Eco-Friendly Promotional Items: What to Check Before You Order
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An eco-friendly promotional item is one that is made from a documented lower-impact material, has no unnecessary plastic, and gets used for long enough to justify being made at all. Wood can meet all three, but only if the material is certified and the item is useful: an FSC-certified wooden keyring that lives on someone's keys for years is a lower-impact choice than a plastic pen that is thrown away in a week, and a wooden freebie nobody wants is not.
This guide sets out what to check before calling a promotional item eco-friendly, and how our wooden range measures up — including where it doesn't.
Four things to check
Is the material certified? "Sustainable wood" means nothing on its own. FSC certification is checkable: our oak products are FSC-certified oak veneered MDF and our bamboo products are FSC-certified Moso bamboo (certificate BV-COC-190523). Solid oak, birch plywood and slate items in our range are not FSC-certified, and we don't describe them as if they were.
Is there plastic in it? Our keyrings, coasters and name badges are wood with metal fittings — a split ring, a pin or a magnet — and orders are dispatched without plastic packaging.
Will it be used? The lowest-impact giveaway is the one that is kept. A keyring, a coaster or a name badge has a daily job; a novelty that has none ends up in landfill whatever it is made of.
Will the branding last? Laser engraving is cut into the surface and cannot rub off, so the item stays usable — and branded — for its whole life rather than looking tired after a month.
The honest caveats
Oak veneered MDF is a wood-fibre board bonded with resin, so it is not the same as solid timber; our guide is MDF sustainable? covers what that means. Wood is not automatically greener than every alternative either — durable metal or recycled-plastic items can make sense where they will be used for a long time. And Cherry Grove Craft is not itself an FSC certificate holder: the certification belongs to the materials we buy. If you need wording for a procurement or Green Key file, our guide to procurement evidence sets out what can and cannot be claimed.
Lower-impact promotional items we make
- Company and business keyrings and promotional keyrings
- Branded wooden coasters
- Wooden name badges
- Engraved wooden business signs
Everything is engraved to order in our workshop in North Wales, with bulk discounts applied automatically from 20 of the same product.
Frequently asked questions
Are wooden promotional items better for the environment than plastic?
Usually, when the wood is FSC-certified, the item contains no plastic and it is kept and used. A wooden item nobody uses is no better than a plastic one.
Which of your materials are FSC-certified?
Oak veneered MDF and Moso bamboo (certificate BV-COC-190523). Solid oak, birch plywood and slate are not.
Is the packaging plastic-free?
Yes — orders are dispatched without plastic packaging.