Think sustainability, environmentally friendly, ecological responsibility. Think green.
American consumers are continuing to seek out green products and services, with Millennials (those 18 to 34) emerging as some of the most committed purchasers, according a Harris Interactive poll conducted in April 2014 by SCA. The sixth annual online study, which measured green purchasing behaviors and attitudes among 2,000 adults in the U.S., reported that 75 percent of consumers say they purchase green products and services. The motivator? The environment.
And, while the higher cost of green products may impact purchasing decisions, the survey results show 40 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable services and products if ethical and responsible manufacturing practices are guaranteed. By age group, 56 percent of Millennials are more likely to pay more than consumers aged 35 and older (34 percent).
This trend is growing within the promotional products industry as suppliers and distributors are learning that working within the confines of “green” means more than just recycling. For businesses operating in the green spectrum it is an ongoing, often complex, practice that has become an integral part of everyday operations.
However challenging, green companies have overcome the obstacles in a variety of ways, and their diligence and dedication has strengthened their brands while meeting the needs of their clients.
PPB reached out to six green industry companies who shared their unique perspectives on what it takes to run successful, eco-focused and sustainable businesses.
A Commitment To Sound Environmental Practices
Julia Wright, MAS, has always been interested in sustainable products. “For me, it is a niche market I love,” she says.
Ten years ago, after working in the industry for a time, Wright started her own distributorship, Wright Choice Promotions (UPIC: wcpaz), in Phoenix, Arizona, as the go-to source for environmentally friendly promotional products. Since that time, she’s redefined her focus from sourcing products that are recyclable or made from recycled materials to those that are durable, and products clients will keep and not throw away. “I want to keep the product out of the landfill,” she says.
Julia Wright MAS, Wright Choice Promotions
The landscape for sustainable practices has changed too. Wright says many Fortune 100 companies now have sustainability directors on their teams and the Dow Jones now has a sustainability index as well. Green companies are performing better, too, according to a study conducted by Zihong Wang and Joseph Sarkis at the Graduate School of Management at Clark University. A study of the top 500 U.S. companies indicated that when social and environmental supply-chain management is integrated throughout an organization, the effort is positively associated with corporate financial performance. However, the positive effects can have a lag time of at least two years. Researchers also found that organizations reaped the greatest benefits when they implemented both environmental and social supply chain management simultaneously.
Back in 2007 the trend for green products exploded with many suppliers introducing green products and including the recycle symbols on their websites. “Everyone and their brother were offering green products,” Wright says, “but there were people who didn’t quite understand what it meant to be green. They weren’t bad people—they just wanted to jump on the bandwagon.”
There was misinformation. Some people made claims about the environmental friendliness of products and processes that turned out to be greenwashing (a term describing deceptive marketing practices to portray an item or practice as environmentally friendly when it is not). Some grabbed on to the trend by adding “eco” to words to create trendy, green catchphrases and product names.
In 2012 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission revised its Green Guides, which helped clarify environmentally friendly products for manufacturers and importers in all industries, including promotional products. For example, the guide specifies that marketers should not make broad, unqualified general environmental benefit claims like green or eco-friendly. Broad claims are difficult to substantiate, if not impossible. Also, claiming something is green because it’s made with recycled content may be deceptive if the environmental costs of using recycled content outweigh the environmental benefits of using it.
Wright believes in the importance of educating her clients. For example, she recently attended a Phoenix Green Chamber of Commerce event and met with another team member who needed business cards. She offered two kinds of cards: “light” green, with 30-percent recyclable material and vegetable-based ink that cost about $60 for 1,000 cards, and “dark” green, made of 100-percent recyclable materials that would cost about $350 for 1,000 cards. “I said [to the client], ‘I can’t recommend the dark green cards. Take the $300 price difference and put it into something that will make a bigger impact.’” She also suggested he consider aluminum business cards, explaining the material would make the cards stand out, people wouldn’t throw them away as easily and aluminum is infinitely recyclable. “This one simple question opened up a whole conversation—that is exactly what I do.”
Staying Current With New And Unique Green Products
Back in 1994, Lauri Felson wanted to green up the industry. A former flight attendant with a background in art and a love of making paper, Felson introduced seeded paper―handmade paper crafted from recycled and biodegradable fibers, petals and plant material, and embedded with laboratory-tested flower and vegetable seeds. Once planted, the product creates a lasting impression. When Felson received her first order for 10,000 seed cards, she knew she had a winner. In 1995 the product won the company a PPAI award for “Most Creative New Product for Promotional Products Use.”
