Last April, ASI Media launched Promo for the Planet, an online hub for sustainability news and education. Around the same time Top 40 supplier Polyconcept North America (PCNA, asi/78897) launched Proud Path, its sustainability and social responsibility initiative.

At the time, CEO Neil Ringel discussed Proud Path and what it would mean for the promo industry with Theresa Hegel, executive editor of digital content. Now, a year later, Hegel welcomed Holly Brown, PCNA’s chief revenue officer, and AJ Dickson, senior category director, to talk about Proud Path’s successes and the supplier’s plans for the future.

Brown notes that there’s nearly $20 billion being invested into corporate responsibility initiatives, and PCNA is helping distributors to be a part of that growing segment, with smartly sourced sustainable products. Dickson agrees: “At the end of the day, you want to have a reliable partner that you can come to back up [sustainability claims] and eliminate greenwashing from this industry.”

And, adds Brown, PCNA has no plans to slow down when it comes to sustainability. “This has become part of the DNA of our organization,” she says. “We have resources that are dedicated solely to these efforts going forward. We’ve made a lot of investments in terms of equipment and other things to make sure that we’re producing sustainably everything from the inks we use in our factories to the way that we do our packaging now.”