Sign of the Times

The results are in, and here in San Francisco there was literally dancing on the streets. Barack Obama will soon be the 44th president of the United States!

It will take time to grasp the full meaning of this moment that historic on so many levels. Despite all the doom and gloom and the daunting challenges our nation faces, we strongly believe Obama’s presidency will be a transformative one in the areas of climate and energy policy.

After nearly a decade of government policies that cater to industry and put America's health and natural resources at risk, it seems we have, at last, turned the page, and entered a new era in our nation’s history. Barack gets it. And that is a good thing for the planet and for our burgeoning green economy.

In the end, the election of Barack Obama is a powerful and much-needed sign of hope for our country. Now the hard work begins.

Put the Whole World In Your Hands with Recycled Glass

Every month, Americans toss out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable. The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.

A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose -- and even longer if it's in the landfill. Mining and transporting raw materials for glass produces about 385 pounds of waste for every ton of glass that is made. If recycled glass is substituted for half of the raw materials, the waste is cut by more than 80%.

You don't need to use virgin glass for your promotions. Among our favorites is a wonderful line of recycled glass globes produced here in Northern California. These beautiful promotional gifts let you put the whole world in your hand. Made entirely from recycled glass, with geographically accurate natural earth colored continents, you can put a small logo or message on them. They range in from marble size to small desktop sphere - or about 1/300 millionth scale models of earth.  Small things can teach big lessons. 

Give Trees!

Here's a promotion that helps fight global warming and keeps useless plastic giveaways out of landfills. Seed-the-Future is a great new gift or incentive card concept from eco imprints. It gives brands an opportunity to show green values and lets consumers do something good for the planet. Each card, branded with the logo of your organization, allows the holder to have one or more trees planted in their name in a re-forestation project. The cards can be made of recycled materials or seeded paper. Use them to reward consumers for loyalty or conservation or to honor employees for reducing their impact on the environment.

Solar Powered Desktop Wind Turbine

It's a breeze to promote renewable energy with these imprinted desktop solar powered wind turbines. No plugs or batteries required. Powered by solar cell mounted on base. Just add direct sunlight and watch the blades spin. Each wind turbine is imprinted with a logo in two locations — on the base and the back of the propeller area. These won't exactly lower your carbon footprint, but you can stay a little cooler and bring the green movement to any office with this fun environmental desk accessory.

Seasons GREENings ...Eco-Friendly Holiday Cards

Watch out ... the holidays are coming. For those of you who like to plan ahead, we've sourced a great line of recycled greeting cards featuring post-consumer recycled content, FSC-certified paper and greener printing processes. You can customize them with your own message and branding. We can also supply cool cards made of seeded paper that will grow your cheer long after holidays. You can choose many stock designs, greetings, fonts and colors — or send us your customized design to be printed directly on the wildflower seed paper.

Get your green cards here or here.

Coastal Clean Up Day 2008

My kids and I had a fun adventure today. We climbed down a steep bluff overlooking a secluded patch of Marin coastline to participate in the 23rd Annual Coastal Clean Up Day.

We joined an estimated 55,000-plus volunteers statewide who collected 742,154 pounds of debris, according to early reports. Of that, organizers say 106,500 pounds were recyclable.

Weston, Sofia and I found lots of interesting stuff — mostly plastic, but some metal objects, wood debris, and even clothing. We filled several bags with junk. Lots of cigarette butts, plastic water bottles, plastic bags, bottle caps, disposable lighters, and food wrappers.

In terms of UNSUSTAINABLE SWAG, we found several custom branded disposable cigarette lighters, 2 weathered baseball caps, and several pens with logos on them. The oddest thing we found was a pair of men's briefs. Must be a story there. My kids found them very amusing.

Sadly, over the course of several hours of combing the beach, we counted 24 dead birds in various states of decay. This may or may not have to do with the way we're treating their habitat and our environment, but it was troubling to see.

Above is a photo our young crew next to one of the cool posters used to promote the event. Also backside of the T-shirts given to volunteers. Too bad they weren't organic. Next year we need to hook up the organizers up with eco imprints.

100 Million Reasons Not To Use Junk Mail!

Direct mail can be an effective form of advertising and promotion, but as marketers it's time we consider not only how annoying unwanted mail solicitations can be — but the impact this practice has on our planet.

According to a recent report by ForestEthics — the nonprofit whose mission is to protect endangered forests — more than 100 BILLION pieces of junk mail are delivered in the U.S. each year. This creates more than 51 million metric tons of greenhouse gases — the emissions equivalent of over nine million cars! 

The report notes that 100 million trees are cut each year to generate junk mail. 

That's 100 million reasons to rethink your direct marketing campaign.

Along with the junk mail report the ForestEthics group stressed the importance of their campaign and petition for a Do Not Mail Registry “to give Americans the choice to stop receiving junk mail.”

At our partner firm, eco imprints, we work with clients to create promotional strategies that don't involve junk mail or excessive use of materials that are wasteful. All of our own marketing is done digitally, through SPAM-free email blasts to responsible organizations who want our information. When mailing needs to be done, we make sure it's going to people who want it, and we use high content recycled materials.

Rethink direct mail marketing. The planet will thank you and your brand's reputation will benefit.