Innovation

EcoPlum provides companies and individuals with sustainable promotional products such as apparel, bags, office supplies, food products, and more. All of its products are great quality, sustainable, innovative, and a great alternative to traditional promotional products. This innovation is related to its mission which is to “help buyers like you make responsible choices on your branded gifts and elevate your marketing practices in a more sustainable direction.” EcoPlum's mission highlights how the company seeks to ensure that the businesses which buy products from them are able to brand themselves in a sustainable way.

These products help to provide EcoPlum's customers with a clear conscience, knowing that their form of consumption is not going to harm our environment. The people involved in this specific innovation are Gia Machlin and her team of employees. Overall, EcoPlum focuses on sourcing products from vendors that don't create their products with virgin materials, since that would be contrary to its mission. The company is committed to ensuring that its products are the best for the environment as well as for its vendors.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this innovation came from the climate crisis. Gia became more informed and knowledgeable about the climate crisis and wanted to be able to make more responsible choices. This led Gia Machlin to create EcoPlum as a startup, where she wanted to make her life and the lives of others more sustainable. With a background in consulting and healthcare management, the CEO had a great deal of experience in the business world. While this wasn’t Gia’s first startup, it definitely was a startup for which she didn’t have a lot of technical or specific experience in this industry.

Gia knew that this business would benefit a lot of companies and our planet as well. The main motivation or purpose for this innovation was to “Educate organizations to make responsible choices,” as stated by Gia, which has definitely been achieved. What inspires the interviewee about the innovation is how she makes positive changes within our environment every day. The innovation relates to a sense of purpose because EcoPlum has clear reasons for why it does what it does. These reasons are to help the earth we live on and hope that through this innovation we are able to expand our time on it.

Overall impact

EcoPlum has been able to educate many companies on how to make better purchasing decisions. The short-term effects Gia Machlin mentioned are: “We have definitely educated a lot of buyers and organizations about sustainable choices, and what is available out there as an alternative to traditional promotional products.” Eco Plum allows companies to have better alternatives and by simply educating them, it has allowed numerous companies to reduce their waste through their partnership with EcoPlum. One of the long-term effects EcoPlum has made is how they helped reduce the amount of unsustainable consumption by bringing attention to these issues in the promotional products industry overall.

Gia Machlin states, “For the long term we are hoping to get people away from having so many things and hoping to reduce consumerism. And when you do have to have something, make sure it’s something that was out there before, and that the product is not made from virgin materials.” EcoPlum not only focuses on educating businesses, but also is trying to change the mentality that companies have overall when it comes to purchasing products. Both of these effects have allowed companies to reduce consumption and the production of these other harmful alternatives by purchasing products from the EcoPlum line.

Business benefit

EcoPlum benefits as a business through this innovation because it not only educates consumers but also educates its employees as individuals. EcoPlum educates its employees on ways to reduce consumption and on what companies/vendors provide sustainable products that they can use as well. In turn, the employees are able to partner up and learn about different businesses/vendors that provide or need sustainable products, and form a connection with them. Through their affiliation with sustainable products, EcoPlum and its employees have become part of a huge sustainability community.

With the climate crisis becoming a huge challenge as well as an opportunity, EcoPlum entered the market at the perfect time. Since these types of products were in such high demand, it was able to help companies make better decisions and become profitable. The promotional products are a $23 billion industry and EcoPlum knew it was going to make money, but also help companies make good choices. Overall, the benefits are endless through a combination of mindful consumption and helping the environment through selling these products.

Social and environmental benefit

The way that these sustainable promotional products benefit our society/environment is simply by reducing the amount of consumer waste we produce and consume. As mentioned through its website EcoPlum shows several examples of the waste that we as humans put on our Earth:

• Americans discard 33.6 million tons of plastic a year
• An estimated 28 million tons go into our landfills
• It takes plastic up to 1000 years to decompose
• Only 6.5% of discarded plastic gets recycled

One hundred million tons of plastic debris float around in our oceans, kill birds and fish, and makes its way into our food stream.

Through EcoPlum’s innovation, it is able to guide its customers in substantially reducing some of this waste. Through sourcing ethically, EcoPlum is able to allow companies to make better decisions by being conscious of what they buy and put out to consumers. The CEO Gia Machlin also states how conscious they are with creating their products, sustainably and ethically and making sure the products that it selects fit their mission. Gia stated, “We are very conscious that every single product that we sell has to meet one of our 12 sustainability criteria. This criteria includes focusing on products that have organic ingredients, are recycled, biodegradable, fair trade, renewable, artisan, made in the USA, vegan, women/minority-owned, non-toxic, and certified." All these factors in its criteria ensures that the company sells only the best products. EcoPlum empowers consumers to educate themselves on the impact of the things they purchase, and also on ways to reduce consumption in a capitalist society. Ultimately, EcoPlum has made a huge contribution to our understanding of what each of us can do to make the necessary changes in the climate crisis we are facing.

Interview

Gia Machlin, President & CEO