Lou Elliott-Cysewski began her professional life as a nurse, first in the Army then as a civilian. She saw people at the best and worst moments of their lives and noticed how, in their most vulnerable states, her patients were just looking for a way to connect.

Lou Elliott-Cysewski, CEO and co-founder of CoolPerx

Four years ago, when she co-founded Bellevue, WA-based CoolPerx (asi/556047) with her husband, Seth, she found a new way to make those all-important connections: through promotional products and corporate gifting. This CEO and staunch environmentalist set out from the beginning to buck industry norms, creating what she says is the first carbon-neutral gifting agency. Elliott-Cysewski has made it a mission to educate people about how to elevate promo beyond “something to slap a logo on and give out” and into intentional gifts that are built to last beyond a single use.  

“I wanted to take that opportunity to kind of teach companies how to engage with people in a really meaningful way by leaning into the inherent values that they’re already setting for their company,” says Elliott-Cysewski.

Elliott-Cysewski didn’t follow a traditional path toward environmentalism. Instead, her passion for sustainability developed from the values she learned during childhood. Growing up as the daughter of a first-generation Japanese-American immigrant in a household where money was tight, she says she “could never understand how anyone would take their material possessions for granted.” This upbringing instilled values of sustainability and conservation that have helped shape her into an advocate for eco-consciousness.

CoolPerx’s climate-neutral status and environmentally conscious ethos have helped it attract business from some of world’s leading brands, including Amazon, Google, T-Mobile, Microsoft and Salesforce. An example of the kind of work CoolPerx is doing is a backpack project the company worked on for Google’s Controllership team. The tech giant was looking for a powerful gift to give to a global team that would be aligned with its environmental and social mission.

CoolPerx partnered with Day Owl on a backpack made from 100% recycled plastics collected from developing countries, according to the CoolPerx website. Day Owl also has a bag recycle/reuse program, helping to ensure the backpacks don’t end up in a landfill someday. In addition, the project incorporated trackable, verifiable carbon emission reductions. CoolPerx “reclaimed the carbon from it by investing in a solar project in Jackson, TN, replacing emissions from the dirtiest parts of the U.S. energy grid, and creating jobs for a community in need of them,” the website notes.

The path toward a more sustainable industry begins with accountability, Elliott-Cysewski says. “If there’s no accountability on the retail side, then manufacturers aren’t able to understand the way to move forward and the demands of consumers, and the consumers don’t know why they would need one product over another.”

However, even companies with good intentions often overlook key aspects of the process and problems with manufacturing. Some companies, for example, have climate pledges, but give away products that aren’t made ethically or sustainably, she says.

For brands looking to improve sustainability practices, Elliott-Cysewski recommends they “get the data on everything that’s passing through the company, so that you as an entrepreneur, as a business leader in the retail or promotional space, that you understand what you’re selling. In that way, you can actually make changes.”

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