The past decade has seen huge strides for the branded merchandise industry when it comes to offering sustainable products. That information alone is likely too broad to do anything with if you’re an individual company, at least from an informed decision standpoint.
But what has actually been driving that increase in sustainability? That’s the data that both distributors and suppliers may view as more reliable indicators of where the industry is headed when it comes to ESG decision-making.
Fortunately, that was a data point that was analyzed as part of the comprehensive, year-long sustainability study carried out by consultancy firm WAP and commissioned by PPAI.
- To find out more about the ‘Who/What/Why’ of the WAP study, click here.
- To learn about the Double Materiality Assessment the WAP study introduced, click here.
The following results are broken down between both suppliers and distributors surveyed by WAP with more than 160 different branded merch companies participating to discuss the priorities that drove them to incorporate sustainability into their business operations and product offerings.
- As you can see, customer/client demand is the largest driver for sustainability for both distributors and suppliers, which means it’s an external demand.
- Still, corporate values come in as the second-leading reason, which is theoretically something that should not be changed by external circumstances.
- After that, industry leadership or reputation is reported to play a big hand in driving these choices. What peers do and how they model success in sustainability moves forward many companies’ initial processes in sustainability.
These drivers vary in their origins, and according to Emma McMahon, senior sustainability manager at WAP and project leader on this study, that’s related to the unique way branded merch is situated between different parties, all with potential interests in sustainability.
“Where the industry sits in the value chain, you’re not direct-to-consumer, so you’re not all the way there getting the consumer pressure, nor are you at the very start of the value chain extracting resources from the environment,” says McMahon. “Which means that you are getting unique pressures from both sides. That really shows through in our research.”
Emma McMahon
Senior Sustainability Manager, WAP Consulting
What Can PPAI Do To Help?
When you take any given sustainability driver in a vacuum, there are also any number of obstacles or factors that might make that particular driver more or less likely to lead to successful adoption of sustainable practices. WAP’s analysis went a step further, taking each sustainability driver and surveying branded merch firms to find out the support needs that line up with those drivers.
Cross-analysis between support needs and drivers:
This kind of analysis, compiled over the course of 2025, has allowed PPAI to strategize more targeted, actionable support in areas of need that correlate directly with the sustainability drivers that have proven most statistically valuable.
You can see the results of that data through initiatives PPAI has taken, such as:
- A greater focus on environmental impact measurement and reduction (i.e. carbon accounting, CAS 330 courses in PPAI Advance, carbon reduction webinars, circularity case studies, etc.)
- First of its kind joint PPAI-ASI carbon impact study
- A Practical Guide to Circular Thinking in Promo
- Waste free PPAI Expo and carbon neutral events
Stay tuned for more of WAP’s sustainability data to be rolled out through PPAI Media and other PPAI channels.
Read The Full Reports Here:
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