It is always nice to read a success story and it is even nicer when that story involves an eco friendly company. Passion for our planet may not seem like a solid business plan, but as a recent article in the Express showed, many environmentally friendly businesses have triumphed in recent years.

Showcased as examples of how to do it, companies such as Sheese, a Vegan friendly family run dairy free cheese firm and Amber Energy Consultants, a firm born of the recession which helps businesses to reduce their Carbon footprints, are both shining examples of how success can be achieved when your priorities are green!

There are also many helpful hints and tips which wannabe environmental entrepreneurs can follow to make their dream a reality. Ideas such as choosing a niche product or service, doing thorough homework and research, making a solid business plan and carefully exploring all sources of backing, are all essentials when launching a new company.

Of course, anyone who wants to be their own boss and launch their own green business, must ensure they pay attention to all aspects of the day to day activities. For example, choosing promotional products for your company which are ethically produced, free trade and kind to the environment, can show your customers that you mean every word you say. Top green promotional products such as personalised cotton shopper bags and Shaped Recycled Drinks Bottle Keyrings can serve as a added reminded to clients that your company puts the environment first.

Likewise, when it comes to choosing stationery and green promotional merchandise, there is simply no need to find room to manoeuvre your principals! Eco friendly promotional merchandise such Recycled Drink Bottle Rulers, Magic Staplers and CD Pencils serve as daily reminders to your staff that the business is green all the way through!

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch and they may be right. However, for the small and medium sized businesses in the East of England, there is such a thing as free eco business training! Two programmes in particular are in operation in the area that can help businesses to save money, reduce their carbon footprints and become more environmentally efficient.

The EASIER programme is designed for small and medium businesses and its goal is to help them to be as energy efficient as possible – cutting costs and carbon footprints in the process. With overhead projections and calculations to help firms perform in the best way possible, this programme is perfect for those looking for a no strings attached way forward.

Sustain Lincolnshire is also an ideal energy saving solution for companies in the area. Free management training and consultancy packages make this well worth looking into.

Of course companies can help themselves and their clients, by embracing eco promotional products and utilising promotional merchandise for their marketing campaigns. Simple solutions such as choosing recycled stationery promotional products or ethically produced promotional merchandise can make a big difference to company carbon footprints!

Companies hoping to embrace the eco spirit this season can of course take the easy option and buy clients promotional products made from recycled materials, or concentrate their marketing campaigns and promotional merchandise on utilising environmentally friendly resources – or they could go a bit further and take some inspiration from Stagecoach.

Stagecoach, in the North East, have created an environmental programme called ‘Ready Steady Green.’ As part of this programme, the Green Santa campaign was born. Designed to be a tool in which the eco-message could be delivered to school children, the Green Santa campaign asked children to think of an eco-friendly present they would like for their school and write a letter about it.

The winners of the competition were St Bede’s Primary School from Harold Street in Jarrow. The school’s gardening club, which was started in September, decided to ask Green Santa for watering butts, recycling bins and compost. Thanks to their good intentions, the man in green made their festive dreams come true.

If you are thinking of running an eco-campaign for children, then there are lots of promotional products available which can help. Promotional merchandise such as Mini Seed booklets and Seed Post Packs could be just what you are looking for!

Proving that being eco friendly and environmentally aware can help with all aspects of your life, a recent poll has revealed that those people who live in eco cities spend less time commuting to work. We all know how dreary the morning rat race can be, so it helps to know that those who are greener can get there faster!

The poll was carried out by MyJobGroup and just under two thousand people from twelve cities took part. In a chicken and egg scenario, the poll revealed that those people who took their (gas guzzling) cars to work spent more time travelling than those who used more eco friendly methods, such as cycling or walking.

Glaswegians came out the worst in the poll, taking the longest time to get to work (and using the car the most) whilst Londoners, who favoured public transport or walking, got to work the quickest, in the most eco friendly way.

Knowing how people conduct their daily lives, what is important to them and the routines they use, can really help companies hoping to boost their brands with marketing tactics and promotional products. Promotional merchandise aimed specifically at target groups, always gets the best results and market research must always be put to good use!

So, if your target audience are eco loving chaps who favour walking to work, you can concentrate your promotional merchandise efforts on Eco Umbrellas. If you know your staff or clients take the bike to work, then those eco friendly chaps will certainly love green promotional products like Bike Spoke Reflectors. However, if your target audience live in one of the cities where driving is the most popular form of commuting, then perhaps promotional products such as T Shaped ice scrapers or Eco Phone Holders would be your best bet!

Following a disastrous flirtation with a bio-ethanol bus scheme in 2007, which ended up costing Reading Council £350,000 more than normal buses, things seem to be back on track for the town with the successful introduction of six double decker eco buses.

When it comes to advertising your green credentials and putting your eco promotional products on display, you cannot really get bigger than a bus! So, Reading council proudly display their fleet of hybrid buses, which they claim can save them 40 per cent on fuel costs.

The eco hybrid buses are the ultimate in eco promotional merchandise. They were designed by BAE Systems and hope to save the bus company over £150,000 on fuel costs in one year. The cost of the scheme was £300,000, but the Government did contribute a handsome £108,000!

There are of course smaller and cheaper ways for companies to boost their green credentials and eco promotional products is one of them! Switching to promotional merchandise, such as stationery, clothing or corporate gifts, that have been sustainably manufactured/sourced, or been made from recycled materials, can do wonders for your company image and most importantly, for the environment too!

The opportunity may just have arrived for companies to put their personalised, environmentally friendly promotional merchandise to good use, as recent research by GfK’s, the ‘Green Gauge Global study,’ revealed that the UK is the most ‘environmentally cynical nation.’ The results of the study showed that one in five people in the UK does not believe that climate change was a serious issue and a large proportion of consumers never stop to question companies’ environmental policies.

Conversely, the survey also revealed that four out of five people in the UK recycle on a regular basis and 78 per cent of people surveyed said that they strive to conserve energy at home most, if not all, of the time.

A spokesman for GfK Roper Consulting, advises that businesses need to send specific ‘eco targeting’ messages to their customers, in order to bring about change. Environmentally, change must happen and firms must be willing to make the effort to ensure it does. While the reality of the situation is that change will not happen overnight, if businesses ‘approach consumers on a personal level,’ then a more favourable ‘green outlook’ can be achieved, which may benefit companies by ‘paying rich dividends’.

So how can businesses, individuals and the government work harder to get their message across to the general public? Well, one easy way is through the use of environmentally friendly promotional products.
Using branded and personalised eco promotional merchandise can help companies to reach their target audiences directly and help them to deliver those all important ’specific eco messages.’

Saying that your company believes in using sustainable products is all well and good, but since ‘actions speak louder than words,’ a company that actually uses promotional merchandise, such as recycled stationery and sustainable sourced promotional products, will always come out in a more favourable and ‘greener’ light.