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The world around us is becoming more environmentally conscious, and that’s why the demand for sustainable promotional products is rising. Both businesses and consumers are looking for alternatives to traditional promotional products that are degrading the environment in multiple ways.
In fact, the 2012 Edelman Goodpurpose Study found that 87% of consumers across the globe want businesses to place equal weight on societal issues and business goals.
And, in this case, the promotional products are no exception.
Why Do We Recommend Eco-Friendly Promotional Products?
Marketing trends are changing, and companies are now opting for quality over quantity. Nowadays, businesses support eco-friendly promotional products that align with their sustainability goals and effectively deliver the brand message.
These are made from sustainable items, such as bamboo, recycled plastic, or organic cotton, and are biodegradable and reusable.
According to a survey by ASI, 58% of consumers said they would be interested in doing business with a company that gave them an eco-friendly promotional product.
What is the reason behind the change in perception?
For a very long time, traditional promotional products have been contributing to pollution. As consumers become more environmentally responsible, businesses are changing ways of doing business and prioritizing sustainable promotional products that align with their values and reduce carbon footprint.
Sustainable Swag Ideas for 2024
In this blog, let’s browse through the popular eco-friendly promotional items based on customer demand, industry trend analysis, and market research. These are the best corporate gift ideas that give ways to new trends of business gifting to employees, attendees, clients, and customers.
Custom Apparel Bags
Apparel and bags always top the list of trendy promotional items that businesses prefer to offer at tradeshows and conventions. Attendees find these door prizes practical and convenient and use them as go-to items in their everyday lives.
Use Recyclable Tote Bags Instead of Plastic Bags
Nothing can beat a recyclable tote bag when it comes to the smartest swag promo products. These promotional enviro bags are one of those items on which businesses count for future promotion initiatives.
Why do businesses choose this? An individual custom reusable bag can cost you somewhere around $1 to $20, but according to online sources, one logoed custom tote bag can make up to 5700+ impressions.
That means these promotional eco friendly bags have the power to persuade buyers and convey an effective brand story.
Remember: If your business needs a timeless product to give a fresh spin to its promotional campaign – choose Recyclable Tote Bags.
Wondering why so?
- Supports Reusability – These eco promotional bags can be used multiple times, unlike single-use plastic bags, which get disposed of after a single use.
- Get a Larger Print area – Make your brand more visible and relay a meaningful message with these promotional eco tote bags.
- Get Trendy Design – With unique designs and vibrant colors, you can count these bags as unique promo items to gift to your attendees and customers.
Use Organic Cotton T-Shirts Instead Of Synthetic Casuals
The increasing desire for uniqueness among consumers is probably why t-shirts continue to be in great demand. In today’s scenario, consumers share interests in products that make them stand out!
And an organic cotton t-shirt is a sustainable branded merchandise that looks stylish while supporting a higher cause.
Would Organic t-shirts rank as a valuable promo item? The answer is yes.
According to a study by the Textile Exchange, organic cotton products have been shown to last up to five times longer than conventional cotton products.
If you decide to invest in organic t-shirts, you’ll want to keep the following features in mind to catch the attention of new event attendees.
- Nature-Friendly – Using recycled promotional products is the best way to cut down on plastic use while aligning your brand with a larger cause.
- Free Word-of-Mouth Publicity – These custom printed T-shirts are great Trade Show giveaways to promote brands and support sustainability at the same time consistently.
- Customizable – You can imprint your choice of infographic or phrase to make these eco-friendly promotional products more interesting and personalized.
Use Paper Bags Instead of Disposable Plastic Bags
As popular sustainable promotional items, paper bags can be described in 3 words – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
These eco-friendly bags are best holiday giveaway ideas because have spacious interiors that carry whatever one needs them to – from groceries and clothing to snacks and books.
“Going green? Paper bags are the perfect scene.”
According to the 2022 sustainable packaging consumer report, 86% of the consumers surveyed prefer purchasing products from brands/retailers offering sustainable packaging.
- Reduced Plastic Pollution: Plastic pollution is a looming threat to life around. Paper bags are eco-friendly promotional products & using them significantly reduces plastic pollution.
