Lou Elliott-Cysewski created Coolperx to disrupt the promo industry, end promotional waste and drive powerful stakeholder-corporate bonds.
Several major corporations have been in the news recently for flagrant greenwashing. That’s because initiatives like climate pledges, which rely solely on carbon offsets for pollution-generating goods (think tree planting), are rightly and increasingly viewed with skepticism by the public.
As consumers, we’re aware that a company’s environmental commitment extends far beyond its own products and into everything the company does. In fact, tackling greenwashing was identified in a 2023 State of Fashion report from McKinsey as one of the top ten trends to watch.
Corporate executives understand this as well. As a result, I’m noticing a fast-growing trend in sustainability initiatives for mid-market and global enterprise companies. They are focusing attention on their corporate gifts, incentives and promotional products. In the past, this category has been avoided and overlooked by executive teams because creating an effective, data-driven program that solves for waste has been challenging. But now, as a result of advances in technology and corporate procurement systems, it has become simpler for procurement teams to measure this category of spending, access real-time sustainability data and uphold brand values.
What’s clear is that you can’t be a sustainable brand or be seen as a sustainable company without addressing the 79% waste stream (paywall) occurring in the average corporate brand merchandise procurement.
Embedding Sustainability
Leveraging branded merchandise to demonstrate meaningful efforts toward sustainable business practices is becoming a necessity for businesses if they wish to avoid scrutiny and build trust with stakeholders. One way to do that is to embed sustainability in your brand merchandise procurement process.
Here are five rules that can guide you to appropriate gift choices:
1. Don’t give corporate gifts that break fast.
A key requirement for sustainable operations is to avoid creating waste. The majority of promotional products that are cheap, break quickly and are then discarded are, by definition, not eco-friendly.
Plan ahead and order a sample of your proposed gift. Test it to confirm whether it’s sturdy enough to last.
Yes, more durable goods frequently cost more if you’re only focused on the per-item experience. Since only 21% of people keep the items you give them now, I suggest taking a wider view for a greater ROI.
2. Don’t give gifts people don’t want.
Besides breakage, the other reason people toss your corporate gift is because they don’t want it. The answer to this sort of gift mismatch: Let people choose what they want. Many corporate gift suppliers are set up to help you offer choices to stakeholders making it easy to ensure your items won’t be rejected and end up in the nearest landfill. Look to get really targeted with your branded swag items.
3. Consider the lifecycle of your brand merchandise.
It can feel overwhelming to vet every stage of a product, from whether materials are ethically created and transported to whether the product can practically be recycled or composted when the recipient is through with it.
Gifts shipped from China inherently carry a high burden of transportation pollution, to name just one aspect of the product lifecycle many corporate buyers neglect to consider. Buying locally-made gifts saves on fossil-fuel emissions, which starts your sustainable gift program off on the right foot.
Yes, there’s a lot to think about if you don’t want recipients to roll their eyes at your gift and flame you on social media for not walking your talk on sustainability.
You can look to a scoring system to rank products on dozens of different standards, including ecological and climate impacts. (Full disclosure: My company offers a climate cost scoring system.) Increasingly, these types of tools are available to make it easier to ensure your product doesn’t have environmental negatives lurking at some stage.
Hopefully, lifecycle assessments will continue to become accessible, giving consumers a quick answer for exactly why your gift is “green.” Until then, I recommend using trusted experts to vet a product’s full life cycle.
4. Choose tried and true over trendy.
This is another rule that focuses on extending the life of your gift. It’s best to choose classic styles and colors and durable materials that will last. Remember, a key aspect of environmental responsibility is avoiding products with a short life span that add to our staggering waste problem. You want your gifts to be treasured and kept—ideally, forever.
5. Pay attention to packaging.
If you select an environmentally sound gift but deliver it in a plastic clamshell, you have a problem. Packaging is a major environmental challenge.
It doesn’t take much effort to avoid overpackaging. It’s about the choices you make in how your gifts will be presented to recipients.
I had one client order a leather journal for her employees. We were challenged by our own bylaws to innovate a new packaging solution to avoid plastic waste. To make sure the journals arrived in pristine condition, the journals were typically packaged in polybags.
After much brainstorming on how to avoid overpackaging, we were able to wrap the journals in small gauze pouches left over from another job to keep them from rubbing against each other in transit. We delivered these journals in seemingly elevated packages that were reusable and biodegradable.
Assess your green cred.
There’s one more step to take after you give your gifts, and that is to make sure there’s no greenwashing backlash occurring: Survey your recipients.
How did your gift make them feel about your brand? To what extent did they feel the gift aligned with your company’s sustainability values? Did they like or want this gift? Did they keep it, or was it discarded?
Without data, you’re shooting in the dark with your corporate gifting. You have no idea if your budget was well-spent and whether the gifts enhanced your brand’s credibility on environmental issues or not. I’ve seen how companies with a negative public perception of their environmental track record have turned opinions positive with the right gifting program.
Remember that your gifts represent your brand to recipients. Putting thought behind the environmental impact of your gifts is well worth the effort.
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