The Promo Direct Blog

Is your lifestyle eco-friendly enough? Earth day is coming up soon and it’s the best time of the year to evaluate your lifestyle for earth-friendliness. If it’s not environment friendly enough yet, then you too can make slight changes in your day-to-day routine that will bring down your ‘carbon footprint.’ Considering that most of us spend a large part of our day at work, we can begin by implementing a green lifestyle at work. Listed below are few measures that are very easy to apply in your workplace:

• Energy Saving: To state the obvious—at the end of your work day, or even while you go take a lunch break, or attend a meeting—turn off your computers! Little measures like these will significantly bring down power wastage in your workplace. You could take this a step further and suggest eco-friendly power supply methods to your organization. Solar-powered heating systems are a simple yet effective example to bring down operational costs for any organization, while sensitive to the needs of the environment.
• Recycle Waste: The planet is battling with more and more waste generated by human populations every year.  In 2001 alone the U.S. had generated 409 million tons of non-hazardous waste! Do we even want to imagine where that statistic might be now?!?! Considering the fact that waste generated at work is far more than in our homes, a good way to start is by getting everyone involved at your workplace in a recycle drive. All that paper from those shredders and all those coffee cups need to go to the recyclers!
• Use less plastic and paper: Did you know that every year Americans throw away enough paper and plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times?!  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency more than 2 billion books, 350 million magazines, and 24 billion newspapers are published each year! Where is all that paper going?…nowhere! It’s right here on planet Earth and we are literally sunk in our junk! With these whopping figures in mind, we need to bring tiny changes into our day-to-day lives to cut down on paper waste.
• Eco-friendly promotional products: Take action against deforestation and plastic waste while you promote your business! The promotional product you choose to put your business logo on says a lot about how much you care for your environment. By choosing an eco-friendly product like a recycled pen made out of recycled paper and wood, for example, would speak volumes about how you care for planet earth while you promote your business at the same time.
• Commuting: If your workplace is at a walking distance, what could be better than keeping fit by walking it up to work everyday instead of using the car. You save on fuel costs and save the earth too! If you do need to commute by car, extend a favor to fellow commuters and bring them along with you to save fuel consumption and help curb air pollution at the same time.

Making these slight changes in your workplace will be a healing touch for the already ailing environment while helping to bring down business costs. So give it a go and go green!

To view a large variety of Eco-Friendly promotional products for your business promotion and to enjoy low price and discounts visit our website at www.promodirect.com

When your company gives out giveaways in imprinted promotional bags or promotional bags as giveaways themselves are you really thinking about where the bag may land up, its impact, the profits, the losses etc? Before your brain starts making connections with words like ‘visibility, brand popularity and recall, advertising tools etc’, STOP!What I am really asking is …Do you wonder whether your bag will end up in the stomach of a poor cow, or choke dolphins to death or deprive the world of its old-growth forests and the animals of their habitat? I am referring to much-discussed yet unsolved dilemma of what should eco-friendly bags be made of; Plastic, paper or something else? Let’s first dissect the characteristics of plastic and paper bags and then take it forward from thereon

Differences between plastic and paper bags- A compilation of facts found online.

Plastic Bags	Paper Bags
In America, 30 billion plastic bags are used/year.	In America, 10 billion paper bags are used/year.
Plastic bags are manufactured from petroleum. It requires 12 million barrels of oil to make 100 million plastic bags annually.	Paper bags are made from trees. It requires 14 million trees a year to produce 10 billion bags.
Plastic bags are made from virgin petroleum.	Some paper bags are made from virgin forest while others are made from recycled paper.
Though plastics can be recycled, the efficacy of the process remains uncertain. It may take them years to bio-degrade and according to the nonprofit World watch Institute, Americans only recycle 0.6 percent of the 100 billion plastic bags they use annually while the rest become litter or reach landfills.	A forestation is being taken seriously these days and replanting of fast-growing pine trees has been offered as a solution. However the unnatural forests it creates hampers the natural living habitat for animals.
1-3% of plastic bags are recycled. (Wall Street Journal)	10 to 15% of paper bags are recycled (Wall Street Journal)
Plastic bags do not decompose; they are exposed to nature’s processes, get degraded over time into smaller pieces and become more hazardous if they enter the food chain. Animals mistake them for food and consume them.	Virgin paper creates 35 percent more water pollution than recycled paper. Recycled paper also creates 74 percent less air pollution than virgin paper

America certainly seems to hate its plastic bags with an increasing number of US cities having banned it already. Though the efforts to impose a state-wide ban in California went kaput, the California communities of Fairfax, Malibu, Palo Alto, and San Francisco have struck back and outlawed plastic bags in addition to Bethel, Alaska, Edmonds, Washington, and Westport, Connecticut. Washington, D.C.’s has levied a 5-cent fee for each disposable grocery bag which is being argued. The poor, little, plastic bag- no one wants it now, not even for collecting dead leaves!

Well, there is no clear outcome to the debate but as a responsible corporate citizen you have to make an informed choice. If you ask me, the solution is to use reusable bags. Bags made of natural fiber like canvas or cotton are more durable, yet not detrimental to nature. You can also use custom bags for your grocery, gifting or promotional needs. By using eco-friendly promotional products, you don’t just help your business flourish; you nurture Mother Nature too.

To view a large variety of Eco-Friendly promotional products for business promotion, please visit our website at www.promodirect.com

There are different innovative ways of doing promotion activities to expand your customer reach. On the occasion of the World Environment Day, you can use eco-friendly promotional products to approach your customers in a creative style. Here are some tips to make your brand more prominent in the promotional industry space.

• Reinforce the environment-focused theme

The 2010 theme for the World Environment Day is “Many Species… One Planet… One Future…” and the focus is on conserving the biodiversity of the planet Earth. Keep your brand message and campaign theme consistent and let people notice you.

• Choose right promotional products

Go for a promotional product that goes hand in hand with your theme. Give out eco-friendly products especially if your business provides lifestyle solutions. Green promotional items like organic bags, wooden cases, LED flashlights, recyclable notepads, Aluminum bottles and USB drives are some of the good options to consider.

• Customize the giveaway items

Get your eco-friendly giveaway items customized with your brand logo and company information. Choose earth colors like green, yellow, olive, brown, orange to customize your products as per the theme. Make sure you advertise and promote them in advance to achieve greater response and better results.

To view a large variety of Eco Friendly Promotional Products for your business promotion, please visit our website at www.promodirect.com

If you are planning to gift beer mugs to your potential clients and customers, why choose an ordinary option? Here’s presenting the 14 oz. Mood Beer Mug which changes color according to the liquids you pour into it.

These mugs are made of durable plastic which change color according to cold beverages, making it a great party product. Choose this promotional product if you are planning to embark an unforgettable first impression on new or potential customers. This will make them remember your company and brand name forever.

The 14 oz. Mood Beer Mug from Promo Direct comes with an easy to hold thumb-grip handle and will cost you as low as $1.22 (per mug) only. You can also choose the changeable colors from different orange, red, blue or purple.

This promotional item is also biodegradable and recyclable. Giving away environmentally friendly products will always enhance you brand identity and make you look a responsible company.

So why wait?
Impress your customers today.
You can also choose from our extensive range of other promotional mugs for upcoming tradeshows, exhibitions or business events.

To view a large variety of other promotional products or tradeshow giveaways for your clients and customers, please visit our website at www.promodirect.com