- Lower Energy Consumption: Manufacturing of custom paper bags consumes less energy compared to plastic bags, hence contributing to reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
- Recyclability: These eco-friendly promotional giveaways are easily recyclable and can be processed into new paper products.
Promotional Drinkware Items
These days, drinkware is much more than just a household item that keeps you hydrated. They are high-performing, sustainable promotional products that feature brand ideas in unique ways.
Not just these, other household products such as printed paper cups, custom can koozies & bottle openers with logos are also becoming increasingly popular in brand promotional choices.
Use Reusable Water Bottles Instead Of Plastic Water Bottles
Water bottles are known for their high functionality, stylish designs & customizable branding options.
These sturdy, travel-friendly companions come with a sizable canvas area that uniquely captures the aesthetics & message of any brand.
What is the best kind of reusable water bottle?
Stainless steel sports water bottles and custom aluminum bottles are popular eco promotional giveaways for students, work-going professionals, athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and travelers.
Interestingly, according to the Global Impression Study, in the US, drinkware ranks 2nd highest in the list in terms of people owning these promotional products. Pretty impressive!
These premium water bottles are sustainable promotional giveaways that come with strict safety and quality standards.
Businesses find them most suitable for promotion. Curious Why?
- Reduce Waste: The use of these green promotional items lowers the demand for disposable plastic bottles, reduces carbon footprint & also cuts down pollution in the ocean and landfills.
- Boost Branding: Choose the bottles that best suit your needs, as they can be customized in various colors, styles, shapes, and sizes and distributed as summer promotional giveaways.
- Health & Safety: These bottles are free from harmful chemicals and reactive substances. Reusable bottles are mainly made from stainless steel, aluminum, or BPA-free plastics.
Use Bamboo Cutting Boards Instead Of Plastic Cutting Boards
If your customers and employees are budding chefs at home, then they will definitely enjoy your promotional gift!
As a business executive, you get an impressive amount of branding space to put forward your brand ideas and information.
Whether you are dicing meat cubes or chopping vegetables, the bamboo chopping boards add more uniqueness to your meal preparation.
These sustainable promotional products are unique virtual giveaway ideas that incorporate your brand names, logos, mission taglines, services, products, and even help audiences connect to your brand more seamlessly.
What more can one ask for? These lead-free cutting boards are anti-microbial and knife-friendly and withstand daily wear and tear.
These can be used as effective eco friendly promotional ideas for various reasons:
- Low Maintenance: These kitchen friends are easy to clean and demand minimum maintenance. Regular cleaning with water – that’s all it requires!
- Affordable: These biodegradable promotional products are also significantly cheap, offering high durability and functionality for their price.
- Versatile: Bamboo boards are eco-friendly promotional products, ideal for multiple kitchen tasks: slicing fruits, chopping vegetables, and carving meat.
Use Reusable Coffee Mugs Instead of Disposable Coffee Cups
A promotional coffee mug might be one of the most impactful items that you can gift your clients, customers, and employees.
According to a survey by the Heinz company, nearly 60% of people said they are emotionally attached to a favorite mug.
Regardless of the industry, custom coffee mugs are highly demanding items for every business promotion.
Why?
These budget-friendly mugs are popular New Year gifts that come with unlimited imprint options. Expect your clients to have their morning sip with an effective brand recall.
These green promotional giveaways come with…
- Customized Textures
- Creative Cliparts
- Customized Logo Size
- Personalized Messages/ Company Slogans/ Inspirational Quotes
- High-End Finish
- Variable Colors
Are custom mugs profitable?
Find out why these mugs are the best sustainable merchandise ideas for businesses yet yield maximized returns.
- Practicality – Personalized coffee mugs are sustainable promotional products, great for the daily dose of tea, coffee, and hot cocoa. These can also be used for soups or oatmeal.
- Increased Brand Visibility – Coffee mugs prominently display your brand logo & message, helping to humanize your brand with a larger audience.
- High Perceived Value – A promotional mug has a perceived value higher than its actual cost. It is a cheap promo item used to foster customer loyalty greatly.
Use Stainless Steel Drinking Straws Instead of Plastic Straws
The only thing that makes a frosty, refreshing drink more enjoyable is a drinking straw. These reusable straws are durable, easy to clean, and also convey a message of sustainability & eco-friendliness.
