Disposable Batteries — Good for Convenience, Bad For The Environment

Most of us don't give it a second thought, but we're surrounded by batteries. They power our computers, digital music players, phones, mobile devices, radios, wrist watches, smoke detectors, flashlights, toys... the list goes on.

A staggering 15 billion disposable batteries are manufactured each year. The kind we use most are household alkaline batteries. Today's batteries are far less harmful than their predecessors, which contained high levels of mercury and cadmium, yet they still contain nasty chemicals that can harm the environment.

Batteries should always be properly recycled at the end of their life, but they often get tossed in the trash (or just tossed) where they eventually breakdown and leach toxics into the ground. When not disposed of properly, discarded batteries can harm wildlife, pollute groundwater, and foul the soil.

We like to end our posts on a happy note, and we'll bet you saw this one coming: there are many high quality hand-cranked and solar powered tools to replace conventional battery-powered items. They work great and cut out the need to buy replacement batteries. We can get you the cool kind you can slap your logo on!

The flashlight pictured above provides five minutes of light for one minute of cranking. It can also recharge your cell phone. It'll last for years, but costs no more than a box of six disposable D cell batteries. Human-powered and solar swag make for wonderful gifts and incentives to promote sustainability or renewable energy initiatives. Find out more here.

Web Tool Gauges Environmental Impacts of Your Events

There's not doubt about it. Conventions, meetings and events can exact a heavy toll on our planet. The $107 billion meeting industry serves 136.5 million people attending 1.2 million events annually, according to a recent report.

Now, your company can measure the environmental impact of its events through an online service called the MeetGreen Calculator.

This subscription-based web tool allows anyone to measure their meeting practices against green best practices. MeetGreen Calculator will give the user help in meeting these green standards. Examples include enabling attendees walk or use mass transit, buying food locally and donating left-overs to local food banks, using reusable cups and large-capacity water pitchers rather than individual water bottles.

The results can lead to cost reduction, waste reduction, benefits to local communities and the environment — and good vibes for your organization. The MeetGreen Calculator was recently used at the World Urban Forum. Ginny Stratton of Globe Foundation of Canada said: “We're ecstatic to know that the practices we employed resulted in the highest possible MeetGreen rating and we hope the results will create a legacy for future organizers of the World Urban Forum.”

Some high-profile organizations that have used the MeetGreen Calculator include the Sierra Club, US Green Building Council, Globe Foundation of Canada and the Business for Social Responsibility.

If you produce or manage events and are looking for ways to green them, this MeetGreen Calculator could be a good place to start.

A Beautiful Balanced Ecosystem For Your Desk

As I write this post, about a dozen brine shrimp dart about in a softball-sized globe on my desk. They nibble on green algae coating the rocks inside. I have never fed them, nor cleaned the bowl, nor aerated their water. Their clear glass home is sealed airtight. Nothing goes in or out.

These shrimp are my carefree pets, living in a completely self-sustaining world. The algae produce food and oxygen from room light, the shrimp make carbon dioxide for the plants. Together the organisms support each other with no input from me, other than appreciation. Their globes are little sustainable planets of sorts, a balanced ecosystem that could in theory continue for years. We've had ours for only a few weeks, and we've grown quite fond of it.

These mico-worlds, called Ecospheres, have been around for some time and they come in several shapes and sizes. They are the easiest aquarium you'll ever find — and a lovely reminder of our self-sustaining eco system.

You can find these at stores like Brookstones for about $65, or you can purchase them from eco imprints for even less, including costs to customize with a subtle logo or message. Find out more here.

Keep in mind a system this small is sensitive to room conditions, and it can be easy to kill off the inhabitants before you find the optimal place in a room — which is warm but not brightly lit. The question many Ecosphere owners want to know is, how long will they live and can the shrimp reproduce? While an individual shrimp can live for up to 5 years, unlike most marine invertebrates, the endemic Hawaiian red brine shrimp reproduce very sparingly. There are reports of Ecospheres hatching shrimp fry, but they are rare enough to offer little hope yours will. However, even if the shrimp die, the algae will continue to live for decades or longer — an additional ecological lesson.

These little orbs of self-sustaining life are great instructional aids. If you like living things nearby but don't like the slavery of upkeep, they're perfect pet/gardens, ideal office mates, and they make wonderful sustainability-themed gifts.

We're Featured on Eco Fabulous!

Thanks to our wonderful, talented and inspiring friend, Zem Joaquin, for featuring eco imprints and sustainable swag on Eco Fabulous this week.

We're very honored to be called "eco fabulous" by Zem and her green style-setting crew. Please read article here.

Try Some Hemp

Apparel is an effective way to grow your brand and get your message out. Clothing sales account for roughly 40% of the entire promotional marketing industry.

Among fabric alternatives, comfy, affordable cotton is the corporate merchandising king. But in a hopeful sign of environmental consciousness, more corporate clients are purchasing organic cotton or recycled soda bottle apparel with non-toxic screen printing. Bay Area-based computer networking giant Cisco Systems just ordered a planeload of hemp-organic cotton blended shirts for its staff. Sweet!

What most people don't realize is that traditional cotton is not as "natural" as it feels. A typical cotton t-shirt requires 1/3-pound of chemical pesticides and 1740 gallons of water to grow the fabric used in production. (source: Panna / World Wildlife Federation) That’s enough water for you or I to drink for 9.5 years. And even more chemicals are used to process and dye.

