The evolve(TM) line from Norwood seems to be doing a bit of evolving itself.

Norwood now offers two new cyclist style water bottles in the line, the evolve(TM) Sport Bottle 20 oz. and the evolve(TM) Sport Bottle 28 oz.

Both bottles are made in the USA and certified BPA free. Like the rest of the evolve(TM) line, these water bottles are made from biodegradable high density polypropylene ethylene. Both come in natural opaque or white body finish.

The bottles are listed by Norwood as biodegradable within 1 to 5 years in managed landfill, and the bottles ship with a hang-tag that can be passed on to end users to educate them about evolve(TM) and the use of biodegradable materials in general.

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I don’t golf. However selling promotional products, like caps, shirts, golf bags, golf towels and water bottles to those that do is a huge part of the promotional products industry.

Regarding eco-friendly promotional items the industry quickly moved to take care of this space with items like e.c.o apparel, organic cotton golf caps, BPA free water bottles, and even golf bags made from recycled materials.

But I don’t golf. So when I was recently asked which is the better “green” solution regarding golf tees, natural wood (from sustainable sources I would suggest) or biodegradable corn plastic, I simply did not have an answer. It was not something I had thought about and as a non-golfer I don’t know if wood or plastic is better to play off of.

So what are some of the options out there? I took a look at two basic tees.

QuickPoint - the folks with the corn plastic drinkware - also do a nice corn plastic golf tee.  Built from biodegradable corn plastic and made in the USA, these branded corn plastic golf tees run about $85 per 1000 units with a one color imprint.

QuickPoint also does a nice LINKS PAC in their Nature/ad™ line with one imprinted ballmarker and five 2 3/4″ tees for EQP $0.64. Biodegradable corn plastic comes in a number of bright colors as well as the “natural wood” finish (as shown above).

The QuickPoint LINKS PAC is actually $0.18 less per unit than the wooden FAIRWAY PAK product from Norwood that runs EQP $0.82, however the comparison is unfair in that the wooden FAIRWAY PAK is more with a total of six imprinted 2-1/8″ tees, plus two imprinted quarter marks.

Again you have the options for the assorted colors, in this case Black (as shown), Blue, Dark Blue, Natural, Red, White, and Yellow.

For Ecopreneurists working the golf scene or indeed golf events or clubs wishing to be as eco-friendly as possible I am still in the dark as to which item - corn plastic or wood - is the best way to go.

I think the real lesson here is that even at this level, from the promotional products industry, there are green options available. And that is likely a good sign for things to come.

For more on Norwood’s golf line contact Mark Goldring. If you wish to learn more on QuickPoint and their corn plastic products contact Tina VanHoogstraat.

If you are interested in these items to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

On April 21, 2009 Drinking With Benefits held their latest open house event at the State and Allen Lounge in downtown Dallas.

The goal of Drinking With Benefits is to “develop an awareness and call to action for local communities through businesses that implement the ideals of an eco-friendly community, thereby creating an active ‘go green’ network of lounges, bar and nightclubs”. Part of their education and advocacy outreach is recognition by Drinking With Benefits of those businesses who recycle their waste—in particular glass, which has the most connection to the patrons of these businesses.

As part of their program Drinking With Benefits needs to get their message out by identifying the bars that are members of their organization. Enter the Dakota Burl plaque from Norwood. This plaque is made entirely of sunflower husks and when laser etched really looks very elegant. Each new member of Drinking With Benefits is now presented with a Dakota Burl plaque to place in their establishment to show their participation in the program and to help promote it. That was part of the reason for the April 21st event.

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Really, Debco has got to get some more exciting product names. That headline doesn’t really ring, does it? It would have been cooler to write, and the winner is Big Thunder. However, for our office, that would not have been accurate.

Yes I am talking about nonwoven bags. In the run up to Earth Day bag and water bottle orders seem to become the main topic for the promotional products industry. For our office the bag that we are selling the most of is the Debco NW4300. The reason seems to always come down to cost and imprint size.

The truth is that if you are an ecopreneurist branding nonwoven totes what you really want is the largest imprint area you can get on a solid and sturdy bag. In the nonwoven grocer category, where the Big Thunder and Debco NW4300 compete, the bags are made with their handles running the length of the bag for added support.

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Just a quick note. Earth Day is April 22 and things are really jumping at the office so I’ll be short.

Norwood has just released their new virtual catalog for their green and eco-friendly promotional items at http://norwood.digicatalog.com/green/.

Norwood is one of the larger manufactures in our industry and they have a great reputation in the business. Items Ecopreneurists should focus on in the catalog are the Bamboo Plaque 8″ x 10″ on page 12, the amazing cool Wilson Eco Golf Bag on page 10, and the planners and calendars on page 8.

I like these virtual catalogs - Debco offers a similar thing and AshCity just released a spring sales flier via a e-catalog - however, I will say they sometimes make me a little dizzy. I am still torn as to if they are better than simple web pages. However they are a great tool to focus on one subject, like green.

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I have written about Norwood before, they are one of the lions in our industry in terms of size, product line and experience. In 2009 Norwood is continuing to expand their line of promotional items with green and eco-friendly credentials, including several new organic cotton totes.

Finding the right tote is always a bit of a hassle for marketing teams, and with convention season and indeed Earth Day right around the corner, many Ecopreneurists want to make sure their bags stand out in the crowds.

Well, Norwood’s new Organic Wide Handle Tote is a great example of a fashionable yet practical tote bag that does stand out, and that most Ecopreneurist would be proud to brand with their company or organization name.

Made from 7 oz. 100% certified organic cotton duck the bag boasts a modern, streamlined design, spacious main compartment and extra large imprint area. Norwood even offers a 24hr turn on this bag, so it is available for last minute projects.

