14 Jan 2026 • 3 minute read
In the lead-up to the festive gifting season, Clarins, the iconic French luxury cosmetics and skincare company, sought to enhance its gift card offering with a sustainable alternative to traditional plastic cards while meeting the needs of its diverse UK retail footprint. With gift cards distributed across standalone stores and concessions in premium department stores, such as Harrods, Knightsbridge, and available to buy online, the brand required highly customised designs tailored to individual locations – including store-specific details like phone numbers and branding.
Clarins’ commitment to sustainability and innovation is well known, and for their gift card requirement, traditional production methods posed significant barriers: high costs for short runs, long lead times, excess stock waste, and a substantial carbon footprint from PVC materials. Producing dozens of variations economically and sustainably would be challenging with analogue techniques.
Clarins turned to Green Gift Cards, the UK's leading innovator in plastic-free gift card solutions, to develop a fully recyclable paperboard, digitally printed alternative.
Leveraging advanced digital print technology on thick substrates, developed in partnership with Ricoh, Green Gift Cards delivered:
• Four core designs, each adapted for specific concession locations.
• 84 unique versions overall, incorporating denominations, store personalisation, contact phone numbers and unique coding.
• Premium enhancements, including digital foil on the "Precious" design for a luxurious, engaging finish.
• Production on Invercote Duo 660gsm paperboard – certified sustainable, 100% recyclable, and compostable.
Two production runs totalling over 20,000 cards were completed efficiently for rollout across more than 20 UK outlets ahead of peak seasonal demand.
Digital capabilities enabled:
• On-demand personalisation with zero waste.
• Short lead times and no minimum order or over-production.
• Consistent high-quality output, including spot colour matching and enhancements.
Customer Quote
This project exemplifies Green Gift Cards' ongoing disruption of the gift card industry: replacing plastic with greener, cheaper, faster paperboard solutions powered by digital print innovation that heralds a move away from traditional and arguably outdated print techniques.
Green Gift Cards continues to attract premium brands committed to eliminating plastic and waste from their gift card operations.
Contact us to explore sustainable gift card opportunities for your brand.
Greener
Compostable and recyclable
Cheaper
Save up to 40% compared to plastic
Quicker
Turnaround average 20 working days
Introducing our range of plastic-free cards
Since 2006 we have been innovating and disrupting in the card market to develop what is a leading range of environmentally-friendly card solutions. So what sets us apart?
Well that’s the thing, there’s a number of reasons why Green Gift Cards are renowned in the world of card production. It is the material we use for our cards and the certification that the cards come with. It is also the compelling environmental story (we urge you to watch the video) that is behind all of our cards and the fact that, once finished with, our cards are compostable and can be recycled in normal household waste streams. Oh and we’ll say it again – being environmentally-friendly doesn’t mean they are more expensive. In fact they offer great value compared to plastic cards.
Request a callback
If you would like to talk to us about your next card order or would like to know more about what makes our products so unique, call us on 01794 725 454 or request a call back.
White paper
Read our latest white paper to find out one simple change organisations can implement today to help tackle the issue of single and limited use plastic.
Request a sample pack
If you would like to actually feel and see the quality of our Green Gift Card, we will happily send you some samples.
Customers
Green Gift Cards works with a diverse range of customers, from global brands to independent retailers, all committed to reducing plastic waste.
