Spring is in the air and with it the spring line up of new eco-friendly promotional items. Here are a few stand outs from Leeds.

The first of the new items of note is the Tempo 100% Recycled PET Urban Messenger Bag from Leeds. This thing is 100% recycled PET (old water bottles, that type of thing) but you would not know it to look at it. Yes it is green, but it also has some great lines and is a very functional messenger. The Tempo is also manufactured in the US (which helps its total carbon footprint) and it is certified made from eco materials.

EQP on the Tempo 100% Recycled PET Urban Messenger Bag is $8.92 with one color imprint. That is a great price for this good sized H 11.17″ x W 4.33″ x L 15.25″ bag. Again, where is this cost premium everyone is talking about to “go green”?

The Tempo is a solid marketing choice for any Ecopreneurist focusing on a number of audiences such as the urban commuter, the college crowd, or even forward looking IT firms.

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The new nonwoven material umbrella with all bamboo shaft from Debco looks and acts like any other umbrella out there. But this one is eco-friendly.

Ok, perhaps with the all bamboo construction on this model the umbrella looks a little better than your average promotional item umbrella, but the point is that this unit is another example of the new green promotional items coming to market that act green without necessarily looking green.

The 48” arc of nonwoven material is number #5 recyclable - the same material as used in grocery totes. Thanks to that fact the umbrella is available in all the colors of your common shopping tote as well, so black, lime green, royal blue, red and white are all available. The nonwoven used is 50 gram polypropylene with 30 GSM water resistant lamination.

The patent pending design features a 100% natural bamboo shaft with curved handle. Fiberglass ribs have been added for strength and durability - not very eco there - and the umbrella has a basic Velcro tie closure. EQP pricing on this large umbrella is $15.43 with one color imprint.

Of course for the Ecopreneurists looking to use an umbrella in their marketing campaign all the old standbys work for an eco umbrella as well. Slogans like “we have you covered”, “bringing you in from the rain”, etc. And they of course work everywhere traditional umbrellas do so they are a great idea for Ecopreneurists targeting things like golf events, restaurants and cafes, and hotels.

For more information on these items and the other great stuff from Debco email Andrew Green. If you are looking to order, email info@proformagreen.com or contact your local promotional products seller.

Voltaic Systems is offering four bags in 2009. Voltaic bag are really mobile solar power generators designed to charge virtually all hand held electronics. They are a great item for ecopreneurists working in remote locations or with businesses needing to work remotely.

A Voltaic bag will keep your phone charged and give you enough power to use your laptop and PDA when away from traditional power sources.

The Voltaic website proclaims that “embedded in the outside of these solar chargers are lightweight, tough, waterproof solar panels. The new Generator produces up to 15 watts, powerful enough to fully charge a typical laptop from a day of direct sunlight. No other solar bag can do this! The smaller bags produce 4 watts of power so 1 hour in direct sun will power over 3 hours of iPod play time or 1.5 hours of cell phone talk time.”

Another bonus is that fabrics used to make the bags themselves are made from recycled PET i.e. soda bottles.

What are the drawbacks? Mainly price. Even at EQP the Backpack model shown runs $226. There are a number of less expensive solar-charger-only products on the promotional items market, however the Voltaic line is certainly at the top with regards to quality, usability, performance and power.

Take a look at their whole line on their website. The site also has more background on Voltaic’s commitment to the environment. Voltaic does sell individual bags to retail customers, however if you are looking for a group buy for branded items I suggest you contact your local promotional items dealer or us at proformagreen.com.

Ecopreneurist.com asked me to post a few more ideas on what an Ecopreneurist might give for the holidays.

I wanted to approach the idea from two points. First, I am in the promotional items business. For our industry the main purpose of gift giving is to say thank you to the clients you have done business with in the past year, and to keep your name in front of those clients so that they do business with you next year.

Second, as an Econpreneurist gift giving gives my business a chance to show off our green credentials but also - maybe - influence our clients, not all of whom are green, about becoming more green in their own businesses.

In this article I want to point out two everyday items your clients likely already use that are now being produced with eco-friendly materials and that would make great end of the year client gifts.

Day-Timer® Eco Zippered Portable Planner - Did you know that Day-Timer now makes an eco version of their most popular portable planner? The Day-Timer® Eco Zippered Portable Planner from Leed’s is an example of a very useful, very popular and well regarded brand that is now available in a new green formula.

The rich bonded leather cover is made from recycled leather fibers and natural latex and includes nickel-free rings and zipper pulls. Recycled paper used in the planner is certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Other than that it is a standard Day-Timer® featuring two-page-per week format, with each day’s space including areas for to do list, appointments, diary, monthly tabbed calendar/dividers, loose-leaf address and phone directory, monthly planning pages, set of reference sheets, etc.

