TAUST - when passion for writing meets love for environment and nature TAUST comes from a Latvian word "taustīt" - meaning "to touch". Madara Ūlande, the owner and creator of TAUST, started making notebooks and journals back in high school - when there was so much to write but not so many good quality, nice looking notebooks in the shops. She figured - why not try to make one herself? She did - I bought an ugly notebook in a shop, took it apart, studied how it was made, and tried to do it the same way, but with an added twist. It worked. For a while Madara worked for an environmental and climate movement in Latvia and New Zealand, and learned about how much raw material gets used for making new stuff every year. It's crazy! While so much of that valuable material gets thrown away at the same time. She thought - why not try to apply recycling, up-cycling and zero waste principles in her notebook making process, using existing materials, with as little leftovers as possible? She tried. It worked. Madara kept experimenting, until TAUST - a seperate notebook and journal brand - was born in 2014. It started while Madara was living in New Zealand, but only after coming back to Latvia she realised that it can be not only a hobby but also a meaningful business that inspires people to slow down, think and write.