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.

Read more of this story »

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of Proforma Simonetta Freelance, 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.

Graphik is a leading manufacturer of both made in the USA and imported promotional office items like pad folios, ring binders, planners, marketing kits and more. Graphik has over 30 years experience in manufacturing and importing business accessories and now they are going green.

For 2009 Graphik has launched over 20 eco-friendly products including a line of environmentally friendly ring binders made with 80-100% post consumer material.

The spines of these binders are designed to be easily removed so that the ring (made of 100% steel) can be easily recycled or even reused in a new binder.

For offices looking to go green, moving to a green line of business portfolios, folders and binders offered by a company like Graphik is an easy and painless first step.

Most businesses are buying binders anyway, right?

For more information contact Ron Shepard, Graphik Inside Sales Manager at ron.shepard@graphikpromo.com or visit them online at www.graphikpromo.com.

Or you can shoot us an email at info@proformagreen.com.

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.

Read more of this story »

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.

Proforma Green got our samples in today of the new 8650 V Natural™ Organic Cap by Vitronic Promotional Group, one of our manufacturers.

These caps are great. The 8650 V is a casual unstructured cap made from 100% organic cotton with a Velcro closure and a 3.25″ crown.

The bonus is that they come in multiple colors - Green, Natural (as shown), Soft Blue, Soft Pink and Soft Yellow - and Vitronic can use a sustainable process for dyeing and finishing on these 100% organic cotton caps, so you can show your commitment to the environment.

Read more of this story »

For the Ecopreneurist looking for an inexpensive but high quality green pen the Super Hit Opaque Eco by Senator - introduced at the Promotional Products Association International event in Fort Worth - now enters the eco pen market, coming in at an EQP price of $0.38 with one color imprint on the barrel.

The barrel of the Super Hit is 95% recycled and in a bold move Senator posts their certification of this claim right on their website.

On top of that these are true Senator pens so the ink is forgery proof, non-toxic in black or blue and refillable with standard X-20 refills.

They are also made in the U.S.A. with clips in a variety of colors.

The Superhit is one of three new eco pens from Senator. The other two are the Innovator Eco Opaque at $0.55 and the Innovator Eco Soft Grip Opaque at $0.60.

For more information on these pens visit the Senator website or contact us at info@proformagreen.com.

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.

It is estimated that six billion pens are thrown away every year in the US. BIC, one of the largest pen producers in the United States seems to have decided to do something about that and has entered the eco market in a big way with their new line of BIC Ecoluctions pens.

Like other companies BIC is taking the designs they already have in house and pairing them with new materials to make pens like the Clic Stic Ecolutions which is an exact copy of the standard click pen seen in offices the world over, but now made with 67% pre-consumer recycled material. (BIC’s green website offers a lot of info on these item, though it is a little vague on what the pre-consumer materials are, also there is no mention if the pens themselves are recyclable).

For Ecopreneurist working within or with main street businesses that are not big on change, the ability to offer branded BIC eco-friendly pens is very helpful as it is so simple and painless a change to make.

One of the issues a lot of us have is gaining creditability for green products and green thinking. Sometimes when shopping going green ideas to established businesses - like banks for example - there is strong resistance to our ideas because it is assumed we want the CEO to start coming to work in a hemp suit and that green means throwing away common, accepted business practices.

Well the Ecoluctions pen is not going to rock the boat. It is just a pen, but it is also an example of the types of minor changes companies can make in an effort to go green. And as I have written before small changes add up.

Read more of this story »

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.

All you North American eco hotels, yoga studios, cafes, craft shops and spas, rejoice. There is finally a US company making soy candles in the US from US materials that can do large scale runs.

Decarte Products pronounced “Da Kart” specializes in creating a premium fragrance 100% soy candle, and they were at the Promotional Products Association International event in Fort Worth showing off their new line.

The best thing about this company - aside from the US manufacturing - is that they specialize in candles only, unlike most other manufactures that carry candles, if at all, as an after thought.

Why soy?

Read more of this story »

JournalBooks is doing stunning custom work with nearly 100% total recycled materials in their notebook and spiral journal products.

Really some of their stuff is just flat amazing and a great way to take green printing and marketing to a whole new level.

For printing JournalBooks uses plant based inks which they claim are better than soy based inks for reproduction quality and are harmless to the environment.

JournalBooks compares the impact of their plant based inks to that of vegetable oil.

The JournalBook Classic journals have 100% recycled covers. Even the poly covers - recycled milk cartons - in the classic line are completely recycled.

Read more of this story »

There were a number of green and eco-friendly flash drives on display at the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) event in Fort Worth last weekend including the T530 Riclado made from 100% Recycled PVC and show at the event by Hirsch Gift.

Hirsch lists these items as being made from post-consumer materials that have completed their life cycle and would otherwise have been disposed of as solid waste.

Hirsch also points out the T530 casing is manufactured with post-consumer recyclables collected in commercial & residential recycling programs. That is a nice touch for Ecopreneurists looking for a local tie-in.

Of course I am assuming the PVC is a fungible commodity so although the PVC comes from commercial & residential recycling programs there is no telling if they come from your local commercial & residential recycling programs.

Like most flash drives the T530 is RoHS compliant.

Hirsch was also showing off their cherry wood and bamboo drives.

Read more of this story »