Celebrating 25 Years of Growth

Time to celebrate and pop the confetti! (The plantable kind, of course.)

This year Botanical PaperWorks celebrates its 25th year in business. Over two and a half decades of making eco-friendly products, spreading love for the planet and reducing waste. Looking back, we feel deep gratitude for the customers and clients who have worked with us. Their incredible support and enthusiasm to be more eco-friendly kept us going and growing.

“It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years of Botanical PaperWorks! So much has happened, we’ve had so many adventures and it’s been a very rewarding experience. At this moment in time, I think about the people who believed in the business along the way – the customers and team members who shared our vision to Leave The Earth A Better Place and made these 25 years possible. They are change-makers. They’re communicating with their dollar, choosing products that do good for the environment. They set an example to businesses everything by showing that there’s a compelling economic reason for companies to do better for the environment. I’m proud of the impact that we’ve had together. Twenty-five years of company growth means 25 years of having a growth-oriented, eco-conscious mindset, connecting with others who do too, and providing them solutions.”

– Heidi Reimer-Epp

Hear more from our CEO, Heidi Reimer-Epp about Botanical PaperWorks’ 25 years of growth and goals for the future in this video below!

How it all started

Seeing where Botanical PaperWorks is now, it might be hard to imagine the company’s humble beginnings.

When schoolteacher Mary and her entrepreneurial daughter Heidi first dreamed up their recycled papermaking business, they started with paper that students threw away in Mary’s classroom. Instead of sending the used paper to landfill, they thought: why not create something new that gives back to the environment instead?

That’s when their adventure began, leading them in creative directions. As nature-lovers inspired by the Canadian Prairie landscape, Heidi and Mary experimented with paper recipes that included pieces from their homeland: leaves, petals, and grasses. They eventually stumbled across a delightful idea: add wildflower seeds to the pulp. No waste after, just plantable seed paper sheets that grow and help support biodiversity!

Little did they know, they’d eventually be running a company that helps customers around the world make eco-friendly choices and gives new life to hundreds of thousands of pounds of paper waste. Stacks of paper sheets that would have gone to landfill, now turned into new strong printable sheets for wedding stationery collections, memorial pieces, business promotional products and packaging.

Going green for a better tomorrow

Headlines about the state of the earth continue to propel the environmentalism movement to the forefront of conversations. Customers want to know what’s in the products they buy and where they end up after use.

This change in the world pushes us to reach further than we imagined. Waste in our everyday lives is a mounting problem. Why stop at seed paper?

With this in mind, our team launched a line of handmade soaps that stays true to the vision Botanical PaperWorks had from the start. Eco-friendly bars that have natural ingredients and leave no waste behind. With recycled paper wrapping and natural ingredients, these bars are making a splash in the special events and promotional products industry.

Since joining the Promotional Product Professionals of Canada in 2011, Botanical PaperWorks has helped small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies share their messages in a sustainable way. We hope to reach even more brands and help them communicate their missions with the planet in mind.

Planning for future growth

Though Botanical PaperWorks roots are in Canada, our team continues to connect with people overseas and beyond. Keeping our sights on new adventures, we joined Trade Accelerator Program (TAP) Canada to find more places to take root in Germany, the UK, and other international markets.

The response to our eco products has been overwhelmingly positive. Since our first days in business, we’re honored to have received several awards for innovations in printing and the promotional product industry.

Over the next 25 years, Botanical PaperWorks will keep growing. There are so many seeds to plant and a garden of ideas for more eco-products to bring to life. Becoming more sustainable is a journey. There’s always more to learn and ways to get better. We are grateful to every person, business, and organization who has made that eco-friendly commitment with us along the way. We hope to keep this community growing, continuing to connect with people who want to do good for the earth.

Learn more about how you can incorporate eco-friendly seed paper into your next corporate promotion by subscribing to our newsletter and downloading our full Seed Paper Promotions Catalog.