According to the AP news wires, the World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring an H1N1 flu pandemic — the first in 41 years.

According to the report: “The move came Thursday as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

In a statement sent to member countries, WHO says it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, meaning that a global outbreak of swine flu has begun. The decision was made after the U.N. health agency held an emergency meeting on swine flu with its experts. The last flu pandemic was in 1968.

The pandemic declaration will require all countries, including the dozens that haven’t yet reported any cases, to launch pandemic-prevention plans.

Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the WHO based in Manila, noted that the term pandemic was “a measure of the spread of the virus, not the severity of the virus.” The virus’s effects are moderate at the moment, he noted. “But it’s still going to infect an awful lot of people.”

Just over half the world’s confirmed H1N1 cases, or 13,217, are in the U.S., including 27 deaths, according to the WHO.”

You can help your customers prevent the H1N1 flu virus from infecting them with imprinted hand sanitizers.

EcoMarketingSolutions.com has just slashed their prices on these sanitizers– wipes and spray misters–to do their part in helping to prevent the spread of this pandemic. Both are available for under a dollar –with your logo. These are great for trade shows, gift with purchase–or even for resale. Click here for details of these custom imprinted hand sanitizers.

Wash your hands, keep your fingers away from your mouth, and let’s all stay calm in fighting the H1N1 virus, formerly known as Swine Flu.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any company interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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According to a June 11th story by Kirk Ladendorf of the daily newspaper, AMERICAN-STATESMAN, Texas has become a leader in creating jobs tied to clean energy.

Pew Charitable Trusts researchers counted over 68,000 businesses and 770,000 jobs across the country tied to clean energy as of 2007, and determined that Texas ranked second to California in both jobs and clean-energy businesses.

Although those jobs amounted to .005% of the nation’s total, Pew researchers noted the “clean-energy sector grew twice as fast as the overall economy during the past decade and is poised for explosive growth in the coming years because of a surge in private investment in the sector and in federal government spending.”

According to the Statesman article, “Texas, long known for its strong ties to the oil and gas industry, is also a major player in clean energy, ranking second to California in numbers of businesses (4,802) and jobs (55,646) tied to the sector.”

“Texas is a leader in the clean-energy economy and a strong national performer,” said Kil Huh, who led the Pew study. “Texas is the sixth-largest producer of wind energy in the world. The state’s clean-energy economy is poised for incredible growth.”

Pew officials credited the state’s policies on renewable energy for playing an important part in its growth of wind power generation. The state also ranked third in clean-energy venture investments and fourth in clean-energy patents.

As more cities receive Federal Stimulus funds, they too can set their sights on becoming cleaner. Green energy will bring jobs, though it will most likely be a slow climb until it hits a critical mass–where it should grow exponentially as costs come down and a labor pool is retrained.

Here’s to a greener tomorrow…today.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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In order to become a greener organization, many companies are debating whether or not they need to produce a print catalog –or whether to become 100 percent digital.

Although every industry is different, the trend in most is definitely moving away from print and heavily toward electronic distribution of their advertising material.

If you are a green-friendly company, then there should be no hesitation. Our company, for example, has a limited number of catalogs printed for use at trade shows, but we have become more selective in the number of catalogs we print. In fact, for trade shows and direct mail efforts, we cut our full 68-page catalog down to only 8-pages. Good stewardship begins at home.

If you do decide to print a catalog, here are a few thoughts to consider:

1: Be sure paper is FSC-certified ––preferably FSC-recycled. For a list of FSC papers available in North America, click here.

2: Print fewer pages. Perhaps highlight only new products, specials, services, etc., then promote in the catalog a link for the balance of your items and offerings.

3: Use soy-based inks-rather than petroleum based inks. Many inks that are designed to run through a laser printer or ink jet printers, are soy-based, as they withstand a higher heating point made from the fuser roller. Many offset printing inks are also soy-based. Check with your printer.

To learn more about soy-based inks, visit the American Soybean Association web site.

Click here to see what types of inks can be certified as soy-based inks.

4: Put your catalog up on your website in page-flipping mode. We just recently put our new 68-page catalog online—with new page flipping technology, which is available from many vendors, including: page-flip.com, paperator.com and FlipCity.com.
To see our page-flip catalog using TechnoLogo software, go to www.ecomarketingsolutions.com. Then, on the left hand side of the page, click on the third bullet point from the bottom–Green Catalog-NEW.

