Botanical PaperWorks Turns Paper Into Corporate Gifts

A sheet of Botanical PaperWorks seed paper takes about 0.98 litres of water to make, against an industry standard near 13 litres for a Letter-size sheet. The Winnipeg company has been proving that a business card or a wedding favour can grow into wildflowers since 1997, and corporate buyers keep reordering because the product does something a mug or a pen never will: it disappears into a garden instead of a landfill.

Meet the founders behind Botanical PaperWorks

Mary Reimer was an elementary school teacher in Winnipeg when she started folding papermaking into her language arts lessons, a way to use up the scrap paper her students generated before city recycling programs caught up. Her daughter, Heidi Reimer-Epp, borrowed the technique for her own wedding programs, and the handmade paper drew enough compliments that the two pitched it to five Winnipeg stores. All five placed an order.

Heidi left her corporate job to run the new venture full-time, and mother and daughter built it from a dining table and a basement into a workshop on Portage and Smith. A publishing house then approached them to write a book of papermaking recipes. While testing combinations of grasses, petals, and other botanical scraps for that project, they tried adding seeds to the pulp. The paper grew flowers when planted, and Botanical PaperWorks became a seed paper company. The resulting book, 300 Papermaking Recipes, carries both their names.

The business moved again, this time into Winnipeg’s Exchange District, and grew into a team of more than 25 people. In January 2026, Reimer-Epp sold the company to Kyle and Kayla Kannwischer after nearly three decades running it, staying on under contract as a consultant through the year to guide the handoff. Kyle now leads as CEO and Kayla directs strategic initiatives. Both have said the sustainability commitment Reimer-Epp built into the company is staying in place.

What Botanical PaperWorks makes

Every product starts with the same handmade seed paper: recycled paper pulp pressed into sheets embedded with wildflower, herb, or vegetable seeds, made flat and sturdy enough to print, fold, or emboss. The catalog runs from wedding invitations, favours, and place cards to business cards, greeting cards, bookmarks, and seed paper coins for promotions. Memorial cards and sympathy favours make up another line, alongside seed bombs and confetti for events.

Beyond paper, the company hand-pours soy and coconut wax candles and makes handmade soaps, both available with private-label or custom branding. A grow station on site tests seed germination on an ongoing basis, so every batch that ships has already proven it will sprout once a recipient plants it.

The values built into every sheet

Botanical PaperWorks became a Certified B Corporation in 2024, posting a score of 80.2 against B Lab’s 80-point certification threshold (the average applicant scores 50.9). It has held Climate Smart certification since 2019, which requires tracking and actively reducing greenhouse gas emissions across utilities, waste, and shipping. Manitoba’s electricity grid runs on roughly 97 percent renewable hydropower, which keeps the company’s own electricity emissions close to zero.

Water use is measured, not estimated: about 0.98 litres per Letter-size sheet, compared with an industry standard near 13 litres. The company recycles more than 18 tonnes of paper waste a year, repurposes offcuts, pallet wood, and shipping boxes, and composts kitchen and production scraps. Packaging leans on recycled and compostable materials, sized to cut void space and shipping emissions.

The business was founded by a mother-daughter team in 1997, and it runs a give-back program supporting ocean conservation through Oceana.

How Botanical PaperWorks works with corporate teams

Corporate orders run through custom seed paper printing and bulk greeting card production, with your logo, colours, and message printed directly on the seed paper rather than added as a sticker. The company handles one-off runs for a single event as well as standing programs that repeat every quarter or every holiday season.

That capability has been recognized industry-wide. At the 2025 PPPC Awards, Botanical PaperWorks won Supplier of the Year in the Small Enterprise category, a Gold Award for Made in Canada, and a Bronze Award for Most Creative New Promotional Product; it had already won Supplier of the Year in 2024 and Best in Sustainability in 2022. The company also reaches corporate buyers through Canada’s promotional products distributor network, including members of the Promotional Product Professionals of Canada, ASI, and SAGE.

For a buyer, that combination matters: every sheet is made in-house in Winnipeg by a team that has spent nearly three decades refining how seed paper prints, folds, and grows, and every order can carry your brand instead of a generic design. Onboarding kits, client mailers, and conference giveaways all draw on the same production line, so scaling from a pilot order to a national program does not mean switching vendors.

Three ways to gift Botanical PaperWorks

• Onboarding kits. Pair a seed paper welcome card with a promotional grow kit so a new hire’s first week ends with something planted on a desk.
• Client thank-you. A custom-printed seed paper greeting card or wine tag turns a routine thank-you into something the client keeps growing.
• Event favours. Seed paper confetti or seed bombs give a conference or trade show booth a giveaway that survives the flight home.
• Holiday box. A plantable seed paper card or calendar insert works as the one holiday gift that keeps arriving after the season ends, as a spring bloom.

Frequently asked questions

Is Botanical PaperWorks made in Canada?

Yes. Every sheet is handmade in-house at the company’s Winnipeg workshop, and that in-house production earned a Gold Award for Made in Canada at the 2025 PPPC Awards.

Can we add our logo?

Yes. Custom seed paper orders and bulk greeting card printing both support logo and brand colour printing directly on the paper, for single-event runs or repeat corporate programs.

What quantities work?

Botanical PaperWorks fills orders that range from small custom batches for a single event to standing programs that distributors reorder every season, with production scaled to match.

Is it certified?

Botanical PaperWorks has been a Certified B Corporation since 2024, scoring 80.2 against B Lab’s 80-point threshold, and it has held Climate Smart certification, which requires tracking and cutting emissions, since 2019.

Three decades after a Winnipeg classroom project turned into a seed paper company, Botanical PaperWorks still measures itself in litres of water saved and tonnes of paper diverted. That kind of proof is exactly what a corporate gifting program can stand behind.