Make Green the New Black with Sustainable Branding Ideas

Julie Starr • August 30, 2024

Branding can be hard enough to achieve. Throw sustainability into the mix, and things will become much more complex. But sustainable branding isn’t impossible with a step in the right direction. There are systematic changes your business must make, such as reorganizing core company strategies. However, it isn’t too challenging with the right frameworks. From partnering with green suppliers to modernizing brand culture, here are some planet-saving suggestions.


Installing Commercial Accessories 

Grassroots branding is about getting your name out there to be associated with a particular product or service. Everything you do needs to scream quality and opportunity. Traditional branding includes logo placement, which occurs across multiple media. This includes TV, radio and print. But there are also accessories such as signs and even awnings. Patio Shades offers sustainable commercial solutions at https://patioshadesretractableawnings.com/commercial/. 


Finding Green Partners

Partners can make or break a business. When it comes to modernization via sustainable efforts, partners are much more exclusive and essential. Balancing your waste against production or offsetting carbon, for example, can rely on what your partners do just as much or more than your company. Partners with solid sustainability values are much more likely to reinforce the authenticity of your branding efforts in a sustainable way, and you can leverage the marketing.


Sustainable Branding through Ethical Sourcing

Much like finding reliable green partners, ethical sourcing can become a valued and essential part of your company’s branding. More than a gimmick or marketing tool, ethical sourcing has a direct impact on the planet, place, and people. A study from the University of Michigan concluded that US choosing-made products over imports can reduce carbon emissions by 21%. Yet there are also knock-on effects on local environments, economies, and even culture.


Cultivating Sustainable Brand Culture

Further to culture, your brand culture plays a core role in marketing and branding in a sustainable way. Without inherent positive qualities, your company will be set for failure on critical sustainability issues. This includes greenwashing when you should be focusing on real change that contributes to authentic sustainability. This ensures your business genuinely helps the planet and people, and customers are also able to see through thin promises and goals.


Measure and Manage Sustainability

So, how can you tell if your efforts are having a positive or negative impact? There are many tools you can use for data these days, including AI. Measuring performance allows you to optimize your actions. You can relay this through all public channels as part of a more sustainable brand effort. Some examples include conducting surveys, using recognized ESG frameworks such as SASB and GRI, and referring back to data for positive decisions.


Summary

The traditional routes of marketing are still part of sustainable branding. You can use eco-friendly print media and signage. Ethical sourcing of materials and products that sustain your business will help sustain other local partners, too, with a positive impact. Yet all your efforts are for nothing without action. Measuring and managing sustainability plans using data will help you grow. You can always refer back to this data to make positive decisions moving on.

5 Everyday Items That Can Quietly Boost Your Brand

By Julie Starr • July 17, 2025
The best branding doesn’t always come from big campaigns or expensive graphics. Sometimes it’s the smaller stuff that leaves the biggest impression. Things people actually use, touch, or carry with them. That’s where your brand can quietly make its mark without needing to shout about it. If you’re only focusing on social media and business cards, you’re leaving a lot on the table. Here are five overlooked ways to get your name out there that feel natural, useful, and more personal. Thank-you slips If you’re already sending out orders, there’s no reason not to include a short thank-you slip. You can easily get these made through any decent online print shop , and they’re usually pretty cheap to run off in small batches. Just a simple note that says thanks, maybe with a reminder to follow you online or a cheeky discount code for next time. It’s quick, thoughtful, and makes the whole order feel more finished. Customers notice that kind of detail, especially when everything else they buy online comes with zero personality. You don’t need a complicated design either. Just something clean with your logo, a message that sounds like you, and maybe a social handle. The point is to give them a reason to come back or remember your name without it feeling forced. Branded zip pouches If you sell physical products, offer services, or run events, small zip pouches are surprisingly effective. Think of the kind you’d use for stationery, receipts, or travel bits. You can get your brand printed on the side and hand them out with purchases or include them in welcome packs. People keep them because they’re actually useful. They get tossed in handbags, school bags, or glove boxes and your logo just keeps turning up. Cleaning cloths for glasses or screens This one works brilliantly if you’re in tech, health, beauty, or anything involving screens or eyewear. A simple microfibre cloth with your branding on it can go a long way. Everyone needs one. Whether they use it for glasses, a phone screen, or their laptop, it’s something they hang onto. It’s not the kind of thing people throw away, and that means your name sticks around too. Receipt envelopes You might already use little envelopes to hand over receipts or business cards. Branding those envelopes is a small change that makes a big difference. Instead of someone getting a scruffy bit of paper in a plain sleeve, they’re handed something that feels a bit more finished. You can even add a message inside. Doesn’t need to be anything dramatic. A simple “thanks for visiting” or “see you next time” is enough to add a personal touch. Wet wipes or mini hand gels If your business is in hospitality, food, or anything hands-on, branded wet wipes or pocket-sized hand gels are surprisingly popular. People actually use them, especially at festivals, food stalls, pop-ups, or kids’ events. They end up in handbags or cars and stick around longer than you think. They don’t scream “marketing” either. They’re practical, and when done right, they make your business feel thoughtful. That’s what good branding does, it shows you’ve thought ahead.

