Lights, clothes, feasts, action! The festive season is here. And with the return to some normalcy after two years of pandemic restrictions, the excitement to celebrate is palpable.
Exchanging gifts is not limited to family and friends alone. Giving gifts has become an intrinsic part of the corporate culture. Post-pandemic, companies are dealing with employees reluctant to return to the office on the one hand and ‘moonlighting’ on the other. The mental health and well-being of the workforce are key concerns with ‘quiet quitting’ or simply quitting becoming commonplace.
In this environment, gifting is an opportunity for organisations to motivate their teams, increase brand goodwill and drive engagement with employees, as well as with their business associates and customers.
As individuals increasingly seek purpose in the work they do and organisations they work for, giving gifts that are meaningful, thoughtful, and sustainable can help foster corporate values of putting people and the planet first.
Gifts That Matter
We have all received gifts from various companies that we’ve tossed aside without a second thought as they are impersonal and meaningless.
Ethical, planet-friendly gifts, on the other hand, make a statement about the values the organisation espouses which, in turn, instill a sense of belonging and pride among the recipients.
Choosing to give useful gifts from sustainable brands shows that thought and care have gone into this exercise. Besides, most eco-friendly gifts are locally made by small industries and artisans and support livelihood. Since you’re likely to buy large quantities for your company, it’s a significant income for local craftsmen, especially during the festive season.
Here are some ways in which you can use the annual corporate gifting as an opportunity to showcase your commitment to the environment, communicate the message of sustainability, and spread abundant joy!
- Choose Local, Sustainable Brands
Give a pass to the mass-produced cheap electronic or plastic products and choose thoughtfully curated gift boxes from sustainable brands. Many brands now offer gifts made entirely from recycled materials, while others have zero plastic in their products and packaging. There are eco-conscious brands that work with local communities to create innovative, often handmade products. No matter what you choose, your choice will be a low-impact one.
Explore the many interesting options available before finalising your gift. Stone Soup offers green gifts that support livelihood. Choose from their wide variety of chemical-free personal care products, upcycled bags, home composting kits and forest produce. Gift Abled, with a vision to build an inclusive world where people with disabilities find equal opportunity, offers a slew of corporate swags and hampers with handcrafted goodies. The non-profit WWF-India offers paper products like journals and calendars made from responsibly sourced paper and, with proceeds supporting the conservation organisation’s work in India, these truly make for gifts that give back!
If chocolates are your thing, consider the gift hampers by Kocoatrait, which claims to be India’s first sustainable and zero-waste chocolate brand. WorkshopQ is a studio that specialises in upcycling waste into everything from giant installations to utility items for corporate gifting.
Source: WorkshopQ catalogue
- Be Thoughtful And Conscious
It helps to give some thought to every aspect of the gift. Will your employees/ associates appreciate the gifts? Is the gift gender neutral and appropriate? Is it useful and will be for a long time instead of getting discarded quickly? Is it low-waste in terms of boxing and packaging?
When companies consciously think about these questions, it allows them to make gifting meaningful while reinforcing the brand values.
Several brands have done the hard work of thinking through it all, so that you can be assured of sustainability in sourcing, production, raw materials, and packaging when you buy from them! Bare Necessities, which has featured often in our stories, offers a range of zero-waste gift bundles that are unique, as well as ethically sourced and packed. Loopify, whose website reads: 100% joy, 0% plastic, has sustainable and customisable gift hampers for all budgets. Brown Living is another one-stop-shop that offers a range of plastic-free and Earth-friendly products, from stationery to bamboo products to non-toxic candles and more, from various sustainable brands.
Source: Loopify
- Planting Trees is Always A Good Idea
According to Forbes, the corporate gifting market, from a $125 billion industry in 2018, reached $242 billion last year and continues to grow at an accelerated 8.1% CAGR through 2024. Even a fraction of this directed towards planting trees can make for far-reaching impact!
Planting and digitally gifting trees is a low-cost activity. And with several social enterprises and NGOs engaged in planting trees, this is also virtually effortless! When you pledge money for a tree on behalf of your employees and customers to organisations, you contribute towards afforestation at a cost that is usually less than a cup of coffee at a café.
When you pledge money for a tree on behalf of your employees and customers to organisations, you contribute towards afforestation at a cost that is usually less than a cup of coffee at a café.
The organisations plant and look after the tree. Gifting a tree, that grows for years and gives back to the environment in innumerable ways, is not just a zero-waste but a net-positive gift. And no gift can be more thoughtful!
With their customised programs for corporates, be it for CSR or carbon offset, along with a pan-India presence, SankalpTaru has been a partner of choice for many organisations for their tree planting initiatives. Grow Trees is another social enterprise that enables companies to not only plant trees to support projects of choice, but to also honour customers, employees, dealers, and stakeholders with trees through personalized co-branded eTreeCertificates™. WWF-India’s Adopt-A-Tree program and Reforest India are some of the other options worth exploring.
Source: Grow-Trees
- Start Early And Research Well
An easy way to reduce your carbon footprint and ensuring sustainable gifting that goes beyond the gift is to budget and start early. Starting early helps avoid the need for expedited shipping, which often means more trips by delivery trucks. If you plan early, you can also spend time researching for legit sustainable brands, look for thoughtful and ethically sourced gifts, customise and personalise your gifts if need be, and consolidate your items into fewer deliveries. A bit more time for research means fewer panic purchases of items likely to be returned later and more informed decisions against greenwashed products.
- Avoid The Wrap Trap
Finally, don’t forget the wrapping paper. Actually, forget the wrapping paper! According to one estimate, the global gift wrapping market was at $16 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $ 35 billion by 2028. Most of that paper ends up in landfills because a lot of it is plastic that can’t be recycled.
Consider using the paper lying around in your office, upcycling the packaging you may already have and utilising old newspapers. Or just pack the gifts in reusable boxes or paper bags with a note requesting your employees to use them further.
Being Mindful And Purpose-Driven
While the idea of sustainability might sound intimidating, transitioning into low-waste practices both personally and in the professional space is mostly about taking small, meaningful steps that add up to a big impact!
Whether you’re an employer of hundreds, the proud owner of a small business or even an employee, leading by example goes a long way in inculcating a low-waste culture. By consciously supporting local, sustainable and ethical brands for their annual gifting, employee engagement, events and conferences and other such opportunities, the decision-makers in corporate organisations can involve their employees and associates in purposeful conversations.
So this festive season, celebrate big but with a little bit of mindfulness!
To know more about how you can encourage green practices in the office, read our detailed piece on staying plastic-free at the workplace here.
