SPONSORED CONTENT How Koozie Group Keeps The Good Going Through Industry-Leading Sustainability Efforts FIVE YEARS AGO, when Koozie Group (PPAI 114187, Platinum) introduced its initial Keep It. Give It.™ social responsibility and sustainability goals, the company wasn’t following the crowd – it was far ahead of it. Since then, the Tampa, Florida-based supplier has led the way in sustainable products and practices, earning certified CarbonNeutral® company status in September 2023. In December 2024, it announced that eight of its most popular writing instruments had achieved CarbonNeutral® product certification, including the best-selling BIC® Clic Stic® Pen. “The next step in our carbon-neutral journey felt like a natural one: gaining certification for individual products,” says Koozie Group® CEO Pierre Montaubin. “Starting with the carbon footprint of the pens we manufacture in-house made sense as we’d already gathered much of that data for our companylevel certification.” For distributors looking for products with a small carbon footprint and a low environmental impact, these eight pens mark a shift in the right direction. Distributors won’t notice any changes in the look or feel of these pens as no material nor machine changes were made to the products in achieving carbon neutrality. Each can be imprinted with a CO2 neutral logo, and even better, there has been no price increase due to the certification. Carbon neutrality is achieved by calculating a carbon footprint and reducing it to zero through a combination of manufacturing efficiencies and offsetting any emissions that cannot be reduced. Achieving this revolutionary status involved close collaboration with a specialist in carbon market solutions, Climate Impact Partners, along with an independent assessment of all Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions generated by each writing instrument made inhouse. This cradle-to-grave examination calculated the impact of each stage of the product’s lifecycle from creation of its components through manufacturing, transportation, product use and disposal. Koozie Group then offset unavoidable emissions by purchasing high-quality carbon credits. All these projects were independently verified to ensure emission reductions are occurring and that they have an immediate, positive impact on the climate. The supplier worked with separate companies on the assessment and offset projects to avoid any conflict of interest. The company plans to continue expanding its selection of carbon-neutral products and expects to eventually add all its domestically produced items to the list. “Koozie Group has been and continues to be a leader in the promo industry when it comes to sustainability,” says Victoria Sierra, Koozie Group® compliance manager. “We believe we’re the first in the industry to assess cradle-to-grave emissions for hardgoods.” Along with Koozie Group’s industryleading commitment to product safety, social responsibility, supply chain security and environmental stewardship, it sells more than 1,900 products that carry its KG Factor designation, which identifies products that lessen environmental impact through longevity, and the company’s domestic factories are Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified and/or Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) certified as well. PPAI • MARCH 2025 • 41
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