Are Greeting Cards Sustainable? Exploring the Eco-friendly Shift to Digital Group Cards
A quiet revolution is underway in how people celebrate life’s milestones. From birthdays and farewells to weddings and thank-yous, more of us are rethinking a small but symbolic tradition – the greeting card.
For decades, paper cards have been the go-to way to say “we care.” Yet as sustainability becomes central to our choices, many are discovering that those colourful pieces of paper come with a surprising footprint – and that in 2025, a greener, digital alternative is already spreading smiles in a more sustainable way.
The Hidden Impact of Paper Cards
The global greeting-card industry sends billions of cards each year. In the UK alone, people buy around 900 million cards annually; in the USA, it is even more – the National Association of Greeting Card Publishers has estimated that approximately 6 billion greeting cards – which is about 30 cards per every person in the USA – are sent out annually. Each one might seem harmless, but collectively the impact adds up.
Researchers at Imperial College London estimate that if the UK’s discarded wrapping paper and Christmas cards alone were collected and fermented, they could make enough biofuel to run a double-decker bus to the moon and back more than 20 times! This is not to mention other celebrations and other larger countries like the USA, suggesting the impact of this tradition.
According to research from the University of Exeter, a single paper card can generate around 140-200 grams of CO₂ equivalent as a conservative estimate – roughly the same as a few cups of tea – but might even be three times higher in practice on average (University of Exeter, 2020). The majority of this footprint comes from paper production, printing and transportation during postage.
While many cards now use recycled or FSC-certified paper, the process still consumes a lot of energy and water. The pulp and paper manufacturing industry is actually one of the largest water and energy consuming industries, as well as the total discharges into the environment. These discharges include emissions of CO2, nitrous oxides and sulphur oxides into the air (including some very harmful pollutants such as AOXs and dioxins), which can cause eutrophication in the environment (light and eventually oxygen deprivation of water bodies, causing life to die) and can be generally toxic to life.
Decorative touches like foil, glitter, or lamination often make recycling difficult. And when cards travel long distances, transport emissions multiply.
This is not to say that many card makers are not making a significant, genuine progress, such as using recycled fibres, soy inks, and compostable packaging. Still, paper production remains resource-intensive overall.
In addition to the emissions, physical waste and deforestation, production of paper cards also uses chemicals – including ones like toluene, xylene and benzene. These are often bio-accumulative endocrine disruptors, which are toxic to aquatic life and humans, contributing to our ever-growing hormonal disruptions and health issues, and which circulate in the environment long after the visible lifecycle of the greeting card ends.
Yet the heart of the issue is not just the material – it is the scale. Each new birthday, wedding, or thank-you creates another small demand on forests, fuels, and factories.
The Digital Shift
In the past few years, and especially during lockdown and the rise of digital work, when circulating a physical card was not an option, a wave of innovation has quietly reshaped how we connect. Digital group greeting cards – online cards signed by many people – have become a meaningful and eco-friendly way to celebrate together.
Digital greeting cards have existed for years, although not as widely used until more recently, but it was not possible to sign these as a group. This prevented digital greeting cards from being truly versatile, because it was not possible to sign a digital greeting card as a group. Signing greeting cards collectively is a practice that is common in organisations, where teams come together to sign so many different types of greeting cards – from group birthday cards, group leaving cards and group wedding cards, to group thank you and work anniversary cards, signed to express gratitude. These are becoming an essential part of workplace recognition programs, which are rapidly gaining popularity as part of HR retention and engagement initiatives. Furthermore, group greeting cards are useful at schools and in recreational groups, where a group thank you teacher card, or a “sorry you are leaving for university” card, signed by the church choir, may be needed, for example.
The environmental difference is striking. Digital cards typically create less than half the emissions of paper cards – around 50 grams of CO₂ equivalent or less, assuming at least 1 large attachment, depending on data hosting and file size (https://app.croneri.co.uk/questions-and-answers/e-cards-versus-christmas-cards). For smaller digital cards and with only messages and no large attachments like videos, it may be significantly smaller. They eliminate paper, printing, packaging, and postal delivery altogether. However, the biggest benefit of group greeting cards is arguably the saving on resources, such as water and trees, as well as the reduction in chemical release into the environment.
Why Group Greeting Cards Make an Even Bigger Difference
The difference between a digital greeting card and a printed greeting card might not seem that spectacular. However, the difference really begins to show with a group greeting card, which might be signed by hundreds of people across continents, where each signature often requires a separate page, during events such as a wedding, or for a corporate farewell or a birthday in a large international company. Here, group greeting cards amplify the sustainability benefits. A single online group card replaces multiple individual cards – or a large printed one that circulates between dozens, if not hundreds, of signers, potentially needing to be posted across continents to be signed.
For example, let us consider a workplace birthday card. Traditionally, one person buys the card, it travels desk to desk for signatures and then it is mailed by post to the colleague whose birthday is being celebrated. With a digital group birthday card platform like Gathered Cards, everyone signs remotely through a shareable link, and the final birthday card is then delivered by email. This eliminates the need for paper, postage and therefore the waste.
For classrooms sending thank-you teacher cards or teams celebrating group birthdays of farewells, the environmental savings scale quickly. What used to mean dozens of cards can now mean just one link.
Digital Does Not Mean Impact-Free
However, no solution is completely impact-free. Digital cards rely on electricity for devices and servers, they require manufacturing of parts to build those computers in the first place, the construction of data centres for storage of information. Here, high-definition videos or animations increase data use. But these impacts are small per capita compared to paper and shipping. Choosing renewable-energy hosting and keeping designs lightweight, by eliminating or reducing adding large videos, for example, further reduces the footprint.
The final card can still often be sent out to be printed into a physical card. This is still more sustainable compared to signing it physically, as most of the postage between participants has been eliminated, but this still comprises all the downsides that come with the physical printing of greeting cards, though these are relatively small, compared to postage. To further minimise impact for those who really prefer a physical keepsake, it is recommended that the card is printed to PDF and printed on a home printer instead, preferably on the recipient end, as then, the shipping is eliminated and the end card is more sustainable, without additional finishings.
A Sign of Hope: The Greeting-Card Industry Goes Green
The shift toward digital cards has had a more positive environmental impact than just the digital cards themselves and then benefits have spread to the traditional physical cards industry. It mirrors a broader trend towards sustainability in how we celebrate.
The rise of digital cards has also encouraged the traditional card industry to explore greener practices like recycled materials and plant-based inks.
This is great news, because 80% of all the greeting cards continue going to high-street shops, which means physical greeting cards, so it’s great to see this industry improve overall as a knock-on effect.
For companies adopting sustainable practices, switching to group e-cards for employee birthdays or farewells is a simple, high-impact action that is likely to spread beyond the digital greeting card. For schools and families, digital thank-you teacher, birthday and leaving cards cut waste while bringing communities together.
It is a reminder that environmental progress does not always require sweeping policies or high-tech inventions – sometimes, it is enough to transform small everyday traditions.
A Greener Way to Say “We Care”
Paper cards will always hold a certain nostalgic charm. But as the world embraces climate-conscious living, digital group cards offer a modern evolution of that same sentiment – heartfelt, communal, and kind to the planet.
By choosing group greeting cards online, we don’t lose the joy of connection. We gain a new way to express it – one that celebrates people and protects the planet they share.