Today the company, Symphony Handmade Seed Papers, Inc., in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an extension of supplier Okina Sales, still makes the paper one sheet at a time. Over the past 20 years she has worked with thousands of companies who have purchased her product, and she says the company continually puts its creative energy into expanding the product line to appeal to a wider variety of end users. “Some of the largest corporations in the world have used our handmade paper because it gives them the distinction of showing concern for the environment by choosing a recycled, recyclable and biodegradable product,” she says.
Lauri Felson, Symphony Handmade Seed Papers, Inc.
Felson says she has seen the market swing from about 10 to 15 years ago, when companies were using seed paper to “appear to be environmentally friendly,” to today when it is a priority and real concern for many corporations. “More and more people are looking to go green.” Also, Felson says she is finding that “Made in the USA” is becoming a label of distinction, as local manufacturing can be observed and tracked. “All the seeds we use are from a U.S. supplier. Each batch of seeds we buy comes with a purity and germination report.”
Creating new and distinctive merchandise is one of their biggest challenges and at the same time one of their biggest rewards, Felson says. “Our creativity has always been our strongest marketing tool. We have been able to produce unique, one-of-a-kind programs by utilizing product modifications, changes to the production process and sustainable packaging.”
Eco-Responsible and Fashion Forward
Creating fashionable, stylish apparel from recycled plastic PET (polyethylene teraphthalate)bottles was a visionary idea when it was launched by supplier Boardroom Eco® Apparel (UPIC: 214844) in 2001. Since that time, the apparel design and manufacturing company, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, which specializes in custom manufacturing, has introduced low-impact recycled polyester fabrics and closed-loop apparel recycling.
The company, founded in 1996 by Mark Trotzuk and Lan Tran, started by offering fashion-forward designs in corporate promotional apparel and uniforms. Its specialty was researching the latest fabrics and styles to bring new and exciting apparel collections to the promotional products industry. But about eight years ago, Trotzuk, now president, decided to change the company’s direction.
Mark Trotzuk, Boardroom Eco Apparel
“Knowing that what I was doing for a living was not that environmentally friendly, I felt I was going about it the wrong way.” Instead of manufacturing apparel from traditional fibers, he created a system that melts pellets made from clean, flaked plastic water bottles, and then extrudes them into a fiber that can be processed into fabric for apparel and other items. The company website states that using the recycled polyester fiber rather than virgin polyester uses 85 percent less energy and 90 percent less water, and it produces 65 percent less sulfur dioxide emissions during the process.
To complete the closed-loop process, used garments (100 percent polyester and/or recycled polyester) can be returned to the company to be recycled into new 100-percent recycled polyester apparel.
On request, garments can be tagged with private labels showing the closed loop symbol that promotes recycling used garments, or listing the percentage of recycled products used in making the garment. For example, “a shirt may be made from the equivalent of five recycled water bottles,” says Trotzuk.
“We created a supply chain that is sustainable and arranged all the components to make them sustainable,” he explains. “This includes picking and choosing the materials and creating a waste water treatment plant that cleans and recycles waste water from the textile mill.”
The company has manufacturing facilities in Vancouver as well as China and Vietnam, and all factories are audited and considered socially compliant. The company also promotes its Eco® mark, a trademarked symbol used on its website that certifies a garment is made from natural and/or recycled fibers and that it has been manufactured in a socially compliant, fair trade facility. The Eco® mark also represents authentic third-party audits and certification of fabrics and components.
Since changing its focus, one of the challenges Boardroom Eco® Apparel has found is that people don’t always understand what eco-friendly really means. “We don’t promote eco-friendly. We used to do that, but it’s a buzzword and people are skeptical,” Trotzuk says. “We promote ‘eco-apparel’ and when people see this, they ask questions. We explain that what we do is a reduction and/or mitigation of environmental impact. That seems to resonate more with people.”
He too believes education is an extremely important component to help potential customers understand what makes his product different. “It’s complicated but showing the lifecycle of a garment or explaining the supply chain helps them understand the why and what. It is less marketing and more information.”
Trotzuk says he believes the company is doing the right thing by manufacturing recycled and recyclable apparel. “It is mostly educational. It is leading by example. Personally it makes me feel really good.”
100 Years And Now Counting Green
Supplier American Greenwood Inc. has been serving the promotional products industry for more than 100 years. Originally founded as a button manufacturer in 1900, American Greenwood, located in Chicago, Illinois, now offers an array of innovative and unique products.