How Student-Led ‘Energy Audits’ Are Cutting School Costs (and Lighting the Way Forward)

By Julie Starr • July 14, 2025
What happens when students stop waiting for adults to fix things and start conducting their own energy audits? Money gets saved. The lights get switched off. Data gets analyzed. And a quiet revolution in sustainability begins—inside schools that once overlooked their own inefficiencies. Across the globe, student-led energy audits are proving that change doesn't always need to come from a policy shift or a major capital budget. Sometimes, it begins with a clipboard, a spreadsheet, and a group of curious minds asking: Why are the hallway lights on at noon when sunlight floods the building? The Energy Detectives These audits aren’t science fair projects. They’re rigorous investigations, often done in collaboration with facilities staff, local environmental nonprofits, or even engineering mentors. Students go from classroom to classroom measuring electricity usage, checking for phantom loads , and identifying where heat is escaping in winter or air conditioning is leaking in summer. One high school in Ontario saved over $12,000 a year after its Grade 11 physics students ran an energy audit and suggested simple changes—LED upgrades, motion sensors in bathrooms, and smarter heating schedules. They didn’t just propose ideas. They pitched them with spreadsheets, thermal images, and payback timelines. It worked. Learning That Pays Off—Literally Unlike textbook learning, these audits blend real-world math, environmental science, economics, and persuasive communication. Students aren’t just learning about sustainability. They’re doing it. And the savings add up. From dimming overlit hallways to reprogramming HVAC systems that run all weekend for empty buildings, students are surfacing blind spots that administrators often overlook. In some districts, their findings are influencing energy policy. Elsewhere, the audits have inspired school boards to hire sustainability coordinators—often alumni of the student programs themselves. There’s something poetic about a school funding new books or laptops from money saved by students who found out the vending machines didn’t need to be plugged in 24/7. Why This Matters More Than Ever With education budgets tightening and utility costs rising, every dollar saved is a dollar that can go back into classrooms. And here’s where it gets interesting from a family finance perspective, too. If you’re a parent setting aside money for post-secondary savings, every bit of school efficiency helps. Fewer energy costs might mean more programming, better STEM facilities, or even bursaries. That raises a broader point: when families save for their children’s future, they often look into RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans). And many wonder—is a RESP deduction available on my taxes? While contributions themselves aren’t deductible, the gains grow tax-free, and students often pay little to no tax when they withdraw the funds during school. A Movement Worth Replicating These audits aren’t just an exercise in environmentalism. They’re leadership labs. Students learn how to spot inefficiencies, speak up in board meetings, and make a business case for change. They don’t just flip switches—they shift mindsets. And they carry these habits into adulthood. The result? A generation growing up not only with climate anxiety, but also with tools to tackle it.