Setting an Example of More Sustainable Swag

We've been so encouraged this week on our crusade against Unsustainable Swag!* I hope you too will be encouraged by the several steps forward that we witnessed (and not too discouraged by the one step back).

(1) First, I learned that the organizers of WEALTH Day (a sustainability summit at the Capitol on March 23) are encouraging people to make their own commemorative T-shirts or tote bags with iron-on transfers rather than creating new merch for the event this year! What a great example this sets for other organizations and event organizers. Not only will they be saving the resources that would go into custom shirts or bags, they’ll be raising awareness among the students and legislators who walk by their booth and see the ironing boards in the halls of the Capitol. I love seeing this sort of subtle but impactful advocacy!

(2) When we posted about this WEALTH Day idea on Facebook, someone told us about a T-shirt she had used for three events. She added a vinyl transfer from one event to a T-shirt she already had...then tie-dyed it as part of a third event. How great would it be to have one shirt memorializing all of your races or community cleanups or company picnics instead of 20 shirts stuffed in a drawer, most of which you'll only wear a few times?

(4) Next was a setback, but one with a silver lining. 

A customer emailed us to vent about a huge amount of corporate swag her employer asked her to dispose of. She sent pictures of it—whole boxes filling a cubicle. It's so disheartening to see those never-used items going to the landfill. They're hard to donate because they're branded with a company logo—rendering them essentially valueless for anyone outside the company. It's mostly stuff that never should have been created in the first place. 

It was sad news on a gray day, but a couple things gave us hope.

One was simply that she reached out. Emailing us helped her vent. Receiving her email helped us feel like we're not the only ones who care. Another was that we brainstormed. We talked about different ways to share her opinion with her employer. We talked about potential outets for the items that aren't entirely worthless. Those steps by themselves won't solve the problem. They won't create a new mindset in corporate America overnight. But eventually they will help. The more light you can shed on the wastefulness of swag, the more people will begin to SEE the waste and SEE the role they have in reducing it. 

(5) That brings us to our final swag-related victory. It's not always easy to speak up in meetings when everyone else is on the swag-bandwagon. But Robert and I both raised the issue this week with groups who were talking about making merch. And the responses were very positive! So many people have simply never reflected on this issue before. Some genuinely appreciated the information. Some immediately started thinking about what T-shirt they could repurpose. And it seems we actually changed some minds!

I know these are small success stories, but the small successes multiply as more people are exposed to new information and to perspectives they had never considered. 

I've been thinking all week of the words of Maya Angelou: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." 

I encourage you to find the ways you're able to lift up good ideas, share good information, and help people know better so that we can all do better together. 

-Justine

*For background on swag and why we hate it, see:

and

The Most Sustainable Shopping Bag