Sustainable Materials Are Not Just Good for the Planet — They’re Good for Your Brand
What happens to your printed marketing materials after they have made their impact? For most brands on most projects — landfill. The campaign ends. The material does not. And in 2026, customers notice and are actively evaluating the choices a brand makes in its paper and packaging.
Sustainable material choices are no longer a cost of doing business responsibly — they’ve become a competitive advantage.
Two Sides North America has spent more than a decade building the evidence base to help you make genuinely sustainable choices for your printed materials. The evidence is solid. And in 2026, circular options are now commercial and accessible.
We're going to review four sustainability trends in this blog series. This first one leads us to options for choosing earth-friendly, climate-change-combating materials across commercial print, packaging, finishing, and even wide-format this year.
Trend 1 — Recycled and FSC-Certified Stocks for Commercial Print
Think: Marketing materials, brand campaigns, direct mail
Recycled and FSC-certified stocks are no longer a specialty request for brands— they are widely available. This is showing up in this year’s color trends, and choices in paper stock.
Color Trends: Away from Bright White
Earthy colors – mustard, terra cotta, taupe, eucalyptus
Kraft browns and sand tones
Muted grays and stone hues
Warm whites and soft creams
Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year, Cloud Dancer, makes exactly this argument in color — a warm, softened white that feels lived-in and natural rather than clinically bright. The trend in paper and in color is pointing in the same direction. Less processed. More honest. More trusted.
Fiber: Texture as a Feature
The tactile quality of fiber-based paper is becoming a major differentiator. In a digital world, texture is one of the few things print can own—and recyclable paper can deliver that.
Paper trends in 2026:
Visible recycled fiber flecks
Variations across the paper
Uncoated finishes with a soft “tooth”
Felted or lightly embossed surfaces
Alternative materials – hemp, cotton, bagasse (a byproduct of sugarcane processing)
Trend 2 — Eco Friendly Paperboard in Folding Carton Packaging
Think: Product boxes, Retail packaging, Folding cartons
In 2026 packaging choices are increasingly including post-consumer recycled paperboard. And the range of sustainable board options has expanded to the point where there is a right choice for almost every brand aesthetic and every packaging application.
Choices to ask your printer about:
Recycled Paperboard (CRB / URB)
Unbleached Kraft Board (Kraft / SUS)
Clay-Coated Recycled Board (CCRB / CCNB)
Solid Unbleached Sulfate (SUS)
Bagasse (Sugarcane Fiber Board)
Hemp Fiber Board
Bamboo Fiber Board
Include sustainable signals on your packaging – the FSC logo, indications you are using vegetable-based inks. AV Graphics prints wide-format graphics and packaging on its HP Latex 360 — a platform that handles a remarkable range of sustainable substrates. Whatever substrate fits your brand story, there is a good chance we can print on it.
In Part 2 of this series, we’ll look beyond the substrate and into the inks, coatings, and wide format materials that determine how sustainable your printed materials really are.
Partner with a Sustainable Printing Solutions Provider
AV Graphics produces commercial print, folding carton packaging, finishing, and wide format graphics using sustainable stocks, FSC-certified materials, water-based inks, and LED curing technology.
Talk to AV Graphics about what your next project could be made from — and what statement it could make about who your brand is and what it stands for.