5: Go with a self-mailer—Eliminate the envelope or plastic wrap by making the catalog into a self mailer. In this example, our 8-page catalog was printed at 8-1/2″ x 11″. The link opens to the front and back page. The back page folds over to 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ and was able to be sent at under 3.3 ounces, for maximum cost effectiveness. There was a place for the bulk indicia or for a bulk-rate stamp.

We also highlighted our website on every page, so customers would be able to notice it regardless of what page they turned to.

6: Put your entire catalog onto USB drives imprinted with your logo and website and send to clients and prospects. Many of our clients have used imprinted USB drives—even USB drives made from recycled materials, to hand out at trade shows and for post-show follow-ups. Not only does this save on printing costs, but on freight and drayage costs as well. Plus your client will think of your company in a more favorable light. With print-on-demand, the costs of the USB drives may actually be in your favor—and you can change them on an as-needed basis—updating prices, promoting new specials, etc.

Determining whether to go to a print catalog, an all-digital catalog, or some variation or hybrid can help shed new light on ways to improve the planet, while also helping to save you costs and promote your business in a new light.

Here’s to a greener planet.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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As energy prices begin to creep up again, one would think that Americans would be looking for simple, “no-brainer” ideas to reduce their consumption.

One of the easiest ways to cut electricity costs is to switch to CFL bulbs, compact fluorescent light bulbs—which work in a standard light socket. Replacing just 10 bulbs in a home or apartment can save 4700kWh of electricity—which is approximately enough energy to light the average house for two years. In fact, by replacing ten incandescent bulbs with 10 CFL bulbs can save nearly 2 tons of coal from being burned into the atmosphere – the equivalent to planting over 75 trees.

Yet, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, sales of compact fluorescents have dropped in the current recession, to 21% of total U.S. consumer light-bulb sales in 2008 from 23% in 2007, according to the DOE.

The article quotes Terry McGowan, of the American Lighting Association, a trade group, who says that the old incandescent bulb, invented by Thomas Edison in 1879, is highly inefficient, generating 90% heat and 10% light. “The only thing worse is a candle flame”, he says.

The CFL bulb has been around for years and produces the same amount of light as its incandescent ancestor with one-quarter the energy. It lasts for years, provides light in a wide array of hues, and, by lowering electricity bills, pays for itself in about seven months.

Studies say improving the efficiency of the light bulb is one of the simplest ways to start meaningfully curbing fossil-fuel consumption. Lighting accounts for some 20% of residential electricity use in the U.S. – way too much too waste. Yet about 80% of all bulbs sold to U.S. consumers are incandescent bulbs, which often cost less than 25 cents apiece, about one-tenth the price of a compact fluorescent.

Perhaps the article’s quote from a Wal-Mart customer named Betty Ferrell, best sums up the lack of CFL sales, when she says’ “I buy the cheap ones. They may not be cheap in the long run but they’re cheap for what I have in my purse now.”

In fact, Americans have been so reluctant to buy the new bulbs that the federal government is about to force their hand. A recent law will, in effect, ban incandescent bulbs for most uses by 2014.

The article quotes Arthur Rosenfeld, a physicist who headed a team of scientists at the federal government’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, that did some of the early development work on compact-fluorescent bulbs, “If energy is dirt cheap, it gets treated like dirt. That’s been the problem.”

As long as Americans wait for “the other guy” to do more than their share by recycling, driving energy efficient cars and reducing their carbon footprint, so that they don’t have to, they are forcing the government to step in with legislation.

Step up and replace your incandescent light bulbs with CFL bulbs—for a greener planet.

How many Americans does it take to change a light bulb? Not enough so far!

Save Energy-Replace Light bulbs with CFL bulbs

Click here to learn more about CFL from the US Dept. of Energy.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any company interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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Companies of all sizes use promotional products, also known as advertising specialties, gimmes, tschotchkes and swag. But have you ever thought about the impact on your brand that a simple imprinted gift can have?

The Archives of Internal Medicine published a comprehensive research study last week entitled “Effect of Exposure to Small Pharmaceutical Promotional Items on Treatment Preferences.” The goal was to find out whether or not ad specialties influenced the attitudes of medical students toward the products that were being marketed.

The findings: Yes they surely do.

Robert Piller, president of Eco Marketing Solutions, concurs, “People have a good feeling towards those companies that give away targeted promotional products. These items carry their brand, are used over and over again, and positively reinforce the brand to its recipient.”

Because of the tightening guidelines regarding the use of promotional products in the medical field, four doctors decided to attempt to find out if the restrictions were really necessary. Their premise was that you “often assume that small promotional items are unlikely to influence prescribing behavior,” says the report. This attitude is, according to their findings, incorrect.

