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Sustainability

Overture Promotions Plants 100,000 Trees

The Top 40 distributor, which started a tree-planting initiative with Ecologi in 2022, recently reached a milestone in its carbon offset efforts.

100,000 – that’s the number of trees Top 40 distributor Overture Promotions (asi/288473) has planted since October 2022, when it launched a partnership with climate-action platform Ecologi.

It’s a milestone that Overture says underscores its commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship. The tree-planting initiative is focused on mitigating the impacts of climate change through carbon-emission offsets. With every order over $20, Overture has a tree planted by an Ecologi reforestation partner, which hires and trains local people to plant new, native tree species.

planting tree

To date, Ecologi, a certified B Corp, said it has helped its 43,000-plus members plant 78.5 million trees and avoid 3 million tons of CO2 emissions.

“Overture is fully committed to doing everything we can to mitigate our impact on the planet,” said Jo Gilley, CEO and a member of Counselor’s Power 50 list of the most influential people in the promo industry. “We love that our partnership with Ecologi creates jobs and enables our customers to take action with us.”

The tree-planting milestone comes a few months after the Waukegan, IL-based distributor received a Silver rating from EcoVadis, a globally recognized assessment platform that rates businesses’ sustainability based on environmental impact, labor and human rights standards, ethics, and procurement practices. Overture is in the 88th percentile of audited companies.

In the past year, Overture said it has made significant investments in sustainability-related improvements at its headquarters, including the installation of smart LED lighting to reduce energy consumption; an automated screen-print reclamation system, which reduces water and chemicals required to remove ink and emulsion from screens so they can be reused; two water bottle refill stations to eliminate single-use plastics at its headquarters; and a robust recycling program, largely focused on corrugate materials, with an annual recycling volume of 140 tons. The distributor is also in the process of hiring for a new position focused on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues.

A certified minority-owned and woman-led distributor, Overture ranked 22nd on Counselor’s most recent list of the top distributors in the industry, with 2022 North American promotional products revenue of $121.1 million.

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