How do you know if a product truly has a lower impact on the environment? For the team at Dutch promo supplier XD Connects, it’s all about measuring its cradle-to-grave CO2 output and showing that it’s less than its conventional counterpart.

“If we claim that the products in our catalog are made of lower-impact materials,” says CEO Albert van der Veen, “then we have to prove it. If you cannot prove it, you cannot claim it.”

Otherwise, he adds, it becomes misleading greenwashing.

In this episode of Promo Insiders, van der Veen talks with ASI Media Executive Editor Theresa Hegel about the business decisions that make XD Connects, which was the first company honored for Counselor’s new Sustainability Advocate of the Year award, a leader in the eco movement.