In 2003, American Greenwood (UPIC: AMERGRWD) included seeded paper and bookmarks as part of its line of products. They weren’t a big hit. “When we launched the seeded paper it was a really innovative idea. But no one even knew what it was,” says Aaron Bradley, sales and marketing director. “Once people knew about it, it became very popular and we looked into adding more products, more seeded paper and planter kits … products with more of a perceived value.”
Aaron Bradley, Sprout Tyme
Six years ago, in 2009, the company created a new line of eco-focused products, Sprout Tyme. While the Sprout Tyme line is part of American Greenwood, it has its own logo, webpage and a different look and feel from the company’s other products. “Everything Sprout Tyme offers is made from recycled products, is recyclable, and made of compostable plastic and biodegradable or seeded paper,” Bradley says.
He says that since Sprout Tyme was separated from American Greenwood, sales have increased every year. “At trade shows we arrange the Sprout Tyme line so it looks like a separate booth, so people can see the ‘green’ products we offer,” Bradley says, adding that the booth display included a few sheets of seeded paper with sprouts actually protruding through the surface.
It’s the innovation and creativity behind Sprout Tyme that has made the line popular, and sales are growing along with the products, says Bradley. “We’ve never had a complaint about our products not growing—we know they grow.” However, one of the biggest challenges for Sprout Tyme is creating an understanding about the green products. “We really have to educate and explain more than we do with our traditional products.”
Bradley says it is nice to be able to offer so many products that have an impact on the environment as well as an impact on a client’s market.
“We put a lot of time and money into creative products. We are the one-stop shop for growing items,” he says. “We will continue to look into new and innovative products. I don’t see the demand going down. It has gone up, especially in the past 10 years. I see it trending toward green and eco-friendly products.”
Committed Change Makers
Fairware Promotional Products (UPIC: fairware), a Vancouver, British Columbia-based distributorship, got its start in 2005. Co-founded by Denise Taschereau and Sarah White, who both had a craving for sustainability, Fairware is a company that provides eco-friendly and socially responsible products to clients. The two women do the homework on ethical sourcing and sustainable materials to assure clients they meet their core values. The company handles product sourcing for ecologically- and ethically-conscious brands such as Aveda, Ben and Jerry’s, Eileen Fisher, Stonyfield Farm and many others.
“We’re sustainable brand strategists; merchandise is our medium. We leverage product to tell a story,” says Taschereau, co-founder and CEO.
Taschereau explains that things have changed in the promotional products industry. “It has really come a long way. Ten years ago we’d call suppliers to ask about product safety and they’d hang up on us. Or, they’d say, ‘Who are you?’ And then hang up,” she says. “Unlike 10 years ago, today I can offer a product quote with an up-to-date product safety report. That’s really a big deal, and I applaud the industry for that.”
Sarah White and Denise Taschereau, Fairware
Taschereau believes there is truly a consumer concern around product safety today and, for some of the larger brands who historically haven’t thought about product safety in relation to promotional products, it’s a new concern. Likewise, the creation of sustainable, custom-branded products that come from big names like Coca-Cola, Disney, L’Oreal, Avon and others, are changing the types of services distributors now need to offer their clients. For example, recently she had to do a company audit to meet the standards for a large, national beauty company client. “Working with others to do the audit, to meet their standards, was part of the contract,” she says.
Fairware’s staff is comprised of passionate individuals. “Our brand is about change. It is about selling change. It’s not about stuff. We think the world can be a better place. We think that finding, buying and using better merchandise can lead to a better place. And, that’s what gets us up in the morning,” she says. “We are constantly trying to give clients information—make them feel like heroes—make them feel like they are part of the solution, or can be. That’s what we do. It is more than the product.”
She says when she sends a client a quote from Fairware, it states that the product has been tested for Prop 65 in California, that it is BPA-free, that the facility where the product is made has been audited for social compliance and her company can help the client calculate the energy savings by using the product.
Tschereau says Fairware has been part of an important new direction in the industry. “Knowing we’ve been a small part of it, working with PPAI Green Product Task Force, having general conversations with other suppliers and distributors, I think we feel we’ve been a part of driving change in the industry,” she says.
Green … Plus
For 42 years, Michael Arkes worked for his family’s business, premium supplier Hinda Incentives, serving as the company leader for 26 of those years. While working for Hinda, Arkes was doing philanthropy work which drove him to create a nonprofit corporation, Helping Hand Partners (previously Helping Hand Rewards) in 2007. When Hinda Incentives was sold in October 2012, Arkes began devoting his energies full time to developing new business opportunities for the organization.
