More and more, people are thinking about how their daily habits affect the environment. And that attention to environmental protection doesn’t stop at their own consumption. Market research company GlobalWebIndex reports that in the U.S., 61% of consumers want to support companies that protect the environment. In the UK, 56% of consumers want to support eco-friendly companies.
The Value of Eco-Friendly Promotional Products
One easy way to show your commitment to environmentalism is through promotional products. Investing in eco-friendly products as promotional items both gives consumers something they want and helps portray your brand as environmentally friendly. And that brand perception can really matter. According to a Nielsen study, 70% of millennials indicated that they would be more likely to purchase from a brand if it handled a social issue well.
Eco-friendly promotional products also benefit your business because they last longer. Why hand out short-term items like candy or cards when you can provide something useful, like a long-lasting coffee cup or water bottle, a tote bag, or a notebook made of recycled paper? These items will not only leave a positive impression on your customers, they will stick around for years to come. Learn more about the long lifecycle of eco-friendly products in our infographic.
It begins with the headline “Eco-Friendly Product Lifestyle” and the following content.
Choosing the right promotional items can win you more than just bragging rights. According to a study by PPAI, 94% of people remember where they received a promotional product. Also, 83% of consumers reported they like to get custom products with an advertising message.
According to a 2016 study by the Advertising Specialty Institute, most people keep promotional products for an average of eight months. When they are finished, 63% of people in the United States and 64% in Canada give their branded products away.
To increase the longevity of your products, invest in eco-friendly options for an extended lifecycle.
The first subsection begins with the headline “Reusable Water Bottles” and the following content.
An icon of a plastic water bottle is shown with the sentence “The average American uses about 167 bottles, or $266 a year, on disposable water bottles.1
An icon of a stainless-steel water bottle is shown with the sentence “You can expect your stainless steel water bottle to last an average of 12 years before it starts showing signs of needing to be replaced.2
An image of a cloth bag filled with produce is shown with the headline “Reusable Tote or Grocery Bag”
An icon of a tote bag is shown with the sentence “A study found that about 40% of shoppers forgot to bring reusable bags and end up using plastic bags. 3
An icon of a circle with “10%” is shown with the sentence “Plastic bags make up more than 10% of washed up debris that pollutes the U.S. coastlines.” 6
An icon of a trash bin is shown with the sentence “The average American goes through six shopping bags per week. With a population of roughly 300 million, that means 1.8 billion bags are used and discarded in America every week.4
An icon of a leaf and a smiling face is shown with the sentence “Reusable bags help to conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions: reduce marine debris by preventing pollution at its source: and avoid the environmental impacts to land, water, and air associated with extraction and production of raw materials.”5
The second subsection starts with a three-column chart with the headline “Reusable Coffee Tumbler”
The chart relates to the break-even costs of different types of coffee cups. Listed on the vertical axis are three styles of Reusable cups: Ceramic, Plastic and Glass. On the two horizontal axis are columns titled Paper Cup and Foam Cup.
Each number shows the uses necessary before the reusable cup listed becomes equally energy efficient to the disposable cup. This takes into account the full lifecycle analysis of the impact of creating and washing a reusable cup. 7
So, for a Ceramic Cup, the break-even vs. Paper Cup is 39 uses and Foam Cup is 1006.
For a Plastic Cup, the break-even vs. Paper Cup is 17 uses and Foam Cup is 450.
For a Glass Cup, the break-even vs. Paper Cup is 15 uses and Foam Cup is 393.
An icon of a paper coffee tumbler with a circle and slash across it is shown next to the matrix with the following information: 108 billion disposable cups are used by Americans each year8
The third and final subsection starts with the headline “Recycled Paper”
The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year.
The sentence “Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save” is followed by five icons representing the savings that could be realized. They are:
17 trees, 380 Gallons of Oil, Three cubic Yards of Landfill Space, 4000 Kilowatts of Energy and 7000 Gallons of Water.
Sources:
1: https://www.earthday.org/money-in-a-bottle/
2: https://waterbottle.io/stainless-steel-water-bottle/
3: https://www.reusethisbag.com/articles/25-reasons-to-go-reusable/
4: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-waste-what-you-can-do
5: https://www.reusethisbag.com/articles/25-reasons-to-go-reusable/
6: https://www.usi.edu/recycle/paper-recycling-facts/