PLAY | CORPORATE GIFTING
biggest businesses – among them Google , Microsoft , and Amazon – through both their procurement and sustainability initiatives .
Using the ClimateCost Index , a proprietary and accredited Scope 3 metric created by Lou and her team , Coolperx helps clients ascertain a holistic and highly accurate analysis of their environmental and brand impact and make informed swag procurement decisions . The company is also the first online B2B gift and brand merchandise marketplace for worthy manufacturers to sell their products to corporate clients .
“ Currently , only 21 % of typical swag products are kept by recipients for any length of time ,” declares Lou , who was listed as one of the Top 100 Trailblazing Entrepreneurs of 2021 by the Enterprise League .
“ This is not only a stark lack of ROI , but it ’ s a huge liability for brands . When a company makes public statements about its commitment to environmental sustainability and then turns around and distributes meaningless , toxic swag to its community , it is engaging in a particularly egregious form of greenwashing and destroying credibility .”
Lou tells Business Chief that as a society , we have steadily increased our fixation on consumerism , and the tradition of giftgiving has been taken to the extreme as an overt symbol of over-consumption . “ Instead of gifting people carefully selected items , companies all too often opt for cheap , plastic products that the intended recipients will keep for a few months , if even that .
“ But we ’ ve now reached a tipping point . Consumers and employees want to support companies that live up to their commitments to the planet , including in their corporate gift-giving practices .”
“ The corporate gifting market continues to show healthy growth , due largely to organisations expanding gifting beyond the holidays to year-round occasions ”
Steven Winnick Senior Analyst , Head of Innovation , Coresight Research
90 March 2023