Modern society has become accustomed to consuming without awareness, however, in the recent decade, environmental causes have come front and center of the global conversation. More and more brands are moving towards a more sustainable way of conducting business, that be with their product packaging or their product sourcing. In this article, we’ll suggest some of the most popular eco-friendly products you can offer promotional merch for events or special giveaways.

What Makes a Product Sustainable?

The sustainability of a product is not only defined by the capability for repeated use or recyclability, it’s also defined by the materials used to make the item and the source from which those materials were procured.

For a product to be sustainable, it must be possible to produce and/or consume it in a way that doesn’t result in harm or destruction. If the production of a product requires nonrenewable resources, damages the environment, or results in harm to individuals or society, it is unlikely to be considered sustainable.

Sustainable Processes vs. Actions

Through process and resource optimization, some companies choose vendors, materials, production methods, hiring options, and make other business decisions specifically because they lend themselves to sustainability. This often requires extensive due diligence and may result in higher initial production costs.

Companies may also strive to improve their sustainability through actions that are separate from the manufacture of their product or the delivery of their service.

Why choose an eco-friendly product?

Price - In many cases, eco-friendly items are no more expensive than their non-eco-friendly counterparts, so why not?
Branding - If you're trying to send a message to your customers that your company cares about the environment, this is a great way to reinforce that message.
Doing Good - When you give away items that can be reused (like the water bottles and totes below), you're helping to make a difference.

Swag Made From Renewable Materials

Natural materials that can replenish themselves after use are called renewable resources. To avoid company swag that is not eco-friendly, you should avoid buying merchandise made from plastic. Plastic is made of oil, coal, and gas, which are all non-renewable sources. It means that many types of very popular branded merch is not eco-friendly — plastic pens, water bottles, PopSockets, etc.

Read 5 Ways Plastic Harms The Environment

Cork - Is harvested from the bark of cork oak trees and can be re-harvested over and over again.

Bamboo - is a great alternative to plastic and is considered a highly sustainable material. Bamboo is grass and not a tree; it’s fast-growing and self-regenerates from its own roots. It doesn’t require large amounts of water, pesticides, or labor.

Felt - This is a biodegradable by-product of the textile industry. Its raw material is wool and it is renewable.

Upcycled Materials - This is the use of existing materials that would otherwise be discarded or used inefficiently. Such products use less energy and have a smaller environmental impact than products made from raw materials.

Read A Guide To The Most Eco-Friendly Materials

Packaging

In order to offer a fully eco-friendly product, ensuring that the packaging is recyclable materials. it’s a good idea to make sure the product you buy isn’t using an excessive amount of packaging, and the packaging it uses favors paper and cardboard over plastic or foam plastic.

Check Out Guide To Product Packaging and Labeling

Top Eco-Friendly Merch

As a brand, you may be looking into offering branded merch or promotional items with your logo for events or as gifts for clients. We’ll list the top best-selling eco-friendly merch for any occasion or brand.

Canvas Tote Bag

Tote bags are reusable and purposeful, a canvas material can be recycled but there are also other options such as hemp, which can also be printed on using the screen printing technique.

Reusable Metal Straw Kit

This is a popular product because metal straws take the place of plastic straws, which are made with the worst form of plastic: single-use plastic. Single-use plastics have a short lifespan and are usually used once before being disposed of.

Sustainable Fabric T-Shirts

Ethically made fabrics are becoming more widely available with brands such as The Classic T-Shirt Company which manufactures soft simple tees ethically manufactured in California that guarantee fair wages, reasonable hours, and excellent working conditions. The Good Tee is another brand whose B-Corp certification and fairtrade certification elevates the brand to the top popular eco-friendly apparel companies.

Aluminum Reusable Water Bottle

Reusable water bottles are perhaps the most common eco-friendly promotional product. The popularity of aluminum bottles has increased in recent years as more and more of us move towards more sustainable ways to consume water. Reusable bottles appeal to all audiences and it makes for a great canvas for a company logo.

Increase the chances for the swag to be used

Ending up in the trash too quickly is probably the biggest problem with branded merch today. To maximize the chances for your product to be used, gift something everybody needs regardless of their design preferences, gender, age, etc.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator

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As we welcome the new year, you may be thinking of ways to improve your business or step up your game in one way or another. Swag bags or promotional gifts may be a good way for you to maintain engagement or improve your brand visibility.

We will take you through all the promotional merch ideas for 2022.

Key Features

When looking for the best promotional gifts for your business, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. Certain criteria may apply better for your type of business, however, overall we believe these features will be helpful.

Small Items
Portable Items
Adaptable for Remote Work
Easy To Ship
Sustainable / Eco-friendly
Home & lifestyle-themed
Health and wellness-themed
Unique and on-brand

All the products below can be branded in different ways with a business logo, a graphics design, branded packaging, and more.

Check Out Best Eco-Friendly Merch

Swag Box

A swag box is commonly used as “Thank You” gifts or “Welcome” gifts for agencies or service providers for clients. Swag boxes are unique in the sense that you can pick and choose what type of items to include and the personalization aspect is much more pronounced.

For example, you can put your logo with your company colors on the box itself and include items that also display your logo, company moto, or tag line.

Check Out A Guide To Creating Your Own Merch

Top Ranking

Promotional Items

Water Bottles

This doesn’t have to be a boring items, you can make it cool by choosing the right bottle. There’s various styles you can customize to incorporate your logo and any other aspects of your branding.

For example, JBL used a MIIR wide mouth bottle and added their logo as well as some artwork they created for this specific merch item. Water bottles are a great promotional item because there’s a lot of surface to play with and because it’s a functional product.

Portable Laptop Stand

This simple yet sleek design is great for remote workers or people that travel for work. Woox laptop stand is the perfect compact yet useful gift for clients old and new. With more people moving towards remote work, this makes a thoughtful gift that can be included in a swag box as it is small and light. It’s also an opportunity to laser cut your logo into and keep the your cost down.

This is also a very simple design that most merch agencies such as Family Industries can produce for you.

Learn more about How To Capitalize From Branding Costs

Personalized Socks

You can never go wrong with socks! Personalizing socks with your company colors and logo is an easy and budget friendly merch item to include in your swag box. You also don’t have to worry about size as much as you would with other apparel items.

You can also include ankle socks if the weather calls for it. Socks are generally a safe gift as it’s a common wearable item that all us use, and because of the size it’s an easy item to ship.

Wireless Power Bank

A wireless phone charger is a great canvas for your logo and it can be used by everyone with a phone. This is a great gift for a client or employees. Again, it’s a small item that can be easily shipped and it’s a highly utilized product.

Pourover Coffee Maker

Corporate gifts don’t have to be boring. A branded pourover insulated coffee maker is the perfect alternative to a coffee mug or a travel mug as this is one step above the traditional gifts. With this pourover coffee maker, you are sure to impress your clients.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator

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