was a better way to live and work in ways which were more sustainable, which inspired her to create Australia’s first earth friendly greeting card and stationery brand in 2003.
Heide began to explore the possibilities to achieve her vision: To create Australian designed, made and inspired products that had minimal impact on the environment, while providing a platform to support the wild places and unique animals she loved so much, but were being threatened by climate change and increasing habitat loss.
But as Heide peeled back the layers of the paper and print industry, she realised how difficult the journey would be. Everywhere she looked, she uncovered the destruction of nature - just to make paper products. From the demolition of dense and diverse forests and the loss of habitat for wildlife, to the carbon emitting transport and huge amounts of water use and pollution created by toxic inks, pulping forests and bleaching paper.
"The realisation that the native-forest paper and traditional print industries were overwhelmingly unsustainable made me even more determined to create a business with a purpose: To tread lightly on the planet and give back to the wild places I love."
Treading Lightly, Giving Back Generously
Creating a sustainable business in 2003 wasn't easy. There were very few existing 'green' business models to learn from. But Heide was determined, and sourced recycled card stock at a time when it was rarely used, and expensive. She found a printer using vegetable inks exclusively. She connected with Australian artists who shared her love for the unique native plants and wildlife which she loved.
In 2008, Heide forged a partnership with local environmental not-for-profit Trees For Life, donating a portion of sales from products to help plant native tree seedlings. This was the beginning of a flourishing partnership that continues today, and has resulted in over 50,000 trees being grown with our direct support.
Almost two decades later, Earth Greetings is one of Australia’s most established earth friendly card, gift and stationery brands. Our Purpose was seeded by Heide's original vision - to to make beautiful, sustainable and useful products with the lightest possible planetary footprint, whilst giving back to the native animals and wild places she loves.
You can listen to our founder Heide telling more of her story in this podcast.