Chicago-based distributor iPromo announced SwagCloud with EcoCloud – a new program designed to limit leftover promotional products waste by reducing, reusing or recycling items.
“Our clients discard 20% to 30% of the branded gifts they receive, either because they didn’t give them all away or because the recipients didn’t need another T-shirt or notebook. In the future, that’s going to have serious long-term repercussions for the promotional industry, especially as Generation Z becomes the primary buyer of our products,” Leo Friedman, iPromo founder and CEO, said in a press release. “While eco-friendly products are a good start, EcoCloud is a sustainable long-term solution for marketers and HR departments to reduce their environmental footprint.”
Companies that ordered products to use at an event or as an internal giveaway can return unused items to iPromo’s warehouse. From there, the customer can decide whether to reuse, recycle or donate the products to a charity, such as a public school or children’s home.
Programs to limit promotional products waste have become more common in the industry, as distributors and suppliers alike rally against the “trinkets and trash” perception from critics. Programs like the EcoCloud allow for customers to order exactly what they need, and return anything they didn’t use, rather than sending them to a landfill or allowing them to take up space in a storage closet.
“We want to empower every company that uses branded gifts to do so sustainably,” Friedman says. “Start by implementing a few meaningful steps like not printing an event’s dates on branded merchandise, so that it can be reused in the future.”