Add a fun factor in promoting your brand with the stainless steel drinking straws. These are sustainable merchandise ideas for tradeshows and exhibitions.
It brings the best of both worlds- fun & utility; you can satisfy your promotional needs & put the users in great moods.
The fine craftsmanship of these customized straws makes them one of the ideal environmentally friendly promotional products —for restaurant openings, carnivals & beverage trade shows.
You can use them as event giveaways for various corporate gatherings and settings.
- Eco-friendly Brand Image: Offering reusable straws instead of harmful plastic straws helps to build your brand image as an “eco-conscious” brand, promoting sustainability.
- Low Cost: These are inexpensive green promotional items with a long shelf life.
- Health and Safety: Stainless steel is a food-safe material and does not dissolve any toxins into your drink.
Custom Office Supplies
Is your study desk or office closet unequipped? Make it more productive with eco-friendly promotional items like branded pens, personalized journals, custom sticky notes, and more.
These custom office supplies are insanely cheap and happen to be the most loved corporate gifts among audiences.
Use Bamboo or Wooden Pens Instead of Plastic Pens
While they may be small in size, bamboo or wooden pens have a huge impact on the audience. They are one of the mightiest green promotional giveaways that drive huge impressions and brand loyalty.
According to ASI study reports, nearly 89% of consumers own promotional writing instruments. And surprisingly, the pen that costs $1 has a CPI of less than 1/10 of a cent per impression!
Whether it is business meetings, educational institutions, or trade shows & conferences, bamboo pens are sustainable promotional products that your audiences will love, use, and remember.
Do you know choosing eco-friendly swag items for clients & employees brings a win-win outcome for everyone involved?
These eco-promotional pens reflect your company values, encourage sustainability practices & and make your recipients happy at the same time.
- Versatile Giveaways: Pens are amazing Christmas giveaways and also a suitable handout for multiple event setups such as charity events, product launches & exhibitions.
- Constant Brand Recall: Your pen can be a subtle and constant reminder of your brand whenever the recipient uses it.
- Customer Loyalty: Distributing promotional pens can build customer loyalty and keep your business at the top of the minds.
Use Recycled Notebooks Instead of Leather/PVC Bound Notebooks
Needless to say, customized notebooks are thoughtful promotional gifts for prospects & clients.
These custom promotional items give the freedom to write down inspiring ideas, scribble daily thoughts, maintain checklists & draw fun doodles.
Recycled notebooks help to promote sustainable gifting to clients, customers, and employees.
Offering such biodegradable promotional products also helps businesses showcase their branding details on a product that recipients use every day.
Remember: Recycled promotional notebooks are classics – they’re both portable and practical!
From timeless hardcover notebooks and bullet journals to the go-to spiral bounds and travel journals, there are plenty of options to choose from. A few others are,
- Pocket Notebooks
- Specialty Notebooks
- Softcover Recycled Notebooks
- Eco Kraft Cover Notepad With Pen
- Sketchbooks
There are prominent reasons for choosing eco-friendly corporate gifts over other promo products.
Nearly 46% of consumers think more favorably of a brand when they acquire eco-friendly merchandise.
Why do we consider Recycled Notepads as the #1 Corporate giveaway idea?
- They are affordable & are long-lasting.
- They offer a large imprint area for visibility.
- These are easy to ship and hold a high brand recall.
Custom Tech Items
Tech giveaway items are high-quality reflections of your brand that distinguish you from your competitors.
These promotional products with logo can be amazing conference swags, virtual event giveaways, work-from-home employee gifts, employee appreciation giveaways, and more.
Use Solar-Powered Chargers Instead Of Disposable Batteries
These days, we are surrounded by digital devices all the time, and more than anything, we want our tech items to be plugged in and stay in full pull power.
Solar-powered chargers are perfect giveaways for corporate employees, virtual event attendees, tradeshow visitors, and existing customers.
These sustainable giveaway items keep up with the current trends, & help businesses catch the attention of thousands of attendees, prospects, and customers in one go.
Solar-powered chargers are definitely one of the demanding tech products that help businesses build their brand image & share a vision of sustainability.
Thinking about an ideal trade show swag that turns heads?
Solar-powered chargers are the perfect eco friendly giveaways for multiple reasons:
- Energy Efficiency: These chargers charge your tech devices, converting sunlight directly into electricity with minimal energy loss.