Helping Hand Partners (UPIC: HHR), a PPAI business services member, does things a little differently. The Chicago, Illinois-based organization helps businesses source socially responsible products for their clients while at the same time helping organizations that are doing good for the world do good in business as well. Through Helping Hand Partners, companies are able to take their products to new channels of distribution that they wouldn’t be able to reach or service on their own. As Arkes, now president, explains on the company website, Helping Hand Partners’ mission is to effect change in the lives of individuals and the business practices of companies through corporate social responsibility.
Helping Hand Partners works with more than 17 social enterprise and fair trade organizations, both stateside and globally, that make and sell products dedicated to social sustainability. “Our partners help individuals overcome barriers to employment and self-sufficiency by providing job opportunities and valuable social programming for those who are disadvantaged, hard-to-hire, and developmentally and physically challenged,” says Dena Hirschberg, vice president of marketing and sales. “While each partner organization has its own purpose, all of our partners are dedicated to helping people improve their lives.”
Dena Hirschberg, Helping Hand Partners
Hirschberg says the company has given its mission the name Green+™ and offers opportunities for companies to practice not only environmental sustainability but social sustainability, too. “At the same time, we provide mentoring to our partners and help them be better at business.”
The organization is thriving. Hirschberg says it experienced a 75-percent growth rate last year over the previous year. “It was a confluence of things: drive and will, and a lot of time spent on educating people. Business has grown. Companies are hearing and understanding. It is a consumer-driven trend,” she says. “Corporate social responsibility has become a top driver—and consumers are willing to be more supportive of a brand because of it.”
Hirschberg explains that Helping Hands is developing this market within the promotional products industry. “This helps companies get their name out there. Companies care about presenting themselves as socially responsible. Their web page shows their commitment to being green, being socially responsible or donating to charities,” she says.
“Utilizing eco-friendly and Green+ to promote your company is very new. Companies that are forward thinking, grab on to it. It is part of their DNA,” Hirschberg says. “The concept of sustainability goes beyond products―it helps communities and people in need. It’s about the people.”
Hirschberg says some of the challenges the company faces are at both ends of the spectrum. Some clients care about social responsibility, and they seek out the company. Others care only about the quality, and then they, too, find some of the products offered by Helping Hand Partners. Most of the products are eco-friendly: recyclable products, reclaimed wood, and barware and glassware made from repurposed wine bottles.
“Once I talk to the client and tell them about the social responsibility aspect, it is a tipping point. What’s better than social responsibility? It sets a brand apart from others.”
Pamela Fields Webb is a writer and public relations and marketing consultant. Green is her favorite color. She consistently fills her recycle bin to the brim with used newspapers and magazines. She contributes to various publications in the promotional products industry and is former editor of PPAI’s Promotional Consultant digital magazine and Promotional Consultant Today e-newsletter.
>>Summary Of The Green Guides
General Environmental Benefit Claims
Marketers should not make broad, unqualified general environmental benefit claims like ‘green’ or ‘eco-friendly.’ Broad claims are difficult to substantiate, if not impossible.
Marketers should qualify general claims with specific environmental benefits. Qualifications for any claim should be clear, prominent, and specific.
When a marketer qualifies a general claim with a specific benefit, consumers understand the benefit to be significant. As a result, marketers shouldn’t highlight small or unimportant benefits.
If a qualified general claim conveys that a product has an overall environmental benefit because of a specific attribute, marketers should analyze the trade-offs resulting from the attribute to prove the claim.
Carbon Offsets
Marketers should have competent and reliable scientific evidence to support carbon offset claims. They should use appropriate accounting methods to ensure they measure emission reductions properly and don’t sell them more than once.
Marketers should disclose whether the offset purchase pays for emission reductions that won’t occur for at least two years.
Marketers should not advertise a carbon offset if the law already requires the activity that is the basis of the offset.
Certifications And Seals Of Approval
Certifications and seals may be endorsements. According to the FTC’s Endorsement Guides:
Marketers should disclose any material connections to the certifying organization. A material connection is one that could affect the credibility of the endorsement.
Marketers shouldn’t use environmental certifications or seals that don’t clearly convey the basis for the certification, because the seals or certifications are likely to convey general environmental benefits.
To prevent deception, marketers using seals or certifications that don’t convey the basis for the certification should identify, clearly and prominently, specific environmental benefits.
Claiming “Green, made with recycled content” may be deceptive if the environmental costs of using recycled content outweigh the environmental benefits of using it.
Marketers can qualify certifications based on attributes that are too numerous to disclose by saying, “Virtually all products impact the environment. For details on which attributes we evaluated, go to [a website that discusses this product].” The marketer should make sure that the website provides the referenced information, and that the information is truthful and accurate.
