Green initiatives are becoming an increasingly important part of the business world. As firms look to cut costs and contribute to the green agenda, they're increasingly looking at things like more recycling and reducing power use.

If you're looking to roll out a recycling scheme or encourage your staff to be that bit more green-aware, have a think about how promotional merchandise could help you do just that.

Here's a few ideas to get you started:

Being environmentally friendly is an increasingly important part of the business agenda.

Whether it's rolling out a company-wide recycling scheme or simply encouraging your staff to keep the lights turned off and power down their computers on the weekend, firms are increasingly doing their bit, no matter how large or small that bit is.

It all makes sense – it saves money and is good for the environment. But how to convince or inspire your workforce that it really is a good idea?

One way is to use some kind of tangible 'reward' – a really good way, we think, to encourage uptake of green practices.

It could be something like a monthly 'recycling champion' award – where the person judged to have done the most to help your green efforts is rewarded with a company prize – like a hamper or personalised pen.

You could ask colleagues to vote for the person they think has done the most that month.

You could even implement something like a 'champagne moment' – an ad-hoc, spontaneous prize for when someone comes up with a great new idea for a fantastic green initiative you think will really work.

In this way, promotional products can help inspire behavioural change and secure employee engagement with your green concept.

For something more long-term, promotional merchandise can also help you.

Let's say you're implementing an in-house recycling scheme, and you'll be asking staff to ensure waste – plastics, paper, cardboard etc– is deposited in the appropriate bins.

Depending on the size of your company, you'll want to approach this in different ways.

For a small firm, it could be as team 'huddle' in which you get together for a few minutes to go over the details of the scheme. For a larger company with a big workforce, you might want to dedicate a proper training workshop to educate staff about the new initiative.

However you choose to approach it, promotional items come in handy here again. It could be something like providing attendees with recycled notebooks branded with a green message or slogan. How about a quiz at the end of the training session in which staff are given printed pens to fill out their answers?

For other initiatives promotional products are really useful also. Let's say you're wanting to cut down on the amount of paper that gets printed in the office – how about some printed USB sticks or promotional mugs with a green message on them? You could distribute a few to each desk or team.

Most people want to take up green practices, doing their bit for the environment. But some people just need a little push. By giving your staff something they can use time after time – promotional products – you'll keep the idea at the forefront of their minds.

Posted by Carl Blackshaw

Eco-themed promotional products could help councils in Wales achieve an ambitious recycling target this year.

John Griffiths, the country's environment minister, has announced a target of recycling at least 50 per cent of waste in 2012.

Wales has an impressive recycling record – with rates rising from seven per cent in 2000-01 to 48 per cent between April and June 2011.

But Mr Griffiths warned there is "long way to go" to meet the government's target of 70 per cent recycling by 2025, adding that increased food waste recycling is needed – putting the onus on authorities to think about what marketing strategies they employ to drive green awareness – like promotional drawstring bags, for example.

"We must not rest on our laurels," the minister said.

"A bit of extra thought and effort from all of us around how we manage our waste should ensure that 2012 is the year in which recycling in Wales peaks above the significant 50 per cent milestone."

Posted by Carl Blackshaw

Want to really drive a 'green revolution' in the workplace and get your staff to start recycling more?

Well you'll need to do more than just putting a recycling bin in the corner of the office, according to the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro).

With employers becoming more and more focused on environmentally friendly initiatives, recognising both the cost benefits and the good they can do for the planet, recycling programmes are an ever-increasing part of the workplace.

However, the key is to get staff on board and one way to do this is through effective staff communication, which can be bolstered by promotional products.

"It really does need to be supported by a communications program to communicate to the workforce that recycling does make a difference," said Rick Hindley, executive director of Alupro.

"It's all about reassuring people that the materials are recycled into something of value, that it's easy and it's not a task you're doing as a one-off."

There's a whole host of ways promotional items could be employed here – why not reward your star performers with some branded mugs, or give out corporate clothing every time a certain number of things are recycled?

Interview with Alupro, Adfero, Friday November 18th.

Posted by Carl Blackshaw

One of the best ways to reward people for their efforts in the community is to use promotional items.

That's clearly the thinking at Derbyshire County Council – the authority recently awarded a promotional bag to the young winner of a recycling competition it ran.

Daniel Freeman from Belper was crowned "recycling royalty" by the council in recognition for his efforts to cut waste in his home town.