- Portability: Recipients find these chargers really compact and portable, ideally for hiking, traveling, and other outdoor activities.
- Reduced Waste: Solar chargers are eco promotional products that significantly decrease the volume of harmful waste produced by disposable batteries.
Use Solar-Powered Flashlights Instead Of Traditional Flashlights
By harnessing the power of the sun, these flashlights not only offer reliable and efficient illumination but also contribute to a greener future.
These are powerful eco friendly corporate gifts that support a green technology approach.
Having no need for disposable batteries with an endless source of energy, they are the perfect choice for outdoor adventures, emergency preparedness, and everyday use.
Make the switch to solar-powered flashlights and light up your life while reducing your carbon footprint. Embrace the brilliance of the sun and illuminate your path with a cleaner, more sustainable choice.
- Green Energy Contribution: These solar-powered products are zero waste promotional items that encourage the development and use of clean, renewable energy sources.
- No Bulb Replacement: Solar flashlights often use LED bulbs, which have a long lifespan and do not require frequent replacement.
- Cost Savings: Once purchased, these personalized flashlights have no ongoing operating costs, saving you money in the long run.
Use Wooden Keychains Instead of Plastic Keychains
Custom keychains are one of the most widely received promotional items among audiences.
Businesses consider these as great eco friendly promotional product ideas for corporate events and marketing campaigns; because they are cheap, offer high visibility, and can be optimized in ways to grab attention.
According to the PPAI Study of Consumer and Buyer Reactions, keychains top the list of favorite low-valued promo products.
However, this promotional item is far better perceived if it promotes sustainable marketing.
To make a more environmentally friendly choice, businesses often opt for custom shape wooden keychains over plastic keychains. These biodegradable promotional items are best to reduce plastic waste & showcase a unique aesthetic.
What makes these keychains so special for branding?
At less than $1, these wooden keychains are cheap promo items for tradeshows and fundraising events and are also used as free swag for realtors, auto dealers, and tour agents.
These effective, sustainable promotional products come with a huge diversity in their collection. The most popular ones having a high brand recall are multi-functional & creative as well. Few are-
- Carabiner Keychains
- Keychains with Flashlights
- Bottle Openers cum Keychains
- Keychains as Phone Stands
- Whistle Keychains
Luggage tags have a universal appeal as branded giveaways as they are widely used in identifying personal luggage & recovering lost luggage.
Whether you are going for short trips or long-distance travel, you can always personalize your bags & make them easily distinguishable. How Amazing!
How Effective are Eco-luggage tags?
Branding becomes a lot more effective for businesses when these high-quality promotional luggage tags spread the message of sustainability.
Businesses love distributing sustainable promotional products like eco-friendly cork luggage tags to their recipients at tradeshow booths, promotional campaigns & community events.
- Best Cost Effective Giveaways: These green promotional gifts are cost-effective too and allow you to become walking advertisements of the brand.
- Easy Customization: Full-color, photo-quality print capability allows businesses to customize these tags with a logo, monogram, company name, and tagline.
- Water Repellent: These sustainable promotional products have water-resistant qualities, and that’s why they are best when attached to luggage, gym bags, diaper bags, suitcases, or keys.
- Biodegradability: These are earth friendly promotional products, which means they easily break down over time and reduce waste or landfills.
Wrapping It Up
In this digital world, when it comes to promotional items, it is not hard to figure out what works and what does not. Remember, nowadays, promotional giveaways are no longer cheap and throw-away items.
People prefer environmentally friendly promotional gifts that maximize brand exposure, increase brand recall, and promote sustainability.
Thus, businesses promote their brand around popular sustainable merchandise ideas so that they delight the audiences and create a buzz around their brand name at the same time.
PapaChina, being a leading wholesale supplier of sustainable promotional products, offers a variety of branded giveaway items to its clients.
With PapaChina, businesses around the globe have on-time bulk deliveries of customized items at their doorstep through China wholesale dropshipping service. For more information, contact our team.
Read Our Other Blogs on Promotional Product Trends, Gifts, and Giveaway Ideas:
Back to School Supplies Giveaways in Bulk
New Year Gifts and Giveaways 2025
