Promotional items are notorious for generating useless waste. So if you’re going to buy 20,000 of something to give away, why not do it right? This is a great resource that we’re definitely going to use: http://ecoimprints.logomall.com/default.aspx

Thanks, Brandflakes.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

I have been seriously enamored with the concept and culture of this business since I first learned about it months ago, but EJ pointed out a new program that made me fall in love with them all over again. She sent me this link for TerraCycle Brigades: http://www.terracycle.net/brigades/

TerraCycle Brigades is a movement where TerraCycle brings the masses together to collect specific waste products such as corks, empty drink pouches and plastic bottles. But they don’t stop there. They sweeten the pot by giving cash back for each specific item collected. This refund is funded in part by generous corporate sponsors like Nabisco and Stonyfield Farms.

TerraCycle in turn creates products that we all need out of these items that used to be considered garbage. They call it upcycling. I think it’s a brilliant idea and I really think it’s going to go somewhere. Consider the potential when large organizations like school systems, corporations, even cities and states get behind this effort…

Here is a video with TerraCycle’s own Tom Szaky explaining the magnitude of the Bottle Brigade program that they’ve been working on:

Great find, EJ. Thanks for the tip!

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Thanks to Beth Brady for passing along a very cool video about a British graffiti artist named Moose who has made his mark by creating clean graffiti. Clean graffiti, often referred to as reverse graffiti, is a method in which he finds extremely dirty urban surfaces and strategically cleans areas of them to form art, such as what you see here:

We enjoy this method because it isn’t harmful to the environment but also because It tends to draw more attention to just how much of a negative impact we each have on our environment if we’re not careful. The more we’re aware of the problem, the closer we are to a solution. Plus it looks super-cool!

The video you will see below is from http://www.reversegraffitiproject.com and is actually a cleverly disguised guerilla marketing campaign done by Clorox for their Green Works line of products. I think the promotion fits well with the product, and will definitely resonate with the Green Works target.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

As a design + visual communications firm that still does quite a bit of print work, we tend to be very strategic in crafting direct mail strategies for our clients. We want to first ensure that the purpose of the piece will be accomplished by our creative work, meaning that our advertising objective is met and the consumer is motivated to act. We also want to be sure to avoid creating wasteful junk mail, because as you know, we believe in integrating sustainable choices into marketing programs.

That’s why a recent mailing I received from the Internal Revenue Service kind of threw me for a loop. Now I love getting mail from the IRS as much as the next guy, but I recently received a letter that had some good news. It was in my mailbox when I returned home on 6.15 and if I may paraphrase said something to the effect of:

Hi. You are going to be getting an economic stimulus payment of $x. You can expect it to arrive in your mailbox by 6.20. If you have any questions, give us a holler. Ok, bye.

Now, I’m not saying there wasn’t a reason for this mailer. But was there? I seriously could have waited another five days without hearing from the IRS, especially since I had been waiting since early May-ish for the check to arrive. Five more days wouldn’t have upset me one bit.

To add insult to injury, 6.20 came and went and still no stimulus check! Had I not received the letter in the first place I wouldn’t have anticipated it to come then - go figure! So it makes me wonder even more whether or not this was a smart direct mail strategy on the part of the US Government.

According to sources, as many as 116,000,000 checks will be mailed out - which means that it’s possible that 116,000,000 extra pieces of mail will have been sent out letting folks know their check is a few days away. I wonder how many trees could have been saved? And fuel in mail trucks? And taxpayer dollars?

Just food for thought…But I’d love to hear what you all think. I’m guessing that if there’s any sort of explanation, it’s probably that there’s a law somewhere that says the Federal Government has to notify folks that a refund is coming their way.

If you’d like to read more about junk mail and the fight to rid the world of it - go here: http://www.donotmail.org.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

I’ve been really busy lately developing a proposal for some work for a really great higher learning institution, but I’m happy (relieved) to say that I’m finally finished. I’m really happy with the way it turned out and pumped about our chances. I hope to have more news on this in the next month or so…

In the past couple of days I have seen a couple really great links that I wanted to share. Both are related to some really strong, marketable business concepts. The first is a company called Rmbrme. You can visit their site HERE, but essentially it’s a text messaging service that is aiming to replace the modern business card. To use Rmbrme you sign up for an account and link your social media sites to your account. That way, when you meet someone at an event, you can simply ask for their email address, which you then text to Rmbrme. The person whom you’ve just met then gets an email from Rmbrme with links to all your social networking sites. I’m probably hacking the description Go to their site to learn more, or read an interview with Gabe Zichermann at Sustainable Life Media HERE.

I also heard a story about a new business out of Ireland that’s headed to Maryland that I wanted to pass along. Wavebob (what an amazing name) has picked Annapolis for its new US headquarters, which is pretty exciting. Wavebob has a technology that harnesses the energy generated by waves and turns it into usable power. What a great idea - just like Ze-Gen, which I wrote about this morning, Wavebob turns something that is wasted into something that is usable. We love that kind of stuff. Welcome to Maryland, Wavebob. We’ve been waiting for you.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com/

Aaron passed me a link this morning that got me pretty excited. It’s about a technology that I didn’t really know much about, but that looks really promising for generating energy in an efficient, clean way using municipal solid waste (garbage) and construction and development waste.

It seems our friend and former client Jason Hardebeck, has recently been appointed Director of Market Development for a company called Ze-Gen, that is the leader in bringing this technology mainstream.

Here’s a cool clip from their recent stint on the hit show Invention Nation on the Discovery Channel that helps shed some light on what these folks are bringing to the table:

Nice job, Jason. Good luck spreading the word about this technology - it looks very promising!

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com/