According to Norwood, the majority of the organic cotton fabric they use comes from Indian growers with the fabric being produced by certified raw material suppliers in that country. The cotton is certified organic under the scheme of GOTS and the Organic Exchange by the Control Union (formerly known as SKAL) which is internationally accepted. All organic cotton used by Norwood is certified by the Control Union, regardless of the source of the material.

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Huffermen has now introduced two sizes of sports bottles which they claim will biodegrade in 1 - 5 years in a managed landfill. The 20oz ECO20 and 28oz ECO28 bottles are made of HDPE.  They contain an additive to the resin that makes them biodegradable in a normal landfill situation.  The cap is also biodegradable.

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As you know we really like the organic cotton totes from Gemline.

Well we often get questions about the source of this cotton and other organic cotton used in our industry so we decided to ask Gemline for some answers. Clif Jordan the Regional Manager (South West) for Gemline was nice enough to send some answers.

According to Clif the organic cotton for Gemline bags comes mostly from Pakistan and sometimes India. All cotton used by Gemline is fair trade product and is Certified Organic Cotton, which means a licensed third party international agency (in this case the Control Union headquartered in the Netherlands) certifies the cotton’s origin and its authenticity. Gemline also offers eco-friendly inks and provides more information on their inks on their website.

Although most bag construction is done overseas the imprinting is done in the United States, unless the order is large enough for a full overseas production, say 10,000+ units. Most orders are under 100 units.

If you want to contact Clif directly with questions on Gemline’s items his email is cjordan@gemline.com. The Gemline website also has details on many of their products, www.gemline.com. You can of course also contact me at info@proformagreen.com.

So the bottom line for Ecopreneurists is, if you have questions about your vendor’s sources ask them. If vendors can’t answer your questions, I suggest you move along to someone that can.

We have asked the same questions about organic cotton supplies to Norwood, Leeds and Debco Bag. We will post their responses - when we get them - as well.

It looks like Norwood had such a success with their ECOL brand of recycled paper (barrel) pens that in 2009 they decided to break out into color with their new line called ECOL BRITE.

Like the ECOL pen the barrel of the ECOL BRITE is made from recycled paper. The pens are a standard style retractable with black ink and a standard medium point. Nothing too exciting there.

The big deal is that the pens’ bodies are available in blue, green, orange and red. This is great because up until the ECOL BRITE I do not think there has been a colored recycled paper barrel pen on the market.

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This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Like our other vendors Norwood is coming out strong with numerous new green and eco-friendly products for 2009.

Norwood is one of the largest names in our industry and I am happy to see they are going green in a big way.

Take a look at this crazy use of recycled fabric that Norwood is now selling. Yes, that is a Wilson lightweight golf bag made from 100% recycled fabric. Norwood’s website boasts “eco-conscious golfers can feel confident with their game while helping the environment”.

I have to tell you that the closest I get to a golf course is the Nintendo WII with my nephews. Like many green thinkers I believe that a traditional golf course uses a bit too much land and way too much water, normally in places with little of both to spare.

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Debco now offers a number of lunchtime totes made from at least 25% recycled content. These bags demonstrate the growing trend to make practical, green items available to marketers.

And with the slowing economy I would remind Ecopreneurists that there is likely a much wider audience for these bags as more and more folks are bringing lunch to the office both for economic (it is cheaper than eating out) and health (bringing in healthy foods and avoiding fast foods) reasons.

Simple non woven insulated lunch coolers like the Debco Bag #NW4517 are EQP $3.04 with a one color imprint. The Debco Bag #NW6915 (a square shape designed) are EQP $3.42.  Available in black, red, lime green and royal blue, the bag we seem to be having the most success with is the Debco Bag #NW4694 non woven 100 gram polypropylene insulated cooler pictured to the right. All these bags are made from 25% recycled material, and Debco lists them as biodegradable on the Debco website.

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This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Norwood has launched two new tumblers under their Evolve line, the Evolve(TM) Traveler Mug - 16 oz and the Evolve(TM) Infinity Tumbler - 16 oz.

Both units come in a variety of colors, both are Prop 65 compliant, both are top rack dishwater safe, both are microwave safe, and both are packaged in eco-friendly packaging for shipment.

The Evolve line is also made in the US and is “designed to biodegrade within 1-5 years in a managed landfill” according to the Norwood website. With one color imprint the units both run under $2.75.

I wanted to write about the Norwood Evolve line because, if you look again at the bullet points offered in the sales material, it seems Norwood developed these mugs to specifically address issues that Ecopreneurist has raised regarding eco-friendly promotional items.

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I have written before about the great eco-friendly products from Leed’s. Their EcoSmart brand covers a lot of territory from totes to notebooks using both post-consumer recycled materials and organics. It is very popular with green clients.

I have been after Leed’s and other manufactures to start offering eco-only catalogs as many of our clients only want to see eco-friendly items and it is a waste of paper and shipping costs to send them a 200+ page catalog if only 10-15% of the products are green.

Well yesterday I got the attached letter in the mail (click image on right to see full letter). Apparently Leed’s sees it as wasteful as well and is sending out letters to distributors to ask them if they wish to stop with catalog mailing entirely.

This works for me as our office generally works from the Leed’s website at www.leedsworld.com not from catalogs. Now I only wish they would supply us with .pdf versions of their green catalog pages Iike what we use for our green overview, and the transition away from bulky paper will be complete.

Of course I realize that a large driver of this change is likely the cost of printing and sending 100,000s of catalogs each year. Still it is a good change.

It will be interesting to see if the other industry leaders like Norwood and Logomark follow Leed’s in this offer of no more catalogs.

For more information on Leed’s green line visit their website or email us at info@proformagreen.com.