Sometimes you can do all the right things and then have the last step seemingly undo all the effort you’ve gone to.

Elfstrom Engineering has a striking new visual identity designed by local firm Rossignol Design, fellow members of Green Enterprise Toronto. In ordering business cards Elfstrom Engineering went with the greenest possible choice: Local printer Warren’s Waterless.

The business card paper is Rolland Enviro100 80 lb cover stock, featuring:

• FSC certified 100% post-consumer fibre
• Certified EcoLogo, Processed Chlorine Free and FSC Recycled
• Manufactured using biogas energy

The printing is:

• Done by an ISO 14001 certified company for Environmental Management Systems
• Certified EcoLogo by Environmental Choice Program
• Powered by green energy from Bullfrog Power
• Waterless printing with vegetable-based inks, saving over 200,000 L annually with virtually no VOCs (volatile organic compounds)

There was a bit of a mix-up in the ordering process and somehow my order fell through the cracks for over a month. Not a big deal, I had been printing interim cards on my inkjet printer. Although self printed and cut cards aren’t ideal, I knew it was only a short time until the cards would be printed and shipped.

Yesterday my cards arrived at my front door by DASCO Emergency Couriers. So was it really worth it to send a guy in a car over to drop off those cards? I’d be fine with Canada Post parcel, or Xpresspost for next-day.

With food miles, where we count the distance traveled by our food before it reaches the supermarket, but in the end if we choose local food and drive a vehicle to pick up our groceries we’ve outdone all the energy savings in that single small trip.

Had Warren’s been located a little further East, at Keele St, or a little further South, at Lawrence Ave, it would have been in the delivery coverage area of A-Way Express Courier in Toronto. A-Way is a non-profit courier founded and staffed by survivors of mental health challenges who use public transit to make deliveries. Two cases of brochures would definitely have been a challenge, but three small boxes of business cards weighs less than my full water bottle.

Here’s a video about A-Way Express Courier: