I was not familiar with A Good Company when they contacted me to offer a sample for review. Based in Sweden, A Good Company offers a focused selection of stationery and household items, all designed to be environmentally friendly, and produced in line with a set of values:

We believe being completely transparent between ourselves, and with our customers and partners will spur us to push even harder.

We are completely transparent

• We encourage our customers to understand exactly how our products are made.


• We don’t make off-the-cuff statements without backing them up with proper facts.


• We detail the environmental footprint of everything we do.


• We benchmark ourselves against competing products & brands.


• We are completely transparent about our suppliers & partners.


• We ask suppliers & partners to provide us with hard proof about their practices.

We never take shortcuts

In the choice between different courses of action, we will always take the route that makes our company and our products better and more responsible.

• We will always climate compensate our shipments, even if that comes at a cost.


• We develop our own packaging material.


• We say firmly no to cheap but harmful materials, such as BPA-plastics.


• We evaluate our suppliers & partners on more than just the cost.


• We avoid working with suppliers & partners that we can’t influence.

We refuse to become corporate

We think the traditional way of running a company — with a big office that no one else can use, a fancy reception, stale conference rooms, and faceless art — is out of date.

• Our office is 100% remote: we work together, but we don’t share an office.


• We believe in well-oiled teams and avoid becoming dependent on lone-wolf heroes.


• We always recruit globally, to assemble a broad spectrum of experience and skill.


• We accept and celebrate fast failures, and we learn from our mistakes.


• We encourage a healthy & balanced lifestyle, that leads to higher productivity.


• We strive to get as many certifications that can strengthen our cause – Read more about our certifications here.

I am not an expert on assessing claims of carbon-neutrality, sustainability, etc., but from what I’ve read, A Good Company seems to be going further than other notebook makers, not just in their choice of materials, but in climate-compensating their shipments. The result, they claim, is “the first climate-positive notebook in the world.” Let’s take a look.

I received an A5 hardcover notebook. (It is actually 6 x 8.5″, which is a bit bigger than official A5.) It comes in an elegant box that seems rather larger in relation to the notebook itself– it could hold 3 notebooks. The box says it is made of recycled stone and is climate-positive, so I’m trying not to see it as wasteful (but the materials aren’t free, so it must add to the price of the notebook). If I had to pick one adjective to describe my first impression of the notebook and its packaging, it would be “smooth.” The box feels smooth, the cover feels smooth, the paper feels smooth. Everything looks smooth!

The smooth texture comes from the paper being made of re-used stone. A Good Company is not alone in using this material–I’ve reviewed a stone paper notebook before, from Ogami, and have also noticed a brand called Karst that makes stone paper notebooks. Aside from the environmentally-friendly manufacturing of stone paper, it can be recycled after use (if you throw your notebooks away), and it has some other interesting characteristics, such as being tear-resistant and waterproof.

The exterior of the Good Company journal feels sturdy and elegant. The spine is squared, and the overhang is tidy and even all around. The company logo appears at the upper right corner of the front cover, with their website address on the back. There is also a small triangle logo on the spine. The dusty pink color would not have been my first choice but it is attractive, and various other colors are available.

Inside the front cover, there is information about the notebook, as well as a space to write your contact information and dates of usage. The notebook features a back pocket and ribbon marker, but no elastic closure.

I received a notebook with unlined pages– dot grid and lined are also available. The paper feels dense and somewhat floppy– this works out well in terms of the pages lying flat when the notebook is open. I like the feel of stone paper and enjoy how it works with most pens. Hard pencils work really well on this paper, at least if you want to see a darker line. When I first wrote with fountain pens, I was really pleased as colors seemed very vibrant and I didn’t see any bleeding or feathering. But it seems to take a while for ink to fully react with this paper– when I looked at it later, some of the wetter inks had feathered, and the Pilot Varsity fountain pen had faded to a completely different color. I have also seen discussion on fountain pen sites about how the stone paper can abrade nibs. So whether or not this paper works for you will depend on your choice of writing instrument– with some, it is great. And overall, while showthrough is about average, not a single pen I tested bled through.

On the whole, I think the Good Company notebook is well-made, and if you are most concerned about the values behind the company that makes your notebook, it should be a great choice. The hardcover A5 journal I received is $29, so you are paying a pretty significant premium over similar sized journals from brands like Moleskine, Leuchtturm and Rhodia. (Discounts are available if you buy multiple copies, but even buying 5 and getting 15% off, it is still expensive.) But if you think that is pricy, A Good Company also sells 64-page A6 pocket softcover notebooks, in a 3-pack a la Field Notes and Moleskine Cahiers. Each 3-pack is $37! I will admit that I have spent a lot on some of the notebooks in my collection, for less defensible reasons than saving the planet, but I would not pay that much for notebooks for regular use. A Good Company points out in their own marketing info that sometimes a bargain isn’t really a bargain: “Better deals come at a hidden cost. If I’m not paying, someone else is. Sometimes the bargain item is manufactured by people who earn too little and work too hard. Sometimes nature pays the environmental cost. Low prices just aren’t sustainable. What we need moving forward are fair prices.” What price is fair, and what price you can afford is a choice everyone will have to make on their own.

My only other beef about A Good Company is that they send you a LOT of emails once you’re on their list. Some of this is just trying to be helpful, like telling you your notebook has shipped, and giving you the tracking number… AND telling you it’s in transit, AND telling you it is scheduled for delivery, out for delivery, delivered, etc. But then it got to be a little ridiculous– a few weeks after my notebook arrived, I got a message suggesting that I might have used it up already and encouraging me to order another one. That was a bit much, even for a notebook addict like me!