It’s not easy being green, but Grand & Toy is trying to simplify things just a bit more for businesses.
Launched at the beginning of April, which is Earth Month, the office supply company’s new Greener Office Initiative features an online catalogue that aims to make choosing environmentally responsibly products easier.
Adopted from a similar program in the U.S. from affiliated company Office Depot, the program includes “shades of green” – a way of colour coding products to show how environmentally friendly they are, ranging from light green (with at least one eco-attribute) to mid green and dark green. Green product attributes include having partially recycled materials, being rechargeable, being energy efficient, compostable or chlorine-free, among others.
The idea was to provide an easy interface for customers to choose green products, which has now become critical for most businesses, says Gaurav Sharma, senior director of marketing and e-commerce for the brand. “More and more organizations are realizing that sustainability is no longer a commitment but more of a corporate obligation,” he says.
While the store’s competitors also offer green products, the Greener Office Initiative is an attempt to make shopping exclusively for those kinds of products as simple as possible. “Our primary goal is to be more customer-centric and help our customers achieve their sustainability goals.”
The brand is promoting the new option through its website navigation with a “Go Green” button – an important aspect, since the site gets roughly 500,000 visits per month, Sharma notes. It’s also promoting the option to businesses through direct mail and email.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
