Commitment to Sustainability
Eco-friendly materials
Sage Leaf Studio is committed to providing quality, cost-effective, sustainable art for our Earth-loving community. This means scrutinizing our business at every level for environmental impacts.
While we do our best, know that we're not perfect, we're always learning and improving, and sometimes have to choose materials that don't meet standards because they are the only ones available. When this happens, we try to choose the option that is closest to our sustainability goals even if it means a little more work or cost to us. Luckily, the art and printing worlds are growing in their sustainable options. This will only get better as we and other artists put pressure on vendors to offer more sustainable options. See more below about how we're raising awareness with other artists.
Here are ways we reduce our footprint and increase our studio sustainability at every level:
- Original Artwork- 90% of our materials are environmentally and home friendly, including paints, papers, and brushes.
- Prints & Canvasses- We use archival quality 100% recycled canvases and Forest Stewardship Counsel (FSC) certified papers, water-based inks. Better for your home; better for the environment.
- Shipping- We don't carry inventory. This means less production and waste. We partner with a print-on-demand company with centers all over the world that print at the nearest center to your shipping address and then ship to you directly. This reduces transport carbon emissions by printing as local to you as possible. Our products are also shipped in sustainable packaging and only using recycled plastics when necessary.
- Daily Operations- We dispose of paint waste in the trash, NOT the sink to protect our waterways and soil. We recycle old paintings for new uses. We purchase art materials from Art Parts Creative Reuse Center when possible. AND we use an electric vehicle to get to inspiring locations.
Check out our BLOG for more details on our studio sustainability!
Raising awareness
Education is critical. A primary goal of this work to is raise awareness around the plight of biodiversity on our planet, and to improve sustainability practices in the art community to reduce our impact.
We can all do better. This doesn't mean life-changing decisions, but it does mean doing a little better everyday.
Creating art, unfortunately, can often be wasteful. For instance:
- Mining is required for a lot of the minerals used in certain paints.
- Solvents used to clean certain paints off brushes are harmful to the environment and our bodies.
- Art papers are often treated with acids and other chemicals harmful to the planet and your health.
- There's a lot of paper and plastic waste created from a single studio.
How can artists look at their operations and ask: "Where can I do better?" "Where can I reduce?" "Where can I shrink my footprint?" "How can I encourage others in my community to do the same?"
Our goal here is to provide an example of doing a little better every day and showing other artists how to do the same.
Check out our BLOG for more details on how you can reduce your impact.
Non-profit contribution
One of the primary reasons we started Sage Leaf Studio was to increase our impact. We wanted to channel resources into the problems and solutions that we care most about. For this reason, 10% of all proceeds go to non-profits working to conserve the natural world. Organizations that do this directly who we support include World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy.
Additionally, some of the most biodiverse countries in the world are also the most impoverished. We are lucky to have traveled the world and have learned first hand that the most important step to conserve nature in these areas is to empower the local people, particularly women, with education and access to basic resources like clean drinking water and sanitation. For this reason, we also support organizations like water.org, who "believe water is the best investment the world can make to improve health, empower women, enable access to education, increase family income, and change lives."
Check our our BLOG for more details on our partners!