At Firebrand Promotions, we work with companies across various sectors, supplying them with branded merchandise. Merchandise is used for several reasons, such as event giveaways, corporate gifts, office stationery, onboarding packs and much more. We have been on our sustainable journey since 2017. This began with our ‘Project Green’ initiative. We recognised that the products we sell may have a negative impact on the environment. Whether it be the material used, the manufacturing process, the airmiles for delivering or packaging. Soon after we started Project Green, many of our suppliers noticed a change needed to be made too. This came at a great time for us as we were able to learn about sustainable materials 
and provide better packaging solutions. We also promote our UK Made Merchandise range more as there are no air miles used. We’re proud of what we have achieved so far and our partnership with Climate Wise is and will help us to continue making changes. It’s important for all companies to adopt a sustainable approach. After all, it’s a team effort to save our planet! That’s why, in this blog we are going to share 3 ways to help your business become more sustainable. These are steps that have helped us in our own journey, so they may help you with yours too!
The 3 ways to help your business become more sustainable
Make changes to your office
Making simple swaps to the stationery and procedures you use in your office is a great first step to take. For example, buying items that conserve water in their production process or to invest in recycling bins.
Our Impact Collection is a range of branded merchandise that focuses on the use of water. The reason that this is important is that using water, uses energy. So, when you save water, you save energy. Simple as that! Yet, this range goes a step further. When you buy from our Impact Collection, 2% of the proceeds will be donated to Water.org to change lives with safe water.
How can the Impact Collection help you to make changes to your office? The range is versatile and full of various options that you could brand with your logo. Such as pens, notepads, laptop cases, portfolios, drinkware, and backpacks. Plus, other items that you would use outside of the office, such as umbrellas, tote bags, headwear, and cooler bags. Using items from this collection would mean you save water and use recycled or organic materials. For example, a simple swap from a normal laptop bag to our Impact AWARE™ RPET 15.6” Laptop Sleeve would save 10L of water per sleeve! The sleeve is also made using 16 recycled water bottles. When a product is marked with AWARE, it guarantees the use of genuine recycled fabric materials and water reduction impact claims. You can find out more about our Impact Collection by clicking here.
Another great swap is using our Senator bioplastic pens or Senator recycled plastic pens rather than a plastic ballpen. Senator are based in Germany and produce all their pens with green electricity. They’re also a Carbon Neutral company. The Bioplastic pens are made with PLA which has been derived from sugar cane. Using a renewable resource like sugar cane can help to preserve limited resources and reduce CO2 emissions. The recycled plastic pens are made with recycled ABS. This means industrial product remnants and waste can be reused and remade into an everyday product. ABS is great as it can be recycled again after as well!
There are several benefits to using a Senator pen. Such as the ink refills are long lasting, some of which could write up to 5000m! There is also the option to use Senator’s refill service, once your branded pen has run out of ink, you can request a new refill so that you can keep using it.
Support a hybrid working structure or a cycle to work scheme
It’s well known that cars release CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. This is the same for buses and trains too. All of which are the main transport links to commute to work. With COVID-19, many businesses had to adopt a new working structure with the governments advice of working from home. While the advice was in place, CO2 emissions were reduced. Since then, many companies have a hybrid working structure. This ongoing change will continue to reduce CO2.
There are also ways to help people work from home more productively. If you are taking on this new hybrid structure or your staff work remotely full time, have you ensured they are well equipped to do so? It’s true what they say about Tidy Desk, Tidy Mind! Equipment like Bamboo desk organisers are handy tools to keep your employee’s workspace tidy. Featuring many compartments for different belongings, one section even features a Wireless Charging pad. Bamboo is a great material as it’s 100% natural and biodegradable. It’s also a fast-growing plant and can replenish itself within a year. It’s a renewable resource, like sugar cane, it helps to conserve limited resources while absorbing CO2 and releasing oxygen.
If the hybrid structure isn’t something that works for your company, the cycle to work scheme is a great alternative. You could even use it alongside a hybrid structure! Cycling, or any exercise is great for anyone’s physical and mental health. It’s also great for the environment! Cycling doesn’t produce as many CO2 emissions as cars, buses or trains do. However, it’s important to ensure your employees are cycling safely to and from work.
Education for yourself and your team
When we partnered with Climate Wise, part of the introduction process was to have a training session. This is where our team met the Climate Wise team and learnt about how we can reduce our Carbon Footprints. As part of our journey, our employees have all had their personal Carbon Footprints offset. However, it’s still important to reduce your personal footprint as well as your companies.
Some ways that you can improve your Carbon Footprint are
- Walking or cycling to work or to the shops. Using your car for short trips isn’t always necessary. You can even save some money on fuel!
- Consider what you eat. Vegetarian / Vegan diets are much better for the environment. While making this change is a challenge for many meat lovers, you could challenge yourself to eat a Vegan diet two days a week.
- Cut down on disposable products. Make the swap from a single-use plastic bottle to a refillable, reusable bottle. Simple things like remembering to take your reusable coffee cup to the local café will make a difference.
After our induction call, we asked our team if they were going to be making any changes. It was positive to hear that one our account directors, Hannah was going to learn to sew her clothes or shop second hand to avoid buying from fast fashion retailers.
Another great way to receive education on how your brand can be more sustainable is on our sustainability website page. While this page is about our own journey, it’s also a great place to learn about materials and keywords. As you travel down the page, you’ll find a carousel of all the different materials we use in our merchandise.
You could even consider attending events with a focus around sustainability. Back in 2019, we held our bi-annual end user event. However, this one was different to the rest. It was themed ‘Going Greener’. Back in 2019, we were two years into our Project Green journey and our ranges were growing rapidly with eco-friendlier products. In the future, we hope to hold more events with the focus around sustainability. Using venues that are also on their sustainability journey will be a key part of this. We would like to use our next event to bring to our clients and prospects education around materials, the end of life of our products, how they can be branded and the packaging. Our events are and will be a great way to show brands that often exhibit at events, that branded giveaways can also be sustainable rather than a single-use item.
We hope our 3 ways to help your business become more sustainable are useful for you and your brand. There are many other ways that you can become sustainable and Climate Wise can help to take you on the journey that we are on. If you would like to discuss any of our suggestions further, we are contactable on email by clicking here or by phone +44 (0) 1372 376554.