Read on our blog: How to manufacture your game domestically, sustainably, and ethically

We at The TESA Collective have spent more than 10 years working to produce our board and card games in the United States, using primarily sustainable manufacturing practices (including printing with vegetable based ink, using recycled paper, and minimizing or eliminating plastic pieces). We have also fostered relationships with many union and worker-owned businesses over the years, collaborating with them to expand their capacity to produce board games and card games for mass production.

This is important for a number of reasons. First, many games are produced overseas in unfortunate working conditions, while also using production practices that are harmful for the environment. While we want to manufacture our games as close to home as possible, we also feel as though it’s critical to manufacture the games as ethically and sustainably as possible – for both the people and the planet.

TESA is working to build a new path to allow us to prioritize putting our money towards companies that are as close to home as possible, that benefit the people who are are doing the labor to manufacture the games, and leave as little of an environmental footprint as possible.

All in all, over our past decade of manufacturing games, we have moved more than $150,000 to primarily domestic, sustainability-oriented, and worker-owned as well as unionized shops. There’s been a lot of trial and error – and believe us, there was a lot of error – but the opportunity is now ripe for more people and game publishers to move forward with this model.

Community Printers pints our game Rise Up.

Because we have seen a lot of interest in this lately, we put together a guide on how to manufacture your board game or card game domestically, sustainably, and as ethically as possible. We want more people and companies to be able to make their games in the same way we have. We can’t change the world on our own, but if there’s enough people working to manufacture games in this way, we can build a domestic and ethical production ecosystem that becomes increasingly viable and has more options at its disposal.

So let's change the board game industry for the better. Read the full guide of how to manufacture your game ethically, domestically, and sustainably here.

More from TESA

• Announcing our next board game: “STRIKE! The Game of Worker Rebellion”
• Lessons from 10 Years of Building the Cooperative Movement
• 8 Conferences to Attend to Boost Your Social Justice Skills

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