Post last updated: March, 2024.
We have all heard the basic advice on being more green: bring your reusable bag to the store, refill your water bottle, reduce, reuse, and recycle. But what if you’re already living a relatively sustainable lifestyle and want to step up your game? What if you're hoping to encourage your company and colleagues to join in on your efforts to be more sustainable?
Here are some sustainability tips for how you and your company can start this year in the green for Earth Month! These are excellent initiatives to begin in April and continue all year round.
10 Sustainability Tips for Being More Green at Home and in Business
1) Sustainability Tip: Get Educated about “Greenwashing”
Now a common term in describing any effort related to sustainability, “green” is a term that encompasses all actions that can benefit the environment. Unfortunately, many companies are hitching onto the sustainability trend rather than taking real action to create change - misleading customers through misinformation.
A great way to be greener this earth day is to understand which companies to trust - and make an educated decision about where you decide to devote your dollars. Here is more information about sustainable labels, their meaning, and how to avoid greenwashing. For more details about greenwashing and how to spot it, check out this greenwashing guide from EcoWatch.
2) Sustainability Tip: Choose Company Gifts that Support a Sustainable Lifestyle
Giving sustainable corporate gifts goes beyond supporting businesses that are making responsible decisions when creating their products. These gifts are durable, high-quality, and lasting - ensuring that recipients will use them repeatedly, well into the future. These company gifts also help recipients live more sustainably, whether by bringing their own straw, refilling a treasured water bottle, or reducing toxic free radicals in their homes.
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Eco-Friendly Company Gift: Vitruvi Stone Diffusers
Vitruvi diffusers were developed as an alternative to the standard (often toxic) home-scenting products & candles. The diffusers double as decor, and their 100% pure scents are vegan, cruelty-free, and free from synthetic fragrances and ingredients. -
Eco-Friendly Company Gifts: Glass Infuser Water Bottle by Grosche
We have partnered with Grosche to donate 20% of our proceeds from items sold to support implementing and maintaining water filtration systems in countries without access to clean drinking water. -
Eco-Friendly Corporate Gift: Sukk reusable straws
To reduce plastic waste (and chuck the need for poorly functioning paper straws), Sukk developed a sustainable, extendable, retractable, compact drinking straw small enough to fit on a keychain. -
Eco-Friendly Corporate Gifts: GOT BAG Hip Bag
Made entirely from ocean plastic, GOT BAG is doing incredible things for our blue planet. They created a network of over 2,000 Indonesian fishermen to recover the plastic they pull in with their nets and recycle it into the durable, waterproof materials that make up these innovative bags. -
Eco-Friendly Swag Gifts: Prodir QS40 Pens
We take resources from the earth; why not give it something back? Prodir worked with nature rather than against it by developing the QS40 True Biotic pen. A combination of sustainability with quality design, this pen is 100% natural, biodegradable, and compostable.
3) Sustainability Tip: Sign up for Composting Pick-ups
Many places are offering citywide composting capabilities now (Denver just announced they will be starting a new program), which is a massive step in the right direction toward doing more with organic waste. At Clove & Twine, we use Scraps Mile High to compost organic materials at our office. We’re proud to share that in 2022, we diverted approximately 3.4 tons of organics from going to a landfill through composting with Scraps.
Find a local composting service and start giving your organic waste a chance to give nutrients back to the soil - whether at home or the office.
4) Sustainability Tip: Shop seasonally, locally, and intentionally
To minimize transportation-related emissions, shop at farmer's markets and local markets, or sign up for farm delivery services. It'll benefit the planet, and you'll get produce that’s fresh and more nutrient-dense.
While grocery shopping, avoid plastic as much as possible. Don’t put your produce in a plastic bag - your two apples will make it to the register just fine! Rather than buying bagged carrots, get the wild & free ones. According to this assessment from the World Wildlife Fund, we could be eating up to a credit card-sized portion of plastic each week. Why contribute to that?
5) Sustainability Tip: Donate old 100% cotton T-shirts to Marine Layer's Re-Spun Program
Grab a few friends and host a t-shirt drive to collect 100% cotton shirts to donate to Marine Layer’s ReSpun program. You'll even get a credit you can use towards new high-quality tees!
6) Sustainability Tip: Support a Better Commute
Encourage employees and coworkers to ride a bike to work at least one day a week! According to a recent study, if people chose to get to work by cycling or e-bike instead of driving, they could reduce their individual transportation-related emissions by 67%.
Looking for unique gifts for top sales team members, important clients, or employee anniversary gifts? We can work with Hurley and Sole Bicycles to customize bikes with your company logo and colors.
7) Sustainability Tip: Get Involved with 1% for the Planet
We are so proud to donate to these incredible businesses through our partnership with 1% for the Planet. They are all working hard to make the world a better place, and through our partnerships, we hear about the big difference our contributions make.
Petition to get your company to become a 1% for the Planet member or get involved as an individual. Everyone is responsible for leaving this planet better for future generations.
8) Sustainability Tip: Buy & Give High-Quality Apparel
Clothing and fast fashion are massive contributors to climate change. Consider changing your personal shopping habits, or the apparel you give as company gifts to be high-quality over high-quantity. Look into the brands you are buying from. Do they have good practices? Are the materials they use natural (like cotton, wool) or plastic (polyester)?
Certain brands take pride in repairing apparel or have a take-back program, such as Patagonia, Cotopaxi, and The North Face. Birkenstock soles can be replaced and given new life. Marine Layer has their ReSpun shirt recycling program.
On a personal level, you can have a clothing swap with friends (we have them regularly with the C&T team!) or buy secondhand.
9) Sustainability Tip: Reduce Paper Products
Paper products can easily be reduced both at the office and at home. Here are some easy ways to reduce your use of paper products:
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Use rags and cloth napkins instead of paper towels
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Install a bidet at home (hey, TP is pricey!)
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Use paper grocery bags to wrap gifts
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Go paperless for bills
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Take notes on a tablet that converts everything you write into a digital form (instead of in a notebook or on a notepad)
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Get a digital business card with a QR code (rather than wasteful printed business cards)
10) Sustainability Tip: Get Green with your Meals
Processed foods aren’t only tough on the digestive system. Much of the food we buy in stores, like deli meats, frozen dinners, and bagged meals, have some amount of plastic in their packaging. A lot of water is wasted when processing meat, palm oil, bananas, and almonds too.
Use these water calculators to see how much water is used to process foods. You may be surprised! Now consider how much meat you consume each day. Do you eat meat with every meal? According to the New York Times, it takes 2,110 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. Lentils, in contrast, require approximately 190 gallons of water per pound.
On top of that, the carbon emissions and pollution that comes from livestock farming is absolutely shocking. Eating less meat each week is a wonderful, simple way to make an impact (and maybe get a little more vegetables in your diet, too)!
At home, start doing Meatless Monday. At the office, fill the cupboard with sustainable plant-based snacks. We can all do our part by making small changes - and we may even get a bit healthier because of it!
Here is where you can find more information about our Sustainability Practices here at Clove & Twine.
Ready to shop for sustainable corporate gifts for your clients, partners, and coworkers? Here is our collection of eco-friendly company gifts.