When he's out and about, 16-year-old Daniel doesn't put rubbish in general bins but saves it to bring home and recycle – now that's dedication to the cause if ever we saw it.

The teenager was rewarded with some eco promotional gifts in a goody bag – including an eco kettle and battery charger.

Keeping rubbish that could be recycled out of landfill is very important to Derbyshire," said councillor John Allsop.

"Daniel is a worthy winner."

"King of recycling crowned". Derbyshire County Council. November 1st 2011.

Posted by Carl Blackshaw

It was often said that workplaces of the future would be tech utopias where the use of paper would either be entirely eliminated or greatly reduced.

That hasn't quite happened – yet firms are still striving to adopt green initiatives and cut down on their paper usage.

Certainly, the rise of email and, more recently, e-billing, has seen many traditionally paper documents converted into digital form.

But there is still much firms can do in order to go fully paperless.

According to Raz Godelnik, co-founder of green company Ecolibris.net, what's key is to get employees on board.

Businesses could think about providing incentives to employees who try to save paper, he said.

"Many times you see companies that save a lot of money but they save a lot of money because the employees are taking these steps," Mr Godelnik explained.

These savings could be achieved through bonuses or a competition between teams – in which promotional mugs and printed USBs could be handed out as employee rewards.

Posted by Carl Blackshaw

Employers might want to use corporate gifts to drive green initiatives in the workplace.

According to the founder of Littlegreenblog.com, Mrs Green – a pseudonym – said there are a number of "simple and easy" steps firms can take to introduce efforts to become more environmentally-friendly.

She said the key to the success of green strategies is to make staff the core of the project, inspiring them to feel like a "practical part of the solution".

Rolling-out tasks like organising eco teams to be in charge of particular areas, such as checking lights and computers are turned off and efficient recycling, as well as hosting awareness days – when staff could be 'challenged' to bring in a 'zero-waste lunch', all helps employees feel valued, Mrs Green explained.

Consider using corporate gifts to reward staff for their involvement in your green projects – like printed cotton bags and reusable promotional mugs.

"The gentle exercise of maintaining a small community garden can [also] reap enormous benefits," Mrs Green added.

"By setting up schemes like this, being green is fun rather than another chore," Mrs Green said.

Posted by Carl Blackshaw

Local councils in Northern Ireland that may have used promotional items to let communities know about their waste services look to have been successful: recycling and composting rates in the country have risen to record levels.

About 41 per cent of household waste was recycled or decomposed from April to June this year, the Northern Ireland Executive said.

The statistics show a 15 per cent decrease in the amount of biodegradable municipal material being sent to landfill by councils compared with the same period last year.

Increasing awareness of the benefits of recycling is the key way to get more people to go green. Local authorities are at the heart of their communities and many of them run events designed to encourage more take-up of environmentally-friendly methods – at which promotional items can prove useful in getting the message across.

Commenting on the figures, environment minister Alex Attwood said: "We all know that prevention is better than cure so it is particularly encouraging to see a decrease in waste produced by households.

"These changes made by householders and industry together save us all money and help create an environment and society where citizens want to live, work and invest."

"Attwood welcomes highest recycling rates". Northern Ireland Executive. Thursday October 13th 2011.

Posted by Carl Blackshaw

A London restaurant campaign could encourage other restaurants around the country to use promotional items as part of an effort to cut food waste.

The Sustainable Restaurant Association's (SRA) Too Good To Waste campaign is encouraging restaurants in the capital to offer 'doggy boxes' and convince reluctant diners to ask for something to take their leftover food home in.

Research from the SRA shows that 600,000 tonnes of food waste from restaurants is thrown out every year, most of it filling up landfill space.

But diners are reluctant to ask for a doggy bag – 83 per cent of people polled by the organisation said would like to take leftovers home but don’t think we can or are too embarrassed to ask.

The initiative has proved popular– 80 restaurants, including Michelin-starred Quilon and chains including Wahaca and Leon – have already signed up.

The doggy box, specially created by the SRA in association with 3663 and One Water, comes with green credentials. They are made of 100 per cent recycled and biodegradable materials making them suitable for recycling and composting – all of which minimises the environmental impact.

Other restaurants may well want to mimic the campaign – and promotional bags with their name printed on could really do the trick.

Mark Linehan, managing director of the SRA, added: "Doggy boxes will raise consumer awareness but are only part of the solution. We'll also be helping restaurants think of other ways to cut their waste."

Posted by Carl Blackshaw