by Samantha Sage
Promotional products are one of the most impactful, highest ROI marketing material categories available to promote your business. Custom swag markets your brand effectively both to new local prospects, and to existing clients across the globe to maintain strong relationships.
However, one of the biggest problems plaguing the promo industry is the excessive waste created in production and end-of-life disposal. Common promo picks are often cheaply made, harmfully produced plastic items with limited utility - meaning many recipients will throw your swag away rather than retain it!
A team of swag specialists like our crew here at MARCO Ideas Unlimited can become experts on your brand identity, and dedicated to helping you promote your business with swag suggestions that are desirable, useful, and above all, eco-friendly. With your brand's sustainability mission and goals in mind, they do the hard work of finding the best eco-friendly, highly keepable swag for you!
We use the 3 Pillars of Sustainability - better materials, better production, and better social impact - to drive the triple bottom line of eco-friendly business by protecting the planet, your people, and your profits.
Read on to learn how to master the 3 Pillars of Sustainability and make the most eco-friendly swag possible for your company!
Promos Made with Better Materials
Creating more sustainable swag for your business starts with the materials used to make your promos! Unfortunately, many common swag items contribute to massive waste streams globally.
Did you know that 380 million tons of plastic are produced each year (over half for single-use applications!), or that 50 billion ballpoint pens end up in landfills or the ocean each year?!
Sustainable swag items can help reduce and even eliminate some of these waste sources with recycled and reusable starting materials, all while keep your business's logo out of the landfill.
We often recommend recycled aluminum pens with refillable ink cartridges for a reusable and sustainably-made custom pen option over common plastic pens. Add bamboo accents for extra flair without harming the environment!
Custom branded pencils can be made very sustainably with Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood - but the pencil nubs thrown away after use are hard to recycle, and the rubber eraser is slow to break down in nature. With your logo added to the new SproutWorld plantable pencil, your recipients can simply plant the pencil nub in the ground and watch your choice of basil, carnations, cucumber, daisy, or forget-me-nots grow from the cellulose seed pod on the end!
We recently custom imprinted the innovative new Fruit Paper Notebooks to promote our own business at local trade shows. These awesome stationery swag options are made with food industry waste items like the pits, skins, and expelled fibers of common food & fragrance materials. The color of the FSC-Certified paper is determined by the type of fruits or plants that make up the waste! With red from cherry waste, dark brown from coffee grinds, or green from kiwi skins, there are sustainable notebook color options for any brand identity.
We chose to imprint our eco-friendly journals with tips for daily habits to reduce your individual carbon footprint - providing valuable info beyond just your branding is a great way to encourage promotional product retention!
In the world of wasteful fast-fashion brands, we go the extra mile to source responsibly made apparel to custom decorate for your brand's uniforms and apparel giveaways. With Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified fabrics, custom t-shirts made from recycled scrap material, organic cotton and hemp blends, and many more eco-friendly apparel options, you can build a custom apparel brand that's made better from seed to shirt.
Conscious Swag Production to Limit Environmental Harm
While the starting materials for your swag are vital to creating a sustainable product, it is just an important to ensure that the production methods used to craft the final item are sustainable. This means they do not create excess waste, harm the environment with pollutants, or use disproportionate amounts of energy or natural resources. Sustainable production also includes sourcing your swag from local producers near your delivery location as much as possible - preventing unnecessary carbon emissions from long distance transit by plane, train, or truck.
We're dedicated to providing promotional products with transparent carbon footprints, traceable supply chains, and reduced water usage in production.
From carbon-neutral custom apparel for employees or resale to customers, to custom printed bags, home goods, or headwear with included AWARE Virtual IDs to track certified eco-production from starting material to your end user's hands (as shown at right on our custom-branded La Cuisine Aprons made with recycled materials), to PVC-free products with your logo to ensure your swag isn't releasing harmful chemicals during production and disposal, we can cover any and all eco-production bases when creating your promos.
We feature an ever-growing line of consciously produced electronic items, drinkware, and other popular swag categories made with sustainable production methods in mind. Many of our promotional products are available with Second Life Packaging that can be upcycled for household and office use - ensuring that even the packaging of your swag is better produced for reduced waste!
Contact us for samples of apparel made in certified lean production houses that protect the earth from dyes and waste water, tumblers that collect ocean-bound plastic, and many more made-better swag ideas you'll love!
Socially Responsible Swag - Ethically-Made, Give-Back Oriented
Finally, all the sustainable materials and eco-friendly production in the world would be for nothing if the employees making your swag were mistreated or had their health negatively impacted, either short-term or long term. It's equally important to ensure that the public in the local communities producing your swag are also taken care of with wider business commitments to doing public good and upholding environmental care.
We work with an expanding network of suppliers whose ethical business practices
are independently verified by globally trusted third party entities - including EcoVadis sustainability & ethics ratings, WRAP program compliance, Fair Labor Association accreditation, Better Work factory working condition certifications, and more ways to gain confidence in the ethical labor creating your custom goods.
We also offer many custom merchandise options that give a portion of their sale to supporting at-risk communities, historically disadvantaged minority groups, and civil improvement movements. Organizations your swag purchase can support include Shelter to Soldier, the American Red Cross relief program, and the Wounded Warrior project among others.
Last but certainly not least, we work with many environmental protection charities to provide stewardship of the land, air, and water we all share. Environmental causes donated to with our custom promo products include the National Forest Foundation, the Ocean Clean Up project, 1% for the Planet, and many more. As always, every promotional products or custom apparel order placed with MARCO Ideas Unlimited will plant a tree through our continuing partnership with One Tree Planted!
Mastering The 3 Pillars of Sustainability = Better Triple Bottom Line
We hope the insights in this blog have given you fresh ideas on how to increase your business's sustainable action with better-made marketing materials and conscious sourcing along your supply chain.
We believe in the 3 pillars of swag sustainability so much, we made them the focus of our booth at this year's Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs Trade Show in Portland, Oregon! We explained common swag waste stream issues and production ethics problems to watch for when promoting your business locally with promotional items, while offering better-made swag options that give back to communities in need.
Helping your company reduce your carbon footprint and make more sustainable marketing decisions with the right sustainable swag ideas that fit your brand and budget is our ultimate goal. As Gold Level Green Business Leaders for Washington County, MARCO Ideas Unlimited is dedicated to continually improving our own sustainable business habits as well as helping you optimize your sustainability in the office.
Need help finding sustainable marketing materials that speak to your business's eco-friendly mission? Have an internal or external swag campaign you need to take to the next level with better-made custom items?
Our reps are ready to do the work for you to create the most impactful, yet most sustainable, promotional products and marketing collateral for your business.
Contact the customer service team at MARCO Ideas Unlimited today for personalized help sourcing eco-friendly swag options that advance your corporate values and mission!
Samantha Sage is the Marketing Coordinator & Sales Assistant for MARCO Ideas Unlimited. Sam leverages her years of multi-industry marketing experience to help businesses grow their brands with quality promotional products. When Sam isn't researching new & unique swag options, you can find her in the Oregon woods with her husband & senior rescue dog.