Making great merch is what we love—but we also take responsibility for how we create it. Our four pillars keep us focused on making better choices whenever possible.
1) Team
We prioritise our team’s health and well-being because we know that life has its many ups and downs.
We’re committed to creating a workplace where every employee feels valued, supported, and heard.
As a Living Wage Certified company, we’re proud to offer fair wages that reflect the true cost of living and acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our team. By providing fair compensation, we support our employees’ well-being, allowing them to focus on their work without the stress of financial uncertainty.
We believe our team should feel supported—both at work and in life. To help foster that balance, we offer a range of benefits designed to promote overall well-being.
To encourage a healthy lifestyle, all part-time and full-time team members receive a weekly Health and Wellness Stipend. In line with our commitment to reducing environmental impact, we also offer compensation to those who choose eco-friendly alternatives to driving.
We support flexible work schedules, empowering our team to work the hours that suit them best. Alongside Parental Leave, we also offer a dedicated Partner’s Leave package.
Always top of mind is the health and safety of our staff. We're constantly looking for ways to make our processes smarter, safer, and more efficient here at the Print Room. Wherever possible, we limit the use of harmful chemicals and machinery—and when they’re unavoidable, we make sure the right protective gear and safety measures are firmly in place. Keeping our crew safe is non-negotiable.
We believe it’s important our team feels appreciated. From Friday pizzas, cookies, and cold brews to our annual work trip, we recognise the hard work our team puts in—and make sure it doesn’t go unnoticed.
We’re also adding a new event to the calendar as part of our commitment to offering more cultural experiences. By partnering with mana whenua businesses, we’ll come together for an annual day of learning and connection.
2) Social
We don’t exist in isolation—we’re part of a larger network of people and practices.
That’s why we believe in engaging in meaningful activities that create a positive impact on our community, both near and far.
Reaching our goals is a journey, not a race. We’ve proudly taken the first steps toward earning Toitū Enviromark Gold and B Corp certification—and if all goes to plan, we’re aiming to achieve both by the end of 2025.
Community—and the impact we have within it—matters to us. One of the most meaningful ways we can give back is by doing what we do best: making great quality merch.
Through discounted rates for non-profit organisations and our fundraising and pre-order stores, we help create real opportunities to raise meaningful funds. A standout example is the $145k raised for Women’s Refuge during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We also love getting out into the community. Right now, we’re actively connecting with local projects to find the best ways for our team to get involved and lend a hand. Exciting things are on the horizon!
We consciously partner with suppliers who share our values. While we work hard to support our in-house team and reduce our environmental impact, the biggest difference happens when the entire supply chain is on the same page. Positive change is most powerful when everyone is making like-minded, responsible decisions.
We’re committed to working with—and supporting—those who share our values. From others in the industry to those outside. These partnerships are important to us, and we believe they’re worth nurturing and strengthening.
At the heart of this is the work we’re doing to build strong foundations of our own. We’ve started asking ourselves some important questions:
How can we weave te reo Māori and te ao Māori into our pillars? What is appropriate? How can we better support the Māori-led businesses we work with? And what does it mean to be tangata Tiriti? We’ve reached out to a mana whenua-owned organisation to start the kōrero, and we’re excited to be on this journey of learning.
3) Environment
We acknowledge our footprint, and that comes with responsibility.
We’re committed to actively finding ways to reduce our impact on the environment. Small changes add up—so we strive to always do better.
There are plenty of numbers to crunch—but we’ve fired up the calculator. We’re working with Opportune to begin measuring our carbon emissions. With their help, we’ll be able to better understand our carbon footprint, be transparent about it, and set meaningful goals to reduce it.
We’re proud to be one of only two exclusively water-based ink printers in Aotearoa. These inks don’t just produce incredible prints—they’re also much gentler on the environment and far safer for our team to work with, thanks to significantly reduced chemical use.
At the Print Room, we receive a lot of packages—so we’ve built in simple ways to recycle and repurpose materials for our outgoing shipments. We’re happy to reuse boxes from our suppliers, and you won’t find any plastic in our packaging.
Whenever we can, we also encourage our suppliers to cut down on plastic—or ditch it entirely.
We prioritise products made with consideration—and partnerships with those who share our commitment to ethical practices. When choosing who to work with, we always look for these accreditations:
- Fair Wear
- The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)
- ECO PASSPORT by OEKO-TEX®
- Aotearoa Living Wage
4) Education
We want to empower consumers to make informed choices.
With so much information out there, we believe it's essential to make it clear, accessible, and easy to understand.
We get it—the waters can be murky. With so much information out there, it’s not always easy to tell what’s good and what’s not so good. That’s why we’re committed to breaking down our process and making sure working with us is crystal clear.
From ink selection to garment suppliers and freight options, our team gives you straightforward, transparent info—so you can make the best decisions for you.
We believe knowledge can be powerful—and we want to empower the people we work with. Our industry is full of information, and we see it as our responsibility to share as much of it with you as we can.
That’s where our Resources section comes in. It’s designed to give you a clear, behind-the-scenes look at what we do—no gatekeeping, just honest insight.
Note: Our Resources section is currently in the works and will be available soon. Thanks for your patience—we can’t wait to share it with you.