Truly natural or organic cotton, on the other hand, does not require the use of pesticides for its cultivation. That's why we recommend organic cotton apparel and bags with natural dyes as the more responsible promotional choice.

An even better — but, in the U.S., harder to find alternative — is hemp. We're not talking marijuana, hemp's psychoactive brother.

Industrial hemp is an amazing product that grows easily without harmful chemicals. Hemp requires only rainfall to flourish, is four times stronger than cotton, is naturally anti-microbial, and naturally UVA protectant. Yet the U.S. government bans its cultivation and considers it no different than smokable marijuana. Much of this has more to do with fear-mongering politics and powerful corporate lobbyists than with common sense or health concerns.

Interestingly, industrial hemp was widely grown in the United States during colonial times. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp for making paper, rope, canvas, and textiles. It’s identified as one of the four main crops in early American history.

In fabric form, hemp is totally legal to import here. At Eco Imprints we offer several fashionable styles of soft blended hemp-organic cotton T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and polos. Hemp typically costs more than cotton, but it's worth it.

It'll take a lot of change before hemp becomes mainstream, but more eco-minded individuals are discovering its unique value and qualities. So next time someone offers you some hemp, give it a try!

'Green Your Swag': Triple Pundit article on eco imprints

In case you missed it last week, writer and sustainable business consultant Paul Smith and the good folks at Triple Pundit wrote a very nice feature on eco imprints, our green promotional marketing firm. It does a good job of explaining what we’re doing and why we're doing it...and also has a few kind words to say about this humble blog.

Please check out the article, 'How to Green Your Swag' and let us know what you think.

Going Old School to Find the Best Green TV Ad Ever...

When I was a little kid growing up in the suburbs east of San Francisco, Keep America Beautiful partnered with the Ad Council to create a TV ad that had a powerful effect on me — and made a huge contribution to the early green movement in this country.

The public service spot aired for the first time on Earth Day, 1971, and featured a stoic actor named Chief Iron Eyes Cody. It dramatized how litter and other forms of pollution were hurting the environment, and how every individual has the responsibility to help protect it.

The ad ended with the famous tagline: "People Start Pollution. People can stop it." Cody, who was actually a Sicilian American, became synonymous with environmental concern and achieved lasting fame as, "The Crying Native American."

The PSA won two Clio awards and was named one of the top 100 advertising campaigns of the 20th Century by Ad Age Magazine. In 1982, Cody, whose film repertoire included three Westerns with President Ronald Reagan, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

During the height of the campaign, Keep America Beautiful reported receiving more than 2,000 letters a month from people wanting to join their local team. By the end of the campaign, local teams had helped to reduce litter by as much as 88% in 300 communities, 38 states, and several countries. The success of this anti-litter campaign led to hundreds of other environmental messages through the years, from many different sources.

During a period when most Americans were clueless about our destructive consumption patterns, the Keep America Beautiful PSA campaign was probably the greatest ever in terms of creating awareness and changing negative attitudes and behaviors that lead to pollution.

When you watch the ad today, it still resonates.

Join us in Promoting the Year of the Frog!

Like many six year olds, my son Weston is crazy about frogs (see above).

Unfortunately, their populations across the globe are disappearing at an alarming rate. To call attention to the amphibian extinction crisis during this “leap year”, global conservation organizations have designated 2008 as Year of the Frog.

While the circumstances surrounding it are troubling, 'Year of the Frog' is no doubt the coolest green communication outreach promotion we’ve heard of in some time!

Scientists estimate that from one-third to one-half of the 6,000 amphibian species are in danger of extinction. Frogs live most of their lives in water, making them very sensitive to waterborne chemicals, which are absorbed through their permeable skin. For this reason, they often give the first warning of toxic pollutants in the environment and are important indicators of how our ecosystems are faring.

Some pollutants that have affected amphibians, such as DDT and PCBs, have long been recognized as dangerous. But recently, synthetic hormones or hormone-like substances have started to alarm some scientists and environmentalists. Other reasons frogs are disappearing so rapidly are habitat loss, climate change, and a fungus type disease called chytrid.

So during this Year of the Frog, we should all thank these environmental sentinels for helping us understand what’s going on in the environment around us. You may even want to give one a kiss!

Earth Friendly Calendars

Give the people aligned with your organization a daily reminder that you place a high value on the environment and sustainability. Our "Goingreen™" calendar is printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks and features beautiful nature photography and 12 green living tips. It's a well designed and sensible marketing tool for any business or organization promoting environmentally friendly practices and living. And at less than $2.50 a pop with your own custom branding, they're an excellent bang for your buck. You can order your 2009 calendars now at eco imprints.

Recycled Journals and Notepads

As much as our world has gone digital, custom branded writing pads and journals remain a popular and practical item to promote your organization and events.

We recently gave away 500 of them at our booth at the Sustainable Brands Conference in Monterey — they literally flew off the shelf! Whether used a gift to welcome a new employee or thank a colleague, or as a giveaway in an event goodie packet, journals keep folks organized an are a great item for meeting notes, project management, sales calls, everyday scribbles, and creative brainstorms.

The pads above are made of 51% post consumer recycled material. They also includes a 100% post consumer recycled 8 ½" x 11" lined paper pad. Price is as low as $10.50, depending on quantity, and there is a good selection of lower price point versions available. We can produce them with nice matching pens made of biodegradable plant-based plastic or recycled paper.

Feature your branding on one of these socially responsible products and the people important to your organization will surely take notice. For more stylish environmentally conscious promotional product ideas check out ecoimprints.com or contact us at 415-558-8839.