Each year it seems more creative entrepreneurial types are coming up with new, irresistable ways to create gorgeous, durable bags with minimal impact on the environment. My latest discovery is OLovesM, a no-waste company that uses materials otherwise destined to take up landfill space.

Their material of choice? Yoga mats.

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Vitronic Promotional Group has likely got the nicest low cost organic cotton cap on the market. They rock because Vitronic prints them with an eco-friendly process as well, so they are super green. We wrote about these caps earlier in the article 100% Organic Caps with Eco-Friendly Screen Printing.

Well Vitronic was back at the 2009 Proforma regional meeting in Dallas talking about their caps - more colors for 2009 - their matching organic cotton totes and expanding of their V Natural line in general. Take a look.

For more information on these items please visit the Vitronic website or email info@proformagreen.com.

For more videos from the 2009 Proforma regional meeting - including a video on the Vitronic V Natural™ Jute Flat Tote see http://www.youtube.com/ProformaGreen.

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.

Nonwoven Poly bags [Polypropylene] are some of the most popular bags on the market today because they are cheap and strong. You see them everywhere heavy stuff is getting carried around, the book store, farmers market, etc. They do their job great.

However I have written before that nonwoven bags are not recyclable.

Well in that respect it seems I was wrong. There are a number of nonwoven bags from manufactures like Jetline and Hit Promotional Products that are recyclable. These bags have a recycle rating of 5 and number 5 plastics can be recycled through some local curbside programs.

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A number of clients and readers have asked us about ideas for eco-friendly customer gifts and I wanted to write a couple of blogs talking about items that have done well in the past for clients or that are new for this year and doing well so far.

Our first blog was on BAMBOO. Now let us move to ORGANIC COTTON.

1) Organic Cotton Towels - Unbelievably soft and absorbent with natural colors like Stone Green, White and Natural Tan, these towels make great gifts. Embroidered with your company or organization’s logo expect to pay around $24 per unit. Towels work because they will end up in the home of your customer and likely be used for a long, long time. Organic cotton towels and robes also make good employee gifts.

2) Organic Market Bag Set - These heavy duty organic cotton bags look and feel great, so they have a high perceived-value but an honest price at $16 for the set, including placement of your logo.  Employees and customers will use the bags for a long, long time and they use them in public so each time your customer uses the bag in public your company or organization is on display. We also like the large print area on these bags. This is a lot of space to display your message and/or contact information. This market set helps the environment by reducing the need for plastic or paper shopping bags with this beautiful organic cotton set. The set includes a storage tote and 2 full-size grocery totes.

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

Jetline is entering the nonwoven market strong this season. As I mentioned in another blog Jetline currently has what I think are the lowest cost quality nonwoven shopping totes on the market today.

Now Jetline has just introduced two new nonwoven messenger style bags. This is a great idea because shopping totes are fine but they are a little boring. These new messenger bags are great for Ecopreneurists that target colleges, schools and generally a younger, hipper crowd.

But are they green? As most folks now poly nonwoven bags are made from plastic - polyprop is an oil derivative. However many people say, “so what, they are cheap, reusable and long lasting, they keep tradional plastic bags out of the landfills and trees on the mountains”.

Proforma Green sells messenger bags that are organic cotton and PET. A number of vendors can supply such bags. But because these messengers are nonwovens and from Jetline they are very cheap. For example we sell the Value Nonwoven Messenger Bag at $0.99 with one color imprint for a minimum run of 200 bags.

But again, are they green?

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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.

Leed’s is teaming up with AmericanForests.org. “Leed’s makes a donation to American Forest’s Global ReLeaf program for every EcoSmart imprint order we produce”.

The thing I like about this new deal is that you don’t have to do anything extra. If the client purchases Leed’s EcoSmart promotional items the donation is automatically made.

Simple. But….

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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

Read More About Marketing:

Eco Libris: Le Mailing Vert - the French Green Version of Direct Marketing

Natural Marketing Institute, Nielsen Value LOHAS Mart At $209 bn

Creating a Web Site for Your Green Business

]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/07/18/greening-business/feed/ http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/06/09/bagswithaconsience/ http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/06/09/bagswithaconsience/#comments Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:31:15 +0000 Kelly Rand http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/06/09/bagswithaconsience/ We sure do love our tote bags around here. Target, denim and sail cloth; yup, we are definitely in love. So, to add to our never ending list, I submit to you - Conserve.

Just like Be Sweet, Conserve is a company with a conscience. Based in Dehli, India, Conserve employs rag pickers in the slums of the city to collect an abundant resource; discarded plastic bags (the bags are so prevalent that they clog water drains and cows will try and eat them.) The bags are then washed and prepared and made into beautiful fashion bags. The process they use to make the bags produces no extra pollution and uses less energy than conventional recycling methods.

Getting the plastic off the streets and made into bags is a win-win for Conserve. They offer income to an otherwise disenfranchised people and help clean up the streets. They use no dye in their bag making process, relying on the variety of colors and color combinations that is found on the streets instead.

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It’s a good thing really, enabling you to BYOB (bring your own bag) on any numerous shopping excursions.

On one such recent shopping excursion to everyone’s favorite big box store, Target, I found another green offering to the tote world. Made of 100% organic materials, the cute market tote is available with sassy slogans like “Kiss me I’m Organic” and “I don’t do Plastic.”

While not hand made, it is refreshing to see organics and other eco-friendly materials and products making it to the mainstream. And with any of the Fabulous Fabrics, the totes could easily be recreated. Try using either of these projects. Just add your own eco slogan.

“DIY or Die!” anyone?