According to the Counselor magazine, “they wanted to know: Do promotional products produce a more favorable attitude and do the policies against them work? The controlled experiment involved 352 third- and fourth-year med students at the University of Miami School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (where restrictive policies are in place limiting drug marketing). They were all exposed to branded Lipitor items without knowledge that they were part of a study. Fourth-year students at Miami had a more favorable attitude (by a score of 0.66) toward Lipitor compared to the control group (0.47). The scores were derived from an Implicit Association Test.”

These powerful results can be an eye opener for businesses that want their brand chosen over their competitors. Having branded promotional products surrounding the decision maker can be very cost effective. Keytags, magnets, water bottles, calendars—all with a company’s logo, will reach the buyer-in a subtle way –and positively impact your brand and message.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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It is estimated that over 20 million tons of plastic products are placed in US landfills each year. Unfortunately, according to the EPA, less than 5.3% of that total is being recycled. Typical petrochemical plastics would normally take from 100 to over 500 years to “biodegrade.”

However, with the addition of new compounds, these same plastic formulas biodegrade in a hundredth of that time or less—depending on the thickness of plastic.

Plastics manufactured with these FDA-approved additives will fully biodegrade in home compost heaps, commercial composting operations (both high heat and low heat, vermiculture process), buried in the ground, buried in landfills, tilled into the soil, having been littered, etc.

Eco Marketing Solutions offers a number of custom-imprinted biodegradable plastic items, such as sports bottles, key tags, pens, and flying discs. But what makes certain plastics biodegradable?

Fully biodegradable plastic products look like normal plastic products and have the same properties of plastic until placed into the waste stream. Best of all these products are offered at comparable prices to regular plastic products, all without changing the shelf life.

Plastic products manufactured with these additives will have the same life expectancy as the same plastic products manufactured without these additives under all conditions except under conditions where the product is in constant contact with other material that is biodegrading. For example, a water bottle manufactured with these additives will last in the warehouse and on the store shelf as long as it would without these additives.

The additive is made only from FDA recognized materials and processes regulated according to 21 CFR 175.300, 177.1200, 177.1350 and other sections and is compliant for use in applications with food contact.

Products with these new additives are “biodegradable” because they will biodegrade aerobically or anaerobically and without the need for additional reaction to heat, light or physical stress and therefore will biodegrade wherever there is other biodegradation occurring.

Plastic products manufactured with this additive can be recycled by both the manufacturer in their internal scrap regrind recycling and in post-consumer recycling programs – with no toxic residue.

Isn’t it time for you to demand that your plastic products are biodegradable? These additives are available, so help do your part in reducing landfill wastes by using biodegradable plastics –in promotional products and in your other supplies. Push your vendors to develop these products, as they cost no more than regular petroleum plastic –and they will help to reduce your carbon footprint.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com. You cn also follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ecomarketing.

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Green perceptions are greater than reality, according to new research findings from the Earthsense Eco-Insights Survey on how consumers perceive corporate environmental responsibility. Findings are based on Earthsense Business Indicator (EBI) metrics that identify companies which consumers see as sustainability leaders. They also identify the businesses consumers support based on eco-friendly products, and they track changes in perceptions over time.
As more and more companies of all sizes participate in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), firms need to try harder to stand out from their competition. Auditing firm KPMG reported a 30 percent jump from 2005 to 2008 in the percentage of large companies generating CSR reports; 79% of the world’s largest companies now provide this information in a publicly available form.
The impact of consumer perception on corporate reality is clear: if consumers don’t know about corporations’ sustainability initiatives, those efforts will not be fully realized.

How can a business do a better job of promoting their “green-ness”?
1. Avoid Greenwashing-Stick to the facts and don’t exaggerate claims.
2. Highlight what makes your company green …in your packaging, your advertising—your entire image.
3. Compare your degree of eco-friendliness to your competition.
4. Minimize packaging – Less is more.
5. Use eco-friendly promotional items at trade shows. A recycled pen or biodegradable sports bottle trumps a pen that will end up in the trash—and eventually the landfill.
6. Promote your company’s green accomplishments and achievements in press releases, website, catalogs, ads, etc. Singularity of purpose is crucial.
7. Get involved in recycling campaigns—at home and at work.
8. Drive a smaller car. As the automobile executives learned the hard way when they first appeared before Congress for a bailout, perception of economy goes a long way.
9. Encourage staff to wear clothing that is eco-friendly: organic, made of bamboo or recycled material, etc.

