Ecopreneurist

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 is a short video we took of Robert De Veau with Hirsch Gift showing the Eco Button at the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) event in Fort Worth last weekend.

Initially I stopped at the Hirsch Gift booth to discuss their new line of bamboo and PET flash drives - yes another vendor is entering the green flash drive market - but then Robert showed me the Eco Button.

The idea is basic. How many hundreds of computers are in your average office block? How many hours are those computers on during the day when people are not using them? Read the rest of this entry »

This should really be titled “21^st Century Marketing 101”, since this seems an obvious point, include your web site URL on all of your marketing communications vehicles including package, flyers, outdoor (billboards) and, of course, print ads.

Yet, a survey found that 70% of Print Campaigns Ignore the Multi-Channel Reality, and do not include a URL. This seems counter-intuitive in this age of digital reach. It ignores the reality that between 50 and 70% of consumers, depending on the category, research products online. This is true even of ordinary grocery items which half of consumers than go on to purchase OFFLINE.

So even if your product is one which consumers rarely purchase online, the need for access to your web site remains.

While this is surely important for traditional businesses, it’s even more true for green businesses. Why? Because as the green market has reached a Tipping point and consumers are bombarded by green claims - they’re looking for validation of your eco friendly claims.

There’s only so much you can out in a print ad or on your package. With more and more products claiming certification, the value of that certification is in question. Not everyone, particularly newer green consumers, is familiar with how rigorous the requirements are for, say, the Forest Stewardship Council certification. A link to their site, and a discussion of why it’s better than say, an internal company certification is a powerful way to differentiate your product. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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 the rest of this entry »

Environmental Leader published an article today, Fast-Moving Eco-Friendly Consumer Goods Appeal to Many, noting the rapid increase in consumers purchasing organic and personal care products, natural foods and beverages. According to the report, over 1/3 of all consumers purchase goods in these categories. This makes it the fastest growing category of green products.

This makes sense.

In my previous posts here and here, I’ve talked about how important it is to realize that there are different segments in the green market. These consumers are driven to purchase green and eco friendly products for different reasons.

The Naturalites, a good 25% of the population are primarily concerned about personal health and wellness, and use many natural products; would like to do more to protect the environment. They are, of course the prime target for organic and natural food, beverages and personal care items. Throw in some of the LOHAS consumers (16% of the population) and some Conventionals (23%) and it adds up to one third of the market.

Sounds good for ecopreneurs in these categories…

But, while reading this cheery news, I happened to notice that this data comes from the 2007 Natural Marketing Institute’s, 2007 LOHAS Consumer Trends Database. Will this trend hold up in 2008?

As consumers cut back during this recession, I wonder how this trend will play out.

In general, consumers cut back and trade down in a recession, which could be good for some products and bad for others. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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 the rest of this entry »

We have a number of loyal readers of this blog in the green apparel industry and its rapid growth is yielding rewards for ecopreneurs targeting the variety of consumers that I mentioned in my post, The 4 Green Fashion Consumers – Which One For You?

The Living Green consumer, who has embraced the whole concept of the environmental lifestyle

The Core Fashionista, “who is looking to build up the green in her fashion portfolio,”.

The Walking Green consumers, “driven by wanting to belong to a greater community. These are trend followers.”

The Spending Green profile, the shopper who buys green clothes because “that sense of exclusivity and entitlement are important to her.

The green fashion industry is exploding. More and more companies are entering the field every day and still, the consumers’ voracious appetitive for eco fashion seems to be not even close to be satiated. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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.

So let’s say you’re a green business owner. Or an environmental non-profit. Or a green blogger. No matter what you do, on a basic level, you want more people to know about what you do. Advertising can work. An online presence in social media/network outlets can work. But what if you want people to hear your voice - your real voice, on the radio?

Sure, you can contact radio stations and podcast creators and make a case for being invited on. But for the most part, it’s on their terms. But what if you could just go and make an appointment to be on a show, shape the content, and be interviewed by someone who gets it, is interested in what you’re up to, and will engage you in a conversation rather then just be a dry question asker?

You can.
Read the rest of this entry »

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? Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Brian Base, the creator of RideSearch.com, was at the Green Dallas event held this last weekend here in Dallas, Texas. Proforma Green runs the t-shirts for RideSearch.com and both RideSearch.com and Proforma Green had been asked to participate in the event by the City of Dallas.

Well Brian was wearing a shirt we ran for him for the 2008 Plano Green Living Expo back in April (another event we both attended as vendors) and I noticed something.

The RideSearch.com shirts are natural cotton shirts. This means they have no dye in them, they are the color of untreated, undyed cotton.

What I noticed was that these shirts fade, although I am not sure fade is the correct word. As I mentioned the natural shirt, whether organic or regular cotton, are called natural because they have no dye in the shirts. So really there is no color (dye) to fade from the shirt, it is just the natural wear of the cotton.

And it seems that over time these shirts go from a sand tan color to more of a lighter parchment color.

I never really thought of it before but because the shirts have no dye in them they just act like what they are, natural cotton, and the “fading” is a result of their nature. Read the rest of this entry »