What is Better World Print about?
First and foremost, we're about making better print products for a world better we can all enjoy. Our experienced founder has worked in promotional product advertising since 2008. Their experience includes helping a diverse client base from all over North America find all types of customized gifts and retail print products to fit their promotional needs, fundraising, and advertising purposes. In addition to these 12+ years in custom print product sourcing, our founder also has seven years of retail management experience, purchasing and inventory control, as well as marketing and client acquisition for several Fortune 500 companies.
The Human Concern
Better World Print, or PrintedBetter.com, was the brain-child of a trip to San Francisco. During that trip, our company founder saw many unhoused (homeless) persons living on the streets of what was (supposedly) a very wealthy, tech-driven economic powerhouse in the wealthiest nation on earth. Thousands of well-paid citizens walked past the unhoused living on the streets in their fashionable clothing towards their $3000/month (or more) apartments and million dollar townhouses. The unmistakable scent of urine and feces lingered in the air as he walked through the Tenderloin and Castro neighborhoods. However the stench of disregard for the unhoused as the wealthy walked among them was stronger than the urine or occasional fecal scent that wafted under the nose. It was very clear from this experience that there were "haves" and "have-nots" living in two very different worlds, yet sharing the same city - often even the same spaces. Two worlds existed parallel to one another - having wildly different opportunities and outcomes in healthcare, security, and access to the world's power structures. This experience in San Francisco made our company founder wonder, "If this is the ultimate in capitalism, we're certainly going in the wrong direction, and we need to change our approach rather quickly.
What if, instead, capitalism was used to better all of our lives instead of just a small group of business owners and middle-tier managers? What if for-profit companies were developed to improve the world around us in addition to paying themselves reasonable profits? What if each company shared a little bit of its profit to resolve some of the economic plight of the underprivileged living among us?"
From this question, the founder of Better World Print decided it was time to create a new model of capitalism that embraces a greater purpose than simply making obscene profits and hoarding them. His experience in promotional marketing was already past 10 years for a small firm, but the higher income he made in the promotional print marketing company only served himself, and didn't really help solve some of the apparent issues going on around him on the streets. He realized in this experience that none of us takes our money with us when we die, but the impact we might create from the financial resources we're given while we live just might create a legacy that serves the world around us for the better. The company that not only gives a hot meal or pays for shelter to the homeless can also radically change the lives of the same homeless person by providing employment, training, and mental health resources. That's when the brainchild for this promotional marketing agency was created. We could create a new type of promotional marketing agency that focused on making the world... better. We could create marketing campaigns and promotional print products that would serve not only the companies we serve, but the profits could be used to create a wide-reaching impact for people and the planet they all share. It took a couple years of planning, waiting out the expiration of a noncompete clause from his former employer, and months of getting all the legal structures established and registered. The wait was worth it though, as the first benefit corporation specializing in promotional products distribution was created through much research, meditation, and labor.
The Environmental Concern
Besides the humanitarian role of our founder, from childhood through adulthood, environmental preservation has been a concern from his early years. The Weekly Reader, a free weekly publication distributed to elementary students (until 2012) once showed the massive landfills of the 1980's stretching across the horizon of rural land in Pennsylvania. Our founder saw these images in a 1985 edition of the Weekly Reader showing that Pennsylvania was the recipient of New York City's trash (right before recycling was legislated into practice). One image showed a landfill filled with all sorts of wasted products stretching to the horizon, with massive bulldozers driving across it to dump more trash as deliveries arrived daily from the metro areas surrounding rural Pennsylvania. It was frightening to a young school student to see idyllic land literally trashed by the consumer-driven economy. What was the world going to look like if our economic model kept the model of "produce, use, discard" for billions of products each year? What toxins would be leached into our soil, water, and air through this practice? From that one Weekly Reader edition, he decided that recycling had to become the norm for a world filled with billions of people in order to keep it clean and to limit the destruction of natural beauty. We've since lost a lot of naturalized land for other reasons (urban sprawl, highways, mining, etc), but we can curtail the furtherance of this destruction by adjusting our economic models to preserve land and reward its preservation through financial incentives. Recycling is a method to reduce the sourcing of natural resources, which demands raw land for mining, timbering, etc. Better World Print is focused on finding promotional products made from recycled materials to help preserve our wild lands globally.
Our Part & Your Part
When you order from our company, you show a commitment to improving the outcomes of people and the planet we all share. We commit to upfront pricing, product descriptions (including materials), and realistic production timelines. We commit to being creative for your imprint design so that your brand stands out as "better" among the rest. There is no future business without us working to earn your full trust and appreciation for our work. That means we collaborate on product ideas, imprint design, deadlines, and the outcome of your promotional product's impact on the people who receive it. What good is our company if we just sell you a product to make profit, if it doesn't serve your full intended purpose? If there's any doubt on our part of the factory that imprints your product from meeting your deadline, or your expectations, we promise to tell you either in advance of your order. If the product doesn't meet the agreed upon deadline for your event, or the imprint is not as expected on the proof, we promise to make it right by either replacing the product, or discounting it (whichever is possible given your project deadline). Our partnership is vital to your success, and your success is important for our success.
Our Hope & Our Promise
We sincerely hope that after reading this, you understand more about what makes the team and their work at Better World Print... better. If you have any unanswered questions, feel free to reach out to us. Our contact information is at the top and bottom of each page on this website. We promise you a better experience ordering your custom imprint products, in hopes that our business partnership leads to creating a better world.