When I started looking into what actually goes into an eco-friendly jigsaw puzzle, I found the question was bigger than I expected. Is it recycled board? Vegetable-based inks? Where the factory is? How far things travel to get there? The honest answer is all of it, and none of it in isolation tells the whole story. Here's what we've learned, the tradeoffs we've made, and the decisions we've changed our minds about.
Printing
All of our local printing happens at Community Printers, a worker-owned cooperative and union shop in Santa Cruz. Environmental responsibility has been a core value there since the 1970s: they're FSC certified, recycle everything, and participate in Trees for the Future. Our local puzzle faces, boxes, and guides are printed on materials from FSC certified sources. Our imported puzzles are printed with vegetable-based inks by our manufacturing partner in Guangdong, also FSC certified.
We're proud of our relationship with Community Printers. They gave us essential support in our first years, and as some of our brand puzzles move to export, our growing custom puzzle business is helping fill that gap.
In-House Puzzles: Materials
Our in-house puzzles are mounted on ESKA blue puzzle board, a recycled puzzle board made from 100% recycled material in a zero waste facility in the Netherlands, with a nearly closed process water system that also generates biogas. We use a dextrose-based glue from Adhesive Products Incorporated, a family-owned business in Albany, CA.
Imported Puzzles: Why We Made the Switch
When demand outgrew what our press could keep up with, we began importing our 1000-piece titles from a manufacturing partner in Guangdong, China. The decision was more straightforward than it might sound, and it came down to a few honest realities.
We'd love to build more manufacturing jobs here in Oakland, but the numbers don't work: paying a living wage in the Bay Area at the scale needed to keep prices reasonable isn't something we can do right now. What we can do is keep growing service and light manufacturing work through our custom puzzle channel, where the model actually works. Our manufacturing partner operates in a region with an established supply chain and a wage structure suited to that scale of production. We didn't take that on faith; we chose a partner independently audited on labor conditions, and their workers are paid above the local legal minimum wage.
People also assume local production is automatically the more sustainable choice, but that depends on where the materials come from. Our recycled puzzle board ships from the Netherlands to Virginia, then travels by truck across the country to Oakland. Our imported puzzles travel by container ship, which emits roughly 20g of CO2 per ton per 1,000km compared to over 1,000g for air freight, and significantly less per unit than long-haul truck shipping. Ocean freight isn't zero-impact, but it's one of the most fuel-efficient ways to move goods at scale, which was a genuine surprise to us when we looked into it.
Materials availability mattered too. The only rigid box we could source at a viable price point came from China. Once we were already importing boxes, importing the puzzles themselves made sense. Our manufacturing partner is FSC certified, independently audited for fair labor practices and worker safety (BSCI), and their puzzles are safety tested to US and EU toy standards (ASTM F963 and EN71).
Keeping our press in-house wasn't just a sentiment. It's how we stay available for short-run local titles, artist collaborations, and custom puzzle work, which is where the press earns its keep.
Packaging and Waste
Every puzzle comes in a reusable, resealable bag. Our local puzzles ship without shrink wrap, using repurposed packing materials wherever we can. We offer free piece replacement for in-stock puzzles rather than requiring a full return.
We use a just-in-time production model to avoid overproduction. It means we sometimes run out of things, but it also means we're not sitting on inventory we'll eventually discard.
What We're Still Figuring Out
This page reflects where we are, not a finished picture. We'll update it as things change.