Sustainable Promotional Gifts: What Companies Should Really Look For

Search for sustainable promotional gifts and you will quickly find bamboo pens, cotton tote bags and notebooks made from grass paper. Everything carries a green label, and yet a lot of it ends up in a drawer within weeks. For companies, the real question is not only what a promotional item is made of, but whether anyone actually uses it, and whether what you say about it can be backed up. Below you will find four questions to ask before ordering, ideas that tend to get used, and an honest look at how to keep greenwashing out of your own messaging.

Sustainable promotional gifts: four questions before you order

Will it be used for a long time?

The best material in the world achieves little if the gift sits untouched. Things that solve a small everyday annoyance stay in use. The guarantee is a useful clue, too. A maker who offers a long guarantee expects the product to last.

Will it be used up?

Consumables have one big advantage: they don't gather dust on a shelf for years. Coffee, tea, honey, spices or a bar of soap get used and then they're gone.

Where does it come from, and what is it made of?

Ask your supplier directly: where is it made? What share of the material is recycled, and where does that material come from? A good supplier can answer in a sentence or two. If all you get back is buzzwords, take it as a warning sign.

How much packaging does it need?

A small, flat gift needs little filler and fits in a plain shipping box. Sending several gifts to one address saves boxes, too.

Avoiding greenwashing: facts, not labels

Many companies want their gifts to say something about their values. Fair enough, but there is a catch: broad statements such as "eco-friendly" or "climate neutral" on cards and product pages are hard to prove. The EU has tightened the rules on generic environmental claims considerably, and that applies not just to manufacturers but also to companies using a gift to promote themselves.

The simplest approach is to say only what you can prove. Rather than "an eco-friendly gift", state what it is made of, where it is produced and how long the guarantee runs. It is more convincing and protects you if someone asks.

Ideas that are more likely to get used

• Local coffee or tea: from a roaster or tea shop in your town, with a short note on why you chose it.
• Honey from a local beekeeper: small, easy to post and quickly used up.
• A genuinely good water bottle: but only if it really doesn't leak and your recipients don't already own three.
• Solid soap: used every day and no plastic bottle involved. Browse our soaps and shampoos.

For more thoughts on choosing well, see our guide what to look for in sustainable gifts and the article mindful gift-giving.

Soapi as a promotional gift: what we can back up

We deliberately don't describe the Soapi with green buzzwords. We would rather tell you what can be checked. The Soapi is a magnetic soap holder: you press a bottle cap halfway into a bar of soap, the soap hangs from a magnet on the wall and dries all the way round instead of going soft in a dish. The basin stays clean, and the soap lasts longer because it can dry.

• Material: The housing is injection-moulded from recycled plastic, around 90 % of which comes from discarded fishing nets and ropes. The nets are processed in Denmark.
• Origin: The Soapi is injection-moulded in Berlin. More on origin in promotional gifts made in Germany.
• Built to stay in use: a 10-year durability guarantee.
• Something to use up: the soap gets used, the holder stays and simply takes the next bar.
• Suits everyone: everybody has a basin.

Your logo goes on the bottle cap. We print bottle caps with your logo from 500 pieces. The number of Soapis is independent of that: you order as many Soapis as you need and use the remaining caps later as a small giveaway, at a trade fair, say, or tucked into a letter. The cap sits visibly in the soap, so your logo is on show every day in the bathroom or by the kitchen sink. Full details are on our corporate gifts page.

Small teams: order directly, no enquiry needed

No logo required and only a handful of gifts? Then Mix & Match is the quickest route: pick 5 products, pay €50, free delivery within Germany. You can combine Soapis in all 10 colours, the key holder and solid soaps such as Marseille soap or soaps from Blaull, Grete Manufaktur and KLAR. For a ready-made single gift there's the Starter Kit at €14.95.

FAQ

What counts as a sustainable promotional gift?

There is no fixed definition. Sensible criteria: it is used for a long time or used up, origin and materials are stated clearly, and the packaging is simple. A label on its own tells you very little.

Do I have to order 500 Soapis to get logo bottle caps?

No. We print the caps from 500 pieces, and you choose the number of Soapis freely. You can mix colours or pick from the 10 colours to match your brand. As a company, you buy from us at the retailer price: very good terms that normally only go to retailers who order from us regularly. Printing logo caps takes about two weeks from order to dispatch, often much less.

In short

With sustainable promotional gifts, the green label matters less than whether the gift gets used and whether you can talk about it honestly. For a small group without a logo, put together five items with Mix & Match. If a soap holder with your logo on the bottle cap appeals, send us an enquiry with quantity, colours and preferred date. For logo bottle caps it's best to ask early, so there's enough time for printing.