The usefulness of the Day-Timer® Eco Zippered Portable Planner makes it a great gift because people will use it and hang on to it, plus in 2009 you can send your client a refill of the inside planner pages, giving you both an opportunity to touch your client again and promote a core green idea of reuse. Day-Timer® Eco Zippered Portable Planner runs about $39 including your organization or company logo.

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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.

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?

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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.

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I mentioned before in this blog that the gym and spa industry is one of the main buyers of sport bottles. It makes sense, sign-up for a membership, get a water bottle and t-shirt.

I also mentioned that the BPA scare pretty much halted the market for plastic gym bottles. This was an event especially felt by eco-friendly gyms, yoga studios and spas that had been using bottles as giveaway items. Many businesses gave up on plastic altogether and moved to aluminum or steel bottles.

Well the industry is fighting back with BPA free bottles especially designed for gyms - like Glass America’s 19 oz. Treadmill BPA Free Bottle - bottles designed with wide mouths and easy grips.

These new bottles also have the words “BPA free” imprinted directly on them to make sure the audience does not miss the fact these are “safe” bottles.

We will see how well these new bottle designs do. It is nice to see the industry bouncing back in this area and at the same time moving forward on green products.

For more information on BPA free bottles from Glass America please visit their website or visit us at Proformagreen.com.

A number of manufacturers are working on natural (non-dyed) paper impregnated with seeds. The idea is that if you plant items made of these papers flowers or trees will grow.

Bloomin’ Promotions and Seed Cards are two manufactures doing this type of thing.

I really don’t know what to make of this idea.

If properly used I am sure they would be a great learning tool, perhaps in an educational setting - write a letter to the planet, plant the letter in the school yard and see it live - that type of thing.

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Non Woven Poly bags are great but many of our clients don’t like non wovens and keep asking when an inexpensive organic cotton tote would be available.

Well the new Econo Tote Bag from Debco seems to fit the bill at 14.75” W x 16.5” with runs under $2 for orders over 1000 units and starts around $3.50 for a small run of 50 units with one color imprint included. These bags are 100% natural organic cotton processed AZO-Free with no hazardous chemicals.

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A funny thing happened on the way to this blog.

I wanted to write about the new line of e.c.o fleece items from Ash City - they use a fabric that is 75% recycled polyester/25% polyester.

These items are great for any eco-tourism or resort operating in a cold weather area, for eco-friendly landscaping work crews, maybe even as a resell item for a farmers market come the holiday season.

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We recently ran 1000 bag clips for the MercyCorps office in New York (if you have never heard of this NGO check them out at mercycorps.com).

The New York office wanted some inexpensive and green items to use as giveaways and they went with the Garyline 6″ Bag Clip molded with up to 100% recycled material and an enhanced biodegradability additive so it beaks down once the clip is introduced to a landfill. Another reason to use Garyline was that their factory is in the Bronx so that lowered the project’s shipping costs and carbon footprint.

So client gets inexpensive, useful, green giveaway and everyone is happy. Right?

Sort of.

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Debco - one of the larger manufacturer’s of promotional items in North America - recently posted a new all green catalog. The catalog is available on their website at www.debcosolutions.com under the downloads tab.

One of the things that Debco did in this catalog which I wish more manufacture’s would do is they produced a glossary of terms.

Thought it would be useful to reproduce that glossary here for our community.

Glossary of ECO Terms

Corporate Sustainability: implementation of strategies that meet business needs while concurrently seeking to protect, support, conserve and enhance the human and natural resources needed in the future.

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OK, the name is a little cheesy but these signs are a great idea for businesses that need eco-friendly signage which still shows a professional edge.

Primarily constructed of bamboo, the Panda Stand is an environmentally friendly retractable banner stand for the exhibit, display and graphics markets. The unit is made from 90% renewable resources (bamboo casing and pole) and designed to maximize visual impact.

The Panda Stand’s eco-friendly style helps to emphasize your message while contributing to a greener planet for us all. In fact I would say the stand itself contributes to your message.

The manufacturer - Megagraphix - is working on using a 100% recycled solution for the banner itself as well as printing the unit using 100% vegetable based dyes.

This sturdy and premium portable display unit offers the same high performance attributes as other retractable displays. Its precision-engineered retraction system makes it easy and quick to set up virtually anywhere - simply unwind the graphic stored in the bamboo base and insert the support pole.

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There has been a growing conversation in the promotional items market about items made from corn plastic.

For us this conversation normally comes up when clients debate the pros and cons of corn plastic mugs like those offered by the manufacturer QuickPoint.

The argument normally goes like this.

Pro: Corn plastic mugs are safe and sturdy. They cost less than mugs of similar weight made from petroleum plastic. The QuickPoint products and others are union-made in the U.S.A from U.S. corn, therefore they are not shipped from overseas, which reduces their footprint, and are made by workers making U.S. wages. They are biodegradable.