Click here to download the entire Earthsense Eco-Insights Survey, courtesy GreenBiz, the leading green online publication for businesses.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any company interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com. Twitter:ecomarketing

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Earth Day came and went quickly this year. It was fun. It generated a ton of media attention and interest all across the world.

But let’s face it–a one day celebration for honoring the planet seems too short — and a bit superficial. I am all for encouraging everyone to becoming more educated on becoming environmentally aware. However, a single day to learn about “becoming more green” will not really change people’s habits and make a significant difference in reducing ones carbon footprint.

As a marketing professional, I help many clients to implement and run loyalty/frequency promotions — and, bottom line, people are creatures of habit. Whether you are trying to quit smoking, beginning an exercise routine, or switching brands (of soap/sandwiches/gasoline/soda, etc.) — it takes 3-4 weeks of consistent behavior in order to truly change gears and learn new patterns of behavior, and develop new habits.

I propose a full Earth Month program where people practice a 30-day green behavior modification program. Plant trees, recycle, reduce paper usage, car pool, etc.

Not everyone will be successful for 30 days — but this behavior modification will have much more positive, lasting results than a one-day feel-good holiday.

Who’s in for 2010?
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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Do you ever stop and think before you print out a document how many trees were destroyed in the making of the paper?

I read some startling facts the other day from various sources, which noted that for every ton of paper made:
• 24 trees were chopped down.
• 40 thousand gallons of clean water were used during production.

In addition, among the byproducts from paper production”
• 5690 lbs of greenhouse gas will have entered the atmosphere.
• 20,000 gallons of waste water will be created.

Think twice before printing out your next email or computer file. Check how many pages a document will be in length — and see if you can reduce the font size, decrease the print margins, or just print out the first page or so.

Although the “paperless society” that was promised a decade ago has never materialized, you can do your part to reduce your paper consumption. It is the easiest place to start for a greener planet.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any company interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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Earth Day is 39 years old this year. What started out as a hippie, feel-good, Utopian idea has turned into a global event. Earth Day is celebrated by all walks of life–including individuals, government and businesses of all sizes.

In order to make this event more than a one-day publicity stunt, what can be done to turn this holiday into a more far-reaching movement?

Here are 10 no-cost or low-cost ways to promote Earth Day and make it a more lasting event.

1. Start a recycling program … and go out of your way to use it. Many cities have the big blue recycle dumpsters and a regular trash bin for their usage. Separate out the trash and really try to increase your recycled products by 20-25%.

At work, make it easy to recycle. Have different bins located throughout the business to make paper, plastic and aluminum bins readily available. Insist on 100% compliance–no paper should be tossed out –it should all be recycled.

2. Drive less. Combining trips based on proximity will not only reduce gasoline consumption, it will also save you time and reduce air pollution.

3. Carry reusable totes. The average reusable tote bag is used an average of nine times per month. Think about the reduction in the number of plastic or paper bags that can be made if every person used a reusable bag for all their shopping needs.

4. Choose reusable water bottles or mugs. Many quick serve restaurants and convenience stores will allow you to bring your own sports bottles for filling–and some will offer a discount in place of the cost of the cup. Some coffee chains or donut shops will also allow you to bring your own cup in for filling — which will reduce landfill waste.

5. Do not buy bottled soft drinks (including water). Use fountain drinks instead (in your reusable bottle) which are more economical to transport, as the water is added locally at the source–reducing gasoline consumption and minimizing its carbon footprint.

6. Start a vegetable garden. Whether you create an outdoor garden or an indoor herb garden, growing your own food is both rewarding, as well as eco-friendly. You will prevent pesticides from entering the water streams and you will develop a hobby that encourages a back-to-nature experience.

7. Support businesses that are environmentally-friendly. Whether they are local or national, businesses that are doing their part to become environmentally-friendly deserve your patronage. After all, if you don’t support them, who will.

8. Shop at local farmers markets. Not only will you be supporting local farmer and small family businesses, but you will be cutting back on buying produce which is often trucked in, or flown in, from other countries or states at a high cost of fuel usage.

9. Plant a tree. Yes, I know Arbor Day is only a few days after Earth Day, but you can never plant too many trees. A full grown tree can help convert about 600 pounds of pollutants into pure oxygen–the amount a family of four needs to breathe every year.

10. Talk to the kids. It takes a generation or two for any social change to take place. Think of civil rights, for example, of a social change that has taken nearly two generations to progress to the point where it is today. Educate the children, and within the next 15-25 years, the planet will become greener.

Happy Earth Day…and Beyond. Maybe next year will be Earth Week, then Earth Month, etc. If not officially recognized for more than one day, at least it can be celebrated all year long.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and read and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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