Sustainability in publishing isn’t just about recycled paper or plant-based inks. For us at Polar Embassy, it’s about designing products that do no harm, and if possible, some good.
That’s why many of our bestselling products are printed Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver at Gugler Drukerei in Melk, Austria. We visited them in 2024, to meet the people making your cheeky games and coloring books, and to see one of the most environmentally-thoughtful printers in the industry in action.
🎥 Watch how our coloring books are made →
🌱 What Is Cradle to Cradle?
Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is one of the world’s most rigorous sustainability certifications. Going beyond simply offsetting carbon, C2C focuses on circularity and certifies that products can safely return to the biosphere or be endlessly reused.
Certified products are assessed on five metrics:
🩻 Material health (no toxins or heavy metals)
♻️ Material reutilization (design for reuse or composting)
☀️ Renewable energy
🚰 Water & soil stewardship
⚖️ Social fairness
🎲 Which Polar Embassy Products Are C2C-Certified?
We're proud that the following titles are Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver, printed using safe materials and renewable energy by thoughtful humans at Gugler Druck:
🌏 Sinner or Saviour – our brand new climate education card game
🐝 A Little Less Awkward – sex education question cards
🌈 Merry Families – inclusive card game for rainbow families
✨Ancestral Healing Tarot Deck - advanced tarot deck with guidebook
🥤 Club Tarot - beginner-friendly tarot set
🖍 Isomatic Berlin Coloring Book – utopian Berlin scenes, with dinosaurs
🃏 Why is this important? Energy, transport & manufacturing are the big emitters, not card decks?
Yes, of course - publishing is not the highest-emission industry. But it's our industry, and every effort counts on our global mission to net zero.
Many board games and card decks are printed on laminated, plasticized stock, shrink-wrapped, and glued with petrochemical adhesives. Even “eco” versions often fall short.
By contrast, our C2C-certified games:
- Are made with toxin-free materials (safe for kids, safe even for the worms that hopefully one day compost it)
- Use plant-based inks and glues
- Avoid plastic wrap entirely
- Are printed in facilities powered by renewable energy
- Leave no microplastics or waste behind
It's better for your home, better for your kids, and better for the planet.
🌍 Featured Product: Sinner or Saviour
If you’re looking for a climate change card game for your next game night, meetup, or team retreat: Sinner or Saviour is it.
Each card shows the real CO₂e emissions of everyday actions, from taking a scooter to listening to an audiobook. Players bet on how many points they can win while staying within their “climate budget.” It’s data-driven, fast-paced, and designed to instruct, not guilt-trip.
What makes it stand out:
- Cradle to Cradle Certified® Silver
- Printed in Austria using 100% renewable energy
- Designed for ages 14+, perfect for classrooms and family game nights
- Available with or without marker sets for tracking scores
🏭 Sustainability in Action: What We Learned at Gugler
We already trusted Gugler for their ethical labor practices and use of safe materials like FSC-certified paper and non-toxic inks. But visiting in person in 2024 gave us a whole new appreciation for how deep their sustainability commitment really goes.
They’ve spent 35+ years pioneering sustainable printing methods, investing in details right down to the buildings themselves:
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Their 2000 building is made of wood, clay, and glass.
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Their 2017 building is 95% recyclable, and a third of its materials came from other buildings.
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Walls? Insulated with shredded paper waste.
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Energy? Solar panels power the offices; in summer, they feed enough electricity into the grid for 30 homes.
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The production hall runs on 100% hydropower, and the on-site cafeteria is heated with passive solar and serves vegetables grown in Gugler’s own garden. Lunch was delicious. 🙂
We even toured their paper warehouse, stacked with climate-friendly stock sourced as locally as possible (Austria first, then Europe). The humidity is calibrated for both human comfort and machine precision.
It's always a delight to watch watch their speed. An offset printer can churn out 50,000 double-sided pages per hour, ready to be cut, stamped, folded, and bound - all without plastic or other toxins.
Gugler doesn’t just talk about sustainability. They’ve built it into every square meter.
We wrote more about our visit in this blog post if you'd like to learn more.
♻️ Final Thought
Sustainability isn’t just a selling point, it’s a responsibility.
When you choose a Cradle to Cradle game, you’re not just buying something fun or beautiful. You’re supporting a vision of publishing that doesn’t pollute, exploit, or waste. An independent publishing ecosystem that supports not just local artists, but local printers, too.
Just remember: shipping a palette of games from Hong Kong to Hamburg emits ~26x more CO₂e than trucking the palette from Melk to Stuttgart!
🖨️ FAQ: Cradle to Cradle Printing
What does Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver mean?
It means the product meets strict standards for material safety, circularity, and clean production in five categories: material health, material reutilization, renewable energy, water & soil stewardship, and social fairness.
Are your games compostable?
Yes! Our C2C-certified games are fully compostable, although we hope you'll recycle them at the end of their use instead. But if the game was left in soil, it'd make worms happy too.
Where are your products printed?
Many of our games are printed at Gugler Druckerei in Melk, Austria, a pioneer of sustainable printing, and one of the only Cradle to Cradle certified printers in Europe.
Why not use recycled paper instead?
Cradle to Cradle focuses on material health and closed-loop systems, not just recycling. Our hope is that top-quality materials will extend the lifecycle of our games for as long as possible, before needing to be recycled.
How do I know which products are C2C-certified?
You’ll find a logo on each product. Current certified titles include: Sinner or Saviour, A Little Less Awkward, Merry Families, Club Tarot, Ancestral Healing Tarot, and the Isomatic Berlin Coloring Book.