A marketer with a third-party certification still must substantiate all express and implied claims.
Compostable
Marketers who claim a product is compostable need competent and reliable scientific evidence that all materials in the product or package will break down into—or become part of—usable compost safely and in about the same time as the materials with which it is composted.
Marketers should qualify compostable claims if the product can’t be composted at home safely or in a timely way.
Marketers also should qualify a claim that a product can be composted in a municipal or institutional facility if the facilities aren’t available to a substantial majority of consumers.
Degradable
Marketers may make an unqualified degradable claim only if they can prove that the “entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature within a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal—defined as one year.
Items destined for landfills, incinerators, or recycling facilities will not degrade within a year, so unqualified biodegradable claims for them shouldn’t be made.
Free Of
Marketers can make a free-of claim for a product that contains some amount of a substance if:
1. the product doesn’t have more than trace amounts or background levels of the substance;
2. the amount of substance present doesn’t cause harm that consumers typically associate with the substance;
3. the substance wasn’t added to the product intentionally
It would be deceptive to claim that a product is “free of” a substance if it is free of one substance but includes another that poses a similar environmental risk.
If a product doesn’t contain a substance, it may be deceptive to claim the product is “free of” that substance if it never has been associated with that product category.
Non-Toxic
Marketers who claim that their product is non-toxic need competent and reliable scientific evidence that the product is safe for both people and the environment.
Ozone-Safe And Ozone-Friendly
It is deceptive to misrepresent that a product is ozone-friendly or safe for the ozone layer or atmosphere.
Recyclable
Marketers should qualify recyclable claims when recycling facilities are not available to at least 60 percent of the consumers or communities where a product is sold.
The lower the level of access to appropriate facilities, the more a marketer should emphasize the limited availability of recycling for the product.
Recycled Content
Marketers should make recycled content claims only for materials that have been recovered or diverted from the waste stream during the manufacturing process or after consumer use.
Marketers should qualify claims for products or packages made partly from recycled material―for example, “Made from 30-percent recycled material.”
Marketers whose products contain used, reconditioned, or re-manufactured components should qualify their recycled content claims clearly and prominently to avoid deception about the components.
Refillable
Marketers shouldn’t make unqualified refillable claims unless they provide a way to refill the package. For example, they can provide a system to collect and refill the package or sell a product consumers can use to refill the original package.
If recycling facilities for a product are not available to at least 60 percent of consumers or communities, a marketer can state, “This product may not be recyclable in your area.” If recycling facilities for a product are available to only a few consumers, a marketer should use stronger qualifying language: “This product is recyclable only in the few communities that have appropriate recycling programs.
Made With Renewable Energy
Marketers shouldn’t make unqualified renewable energy claims based on energy derived from fossil fuels unless they purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) to match the energy use.
Unqualified renewable energy claims may imply that a product is made with recycled content or renewable materials. One way to minimize the risk of misunderstanding is to specify the source of renewable energy clearly and prominently (say, ‘wind’ or ‘solar energy’).
Marketers should not make an unqualified “made with renewable energy” claim unless all, or virtually all, the significant manufacturing processes involved in making the product or package are powered with renewable energy or non-renewable energy, matched by RECs.
Marketers who generate renewable energy – say, by using solar panels – but sell RECs for all the renewable energy they generate shouldn’t claim they “use” renewable energy. Using the term “hosting” would be deceptive in this circumstance.
Made with Renewable Materials
Unqualified claims about renewable material may imply that a product is recyclable, made with recycled content, or biodegradable. One way to minimize that risk is to identify the material used clearly and prominently, and explain why it is renewable.
Marketers should qualify renewable materials claims unless an item is made entirely with renewable materials, except for minor and incidental components.
“Our flooring is made from 100% bamboo, which grows at the same rate, or faster, than we use it.”
“This package is made from 50% plant-based renewable materials. Because we turn fast-growing plants into bio-plastics, only half of our product is made from petroleum-based materials.”
Source Reduction
Marketers should qualify a claim that a product or package is lower in weight, volume, or toxicity clearly and prominently to avoid deception about the amount of reduction and the basis for comparison. For example, rather than saying the product generates “10 percent less waste,” the marketer could say the product generates “10 percent less waste than our previous product.”
To view the complete Green Guides, information for business, and legal resources related to environmental marketing, go to business.ftc.gov. Find more articles and information on corporate responsibility under the Inside PPAI tab at www.ppai.org.