Con: Using corn for plastic is believed to reduce the amount of corn in the global food chain. Contributing to a variety of social ills including food shortages and when combined with the increasing use of corn for ethanol, driving up the price of all sorts of goods. of

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/22/corn-plastic-mugs/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/19/leeds-recycled-laptop-sleeve/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/19/leeds-recycled-laptop-sleeve/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:02:03 +0000 John Simonetta http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/19/leeds-recycled-laptop-sleeve/

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.

From leather to leader is how Leed’s explains it on their website. How about from bottles to briefcases? That might be a better description for Leeds line of 100% recycled promotional items made from water bottles and other recycled everyday items.

Leed’s Owl line of bags and other items made from recycled water bottles has added a new product to their list of made from 100% post-consumer recycled material (product label affirms this claim).

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/19/leeds-recycled-laptop-sleeve/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/12/convention-day-1/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/12/convention-day-1/#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:38:20 +0000 John Simonetta http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/12/convention-day-1/ 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. This week John is writing about his experiences at his national convention…

I am at the Proforma national convention this week, a gathering of our sales folks in Orlando, Florida. It is a once a year chance to meet one-on-one with most of the top manufacturers in the promotional items and print industry. While here I hope to give short daily updates on what is going on from an Ecopreneurist perspective.

Green is certainly a strong theme at this year’s meeting with many vendors bringing new green items to the event. The Proforma event bag this year was even green - each member of the convention was given a Recycled Owl Deluxe Backpack made from 100% post-consumer recycled material- to hold our event training materials. These bags are made by Leed’s and are part of their Owl line of bags made from recycled water bottles and yogurt containers.

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/12/convention-day-1/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/09/organic-spa-tote-ii-from-gemline/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/09/organic-spa-tote-ii-from-gemline/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:15:47 +0000 John Simonetta http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/09/organic-spa-tote-ii-from-gemline/ 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.

Another example of the speed at which the green promotional products industry is changing is the second generation of the Organic Spa tote from the manufacturer Gemline.

Like many of the wonderful bags from this manufacturer, this tote is made from 100% certified organic cotton fabric and azo-free dyes.

However look at the front of the tote. This material originally was made of bamboo, it is now made from woven jute.

Why? We suspect a few reasons. Jute may be less expensive and it also makes for a more supple bag that is a bit lighter, easier to carry and easier to place embroidery or silk screening on.

The main point I want to make is that the time between Organic Spa Tote I and Organic Spa Tote II was less than 6 months. This normally would not happen with promotional items, but I have seen it in eco-friendly items again and again.

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/08/09/organic-spa-tote-ii-from-gemline/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/28/smencils/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/28/smencils/#comments Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:53:53 +0000 John Simonetta http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/28/smencils/ 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.

What do you get when you combine recycled newspapers, #2 graphite and the breezy scent of bubble gum. Well of course that would be a Smencil.

Smencil brand pencils are one of the best ideas we have seen for getting kids and teens excited about recycling and thinking green. They are very easy to understand and the kids love them.

Smencils start as old newspaper tightly rolled around a #2 graphite writing core until pencils of typical thickness are formed. Then they’re hardened - allowing them to be sharpened just like wood pencils.

Next they are soak with gourmet liquid scents and once dried the erasers are attached and stickers are applied around each unit to identify which scent was infused into each Smencil.

Lastly, each Smencil is put into its own Freshness Tube. Scents are guaranteed to last up to two years, in or out or their tubes.

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/28/smencils/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/21/greenware-cups/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/21/greenware-cups/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:31:46 +0000 John Simonetta http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/21/greenware-cups/ 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.

GreenWare cups resemble clear plastic cups but are made from a resin derived from corn called Natureworks® PLA (polylactic acid) resin. If you are a business, festival, music event, stadium or other venue selling drinks in cups, please consider these as a alternative to petroleum based plastic cups.

These cups are 100% compostable and environmentally sustainable as PLA resin is naturally recycled in the Earth.

Other environmental benefits include:
~ 20% - 50% fewer fossil resources used than with petroleum based resins.
~ No ground water contamination because the cups break down into natural lactic acid and metabolites which are recycled into the ground.

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/21/greenware-cups/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/18/greening-business/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/18/greening-business/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:53:42 +0000 John Simonetta http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/18/greening-business/ 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.

The world often perceives marketing as a wasteful practice. However, it is still essential in every business.

The good news is that companies like ours, proformagreen.com are manufacturing with greener, more resourceful printing processes and materials now more than ever. Mugs, pens, tote bags, the list continues to grow of items that are both eco-friendly and/or promote eco-friendly lifestyles.

My name is John Simonetta and I want to let businesses know that they really can go green. From packaging to uniforms to promotional items to printing needs, there are cost effective marketing solutions that allow businesses to lower their impact on the planet without sacrificing the quality of their brand.

In my posts I will highlight some of the new promotional and print solutions that are now available to businesses and organizations looking to Go Green with marketing collateral.

Photo Credit: spoons at Flickr Under Creative Commons License

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