Giveaways That Encourage Sustainable Behavior

Melanie,

EcoLinx is an excellent source for promotional products (and a company with a strong practicing sustainable ethos). Consider the recycled plastic thermometers & rain gauges, live trees in a tube, and flower stakes.

John Davis
Mojave Desert and Mountain Recycling Authority

Hi,

A giveaway that has worked well in Australia is empty camera film canisters (with the lid) with stickers on for use as outdoor ashtrays. Coastal groups have been doing this for years and it reduces the cigarette butt litter around the place. The stickers on the conisters have slogans like: "keep the beach butt free" etc. Your local camera store will probably collect these for you. then you just need to hand them out to the smokers.

Regards,
Anna Hitchcock

Port Curtis Waterwatch Coordinator
(07) 4970 7293 0412 502 798
[email protected]
www.pcwaterwatch.blogspot.com

Hi Melanie,

Last year in Minneapolis/St. Paul I and two colleagues conducted survey research at our Minnesota annual Living Green Expo. We offered small prizes as incentives for filling out a survey. Inside the prize bags were lead-free fishing tackle, native flower seeds and an energy-saving lightbulb. These were all donated by local businesses or by our MN pollution control agency. People LOVED these prizes (we were pleasantly surprised). This year we're also going to give away the "Blue Sky Guide", a book filled with coupons for local businesses specializing in green/ sustainable services and products. I think someone on this list has already mentioned the Chinook book- the sister publication of the Blue Sky Guide. Also- an interesting result from our research: in our surveys we asked people why they had come to the Living Green Expo that day. One of the most common answers was "for the free samples". Apparently the giveaways work.

good luck-
Christie Manning

Are any of you aware of organizations researching the problem of business models that create direct economic incentive for increased waste? I am referring specifically to the concept of giving away a primary product in order to sell more expensive add-ons, refills, etc that are included with the primary product. The term "razor blade business" is commonly used to describe such business models; based on the concept of "give away the razor at or below cost to profit on the sale of proprietary blades for the life of the product". For example, printer companies will sell a printer for $50 knowing that each ink refill will generate $75 in revenue. Much to my dismay, I recently learned that some people are THROWING PRINTERS IN THE TRASH and buying new ones because it is cheaper to buy a new printer with an ink cartridge inside than it is to buy a new ink cartridge. I also saw a recent example of this with electric razors. A consumer commented that the replacement head for his electric razor would cost more than a brand new unit with a head attached. Therefore his intent was to buy a new electric razor and throw away the old one even though it still worked perfectly. I would hope that at least 99% of the consumers of such products would have higher moral values that outweigh the economic incentive to create unnecessary waste. But the success of big-box retail (i.e. consumers putting personal economics ahead of long-term societal interests) indicates that this might be a big problem that nobody is talking about, or possibly even aware of. If any of you are aware of any organizations or individuals studying this problem please let me know.

Thanks,
Bob Hollis

Robert W. Hollis Carnegie Partners, LLC
Ph 916 941-9053
eFax 916 290-0312
[email protected]
www.CarnegiePartners.com

Just a caution against giving away "wildflower seeds". These seed mixes are often include a lot of weed seed... not so terrible if they're just weeds, not so good if you end up spreading invasive plants all over the place. If you're going to give away "native wildflower seeds" to people who are just visiting from afar, you need to realize that when they bring these seeds home they aren't necessarily going to be native to those places. (like adbusters once included a packet of wildflower seeds in its magazine to promote guerilla gardening. yikes!) If you do want to give away "native seeds" you can try a local/reputable seed collector/nursery. Try contacting the local naturalist group, local environmental government agency like conservation authority, local university, or some other group in your area that is working on ecological restoration for leads on who to go to. I know I probably sound a bit crazed, but I spent 2 years of my life killing invasive plants, it's personnal.

:)k

When I was director of a regional land trust, for our annual springtime meetings we gave our volunteers little flats of annual flowers to plant (pansies, marigolds, etc). People beamed and carried them away happily. Especially good if you can find a sustainable nursery to supply them. One year we did white pine seedlings, but I'm not sure how many were able to find a good place to plant them. Giving the gift of a living plant that is adapted to local conditions, and that almost anyone can find a place to plant (even on the patio) is inexpensive, cheering, and low impact on the environment. The women especially looked forward to getting their free flowers. I think that if this was combined with some information on sustainable gardening practices that you might encourage a switch in behavior for some as well.

Gay Nicholson, Ph.D.

Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator
1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882
[email protected]
607-533-7312 (home office)
607-279-6618 (cell)
Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins
County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850
[email protected]

I wonder if instead of "things" you might consider "experiences", since our society is awash in things. Perhaps a special guided nature walk could be arranged with a nearby State, Provincial or National Park with the giveaway being a ticket to that event. Or free entry to a special film show. Etc. Or a special hike through a portion of a nearby hiking trail, with a geologist from the local University leading it. Or a special entertaining public lecture by a local expert for a future evening. If you wish to give away things---We've given away Species at Risk seedlings grown in our local plant nursery, and native to the area, with special instructions on how and where to plant and how to care for (Pitch Pine). Since it will soon be spring, you could also give away a "Wetland Restoration Kit" consisting of one stem each of appropriate wetland native plants which can then be simply pushed into the ground and will sprout in the spring. Hereabouts it would be one foot sections of Red Osier Dogwood, Native Willows, and other plants collected from alongside a stream or a wetland. Cut the stems, cut them up into one foot sections with a least a couple of nodes, wrap them in newspaper to keep them moist until they're handed out, perhaps put them in a reusable plastic bag (you could ask for the return of the bags for next year's event if it's convenient) and attach instructions. Another thing you might do is ask everyone who comes to bring an appropriate used book on nature. One they've read and re-read but know they're not going to read again. Everyone brings a book, and everyone can take a book. Those that aren't taken could be reserved for next year, or donated to a used book store.

Norm Ruttan
i-wastenot.com

We are looking for products that will be acceptable to members and donors to our provincial environmental society as thankyou gifts for their donations and dedication. Our members are very concerned about waste of resources and time. Do any of you have feedback from environmentalist about what they like to get? If anything? I did like the comments re. native seeds. Do any of you have Canadian suppliers for T-Shirts or cloth bags?

Thanks,
Judy Montgomery
Saskatoon

Judy asked about "products that will be acceptable to members and donors to our provincial environmental society as thankyou gifts for their donations and dedication." Our local landtrust gives away beautifully framed photographs of "Molly's Gut" an area in the Thousand Islands.

Norm Ruttan

Little products made from scrap electronics are available on the web - http://www.motherboardgifts.com/ . Any furniture, picture frames, etc. made out of scrap materials are great. Gift certificates to reuse stores - especially if you have a used building material store in your area. Here's what our place in Boulder (Rocky Mtns, U.S.) is doing: http://www.resourceyard.org/rs2k_featured.html Did someone already mention compact fluorescent lights? (When I'm facilitating processes with environmental folks, I sometimes give these away for the "brightest idea") Our friends at our state recycling association gave my husband & I a gift certificate to a local electronics recycling place as a wedding gift - we had so much old electronics to get rid of merging households - and it's not free here.

Anne Peters

Gracestone, Inc.
Boulder, CO
303.494.4934 vox
303.494.4880 fax

Hello Melanie:

I no longer work at the Ottawa Valley Waste Recovery Centre (www.ovwrc.com), but would recommend that you contact someone in Communications, Elizabeth or Colleen, regarding this subject. All three of us attended the open-house at the local hockey arena in April of 2005. We surveyed the general public and played public awareness games. Prizes provided were pencils made from recyclable materials and other similar products. But what I remember the most were the prizes consisting of a tulip bulb stapled to a Ziploc (sandwich-sized) bag filled with our in-house compost derived from organic feedstock which residents of the Ottawa Valley supplied. Feel free to contact the names mentioned to get more information about the OVWRC's sustainable promos.

Rivendell Bongard

Colleen ([email protected])
Elizabeth ([email protected])

During a recent water education campaign focussing on outdoor residential activities such as gardening, pool care etc, we used giveaways such as seedpots or seedsticks with local native plant seeds and sample sachets of water storing crystals (local manufacturer). Both were a huge hit, particularly when we demonstrated the crystals as people had often been unsure how to use them! We used a 'here's one we made earlier' approach. During education displays at local festivals we also displayed and gave away a native garden (including plants, mulch and advice / assistance building the garden by qualified council nursery staff). To enter residents had to answer three garden related questions, with the answers located in our education displays. Once inside we also had mulch displays etc and experts on hand to give advice on water efficient gardening. The competition served two purposes - to enter you had to read the information and by writing it down participants were more likely to retain it (i.e. we made them work for it). The competition was a great success. We are also looking at marketing tools that are practical and accessible i.e. we are creating 'information discs' with watering times that slip around the handle of an outdoor tap. Also anti-static e-patches (rather than stickers or magnets) that can adhere to any glossy surface including mirrors in bathrooms. We are now about to revamp the education campaign with an indoor focus for 06 / 07, particularly showering. As giveaways we are looking to use showertimers and possibly collapsible waterproof buckets (to collect the first cold water in the shower and use in the garden or to fill the toilet etc). We've also been discussing creating a CD targeting the youth audience, with the message to shower for the length of a song, as the old 'take shorter showers' message isn't really getting through to this market. We're looking to bring on board local Youth Councils for input as well as some local youth bands. We may also make the CD interactive, so we can include further information. This is proving a lot of work however and may not be up and running till later this year. If you would like links to the websites of some of the products we have used, let me know. There is one site in particular that specialises in water saving products. Sorry for the essay length response, hope some of this helps....

Regards,
Laura Clyne

Water Communications Officer
Gosford City Council
49 Mann St, Gosford NSW 2250
Ph: (02) 4325 8973
Fax: (02) 4323 2225
Mobile: 0409 444 100
Email: [email protected]