To be honest, writing up a little blurb about Projectline’s efforts to reduce our environmental impact by choosing innovative gifts has been on my (long) list of things that I want to do for a while. No complaints tho’ – being busy is a a great thing! When I woke up this morning I was reminded by the radio that today is Earth Day, and I figured it was the universe telling me to get off my duff and share some information. I know I don’t want any more throw-away, meaningless, economically-questionable SWAG and I suspect many others are in the same boat. Here are some ideas that you can use for your own firm, or recommend to your clients that want to buck the status quo:

Idea 1: Purchase only recycled, renewable, and biodegradable promotional items. You can even choose items that help others reduce their impact on the planet, such as carbon trackers and re-usable grocery bags. Here are some traditional and non-traditional items you can get that are mighty kinder to our marble:

• Enviro-Pen from Green Promotional Items, which is manufactured from natural plant fibers and is 81.9% biodegradable and compostable.
• Circuit Board Binders from Enviro Promo are rad looking because they kept the recycled circuit board for the design—great for anyone working with high-tech companies (I’d like one please). And, to make your dollar work even harder for the planet, Enviro Promo donates 10% of their sales to environmental causes.
• If you like traditional items, Recycled Post-it Notes from Motivators are traditional, everybody uses them, they are cheap, and they are easy to customize. If you purchase them before April 25, 2008, not only can you rest assured that no trees were cut down to produce them, but Motivators will also plant a tree for every order. Very nice!
• And for something a little more unique, check out the Eco Picnic Basket at Green with Envy Gifts, which is made from recycled billboard signs. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but this would go over well in Seattle, where biking is as common as breathing.
• This past holiday season we gave our clients reusable grocery bags from Enviro-tote, which were made from 80% blended cotton yarn produced from the excess fabric of newly made clothing, and 20% recycled soda bottles.

Idea 2: Purchase local, organic, or fair-trade edibles—support your community, reduce shipping, or help burgeoning green environmental practices. My favorite thing to do is to pick a local company doing something cool, but since not everyone lives in the Pacific NW you’ll have to do a little online research for your area to implement these ideas:

• Local wine from a very small vineyard can be a great gift for those far away because it represents your local terroir and environment, supports small farming practices, and gives those who might only have regular access to mass-distributed wine a unique experience. Some wineries will even do a customized branded label, but I recommend just including a little gift tag that explains the gift choice.
• There are many great companies offering shade-grown, fair-trade coffee. One local to Seattle, Poverty Bay Coffee, not only sells coffee from growers who are 100% committed to sustainable growing practices, but also is truly involved in the total process. Check out this news story video. They have gift baskets and give 5% of their sales to a variety of environmental and fair-trade organizations.
• Organic sweets are always a hit with our clients, and in Seattle, we are lucky enough to have many local chocolatiers. You can get some of the award winning Theo Chocolates no matter where you live, and their two-piece boxes are great for promotional events. Theo is the only roaster of organic cocoa beans and the first roaster of Fair Trade certified cocoa beans in the United States.

Idea 3: Last but not least is my favorite gift to give our clients: donating to an organization that is important to us, to our clients, or to our community. We have given these types of gifts for the holidays, for end-of-year “Thank You for your Business” gifts, and to celebrate our clients’ professional accomplishments.

• Your donations don’t have to be to a local organization to make it relevant to your client. At www.kiva.org/ you can give micro-lending gift certificates that will allow your clients to go to the site and pick a small business that they’d like to support, without you telling them who to donate to. Not only does it put the control in their hands, but also once the micro-loan is paid back, they can give again, and again.
• We have also donated to the Technology Access Foundation (TAF), which is a local non-profit—many of our clients are in the high-tech/IT industry and can appreciate helping level the technology playing field for children in K-12.
• Your gifts can also be meaningful if the cause is close to your company’s heart or supports your mission. You can pick a cause that might not be getting the attention it deserves and by donating in your client’s name, you keep them from having to throw away yet another plastic piece of SWAG, and you gain greater exposure for the cause or charity. This is a win-win-win situation for you, your client, and the charity.

I hope this list has sparked some ideas of your own. If your team or organization has done something similar instead of the traditional desk decoration, I’d love to hear about it. If you have more ideas to share or decide to use one of the ones above, let me know.

tags: cause-related marketing, community partnership, corporate charities, kiva, socially conscious