Made to be kept, not replaced
The most sustainable notebook is the one you are still using in 2040. Everything below follows from that single idea.
“We would rather sell you one book every five years than five books every year. It is a worse business model and a better idea.”
Meera Raghavan · Founder
What we hold ourselves to
Responsible sourcing
Every stock is FSC or PEFC certified and traced to a named mill. Leather is vegetable-tanned without chrome salts. We publish the origin of every material on every product page.
Recyclable packaging
Recycled kraft boxes, paper tape, compostable glassine and soy-based inks. No plastic anywhere in the chain — not in the box, not on the book, not in the post.
Production ethics
Eleven people on permanent contracts, paid above the Karnataka living wage, with a four-and-a-half-day week. Our tannery and mills are audited annually and named publicly.
Long-lasting design
Sewn bindings that open flat for decades, refillable leather covers, replaceable brass fittings, and free rebinding for the life of any book we have made.
Nothing in the box that cannot go in the compost
In 2022 we removed the last piece of plastic from our supply chain — a polypropylene window in a gift box that nobody had questioned in six years.
Boxes are recycled kraft, printed with soy inks. Tape is paper with a natural rubber adhesive. Books are wrapped in compostable glassine, tied with cotton ribbon. Void fill is shredded offcut from our own guillotine. The whole thing can go into a home compost bin, and we have tested that it does.
Gift boxes are made to be reused, which is the least glamorous form of sustainability and probably the most effective one.
Every material, and where it comes from
Updated each quarter. If a material is not on this list, it is not in our products.
| Material | Origin | Certification | Notes |
| Cream laid 120 GSM | Mill Sri Ganesh, Tamil Nadu | FSC Mix 70% | Elemental chlorine free |
| Ivory wove 100 GSM | Papierfabrik Zerkall, Germany | FSC Mix 80% | Hydro-powered mill |
| Cotton rag 300 GSM | Mill Sri Ganesh, Tamil Nadu | 100% cotton offcut | Acid free, no OBA |
| Toned kraft 140 GSM | Nagaon Mill, Assam | PEFC certified | 80% post-consumer |
| Vegetable-tanned hide | Conceria Nuvola, Tuscany | Leather Working Group Gold | Bark-tanned, chrome free |
| Linen bookcloth | Kannur Handloom, Kerala | GOTS in progress | Handwoven, azo-free dyes |
| Boards | Recycled, Bengaluru | 90% post-consumer | Locally sourced |
| Brass fittings | Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh | Recycled stock | Unlacquered, replaceable |
The remaining 6% of materials — principally thread dyes and one adhesive — are still being traced to source. We would rather publish the gap than round it up.
Send it back instead
Write to us
Send a photograph of the book to repairs@redickaa.com. Any Redickaa book, any age, any condition.
Post it in
We cover return postage within India. Overseas, we split it.
We rebind it
New spine, new endpapers, same cover — or a new block in the original leather if the paper is spent.
Back within a month
Free of charge, for as long as we exist. Roughly 1,240 books so far.
Letters worth opening
Essays from the bindery, first sight of limited releases, and ₹500 towards your first order over ₹3,000. Two letters a month, never more.