Green for Green!

I read an article this morning about proposed legislation affecting the printing industry and it got my brain working overtime. The premise of the legislation allows purchasers of printed material to recoup some of their money via a sales tax refund on any print pieces utilizing environmentally sustainable methods. Passing this legislation is obviously helpful to the print industry as people may be more included to order those extra products if they feel that the items are eco-friendly and save them some money. I just wonder how helpful it is to the small business that does not have massive quantity orders of printed products. In an effort to be fair in my final leaning on this topic, I took a closer look at the type of printed items that a small business might purchase and which of these might qualify for the tax refund. I fully expected to find that it would only save a little money – which is still a good thing since every dollar counts in a small company – but was pleasantly surprised to find that with a few small adjustments to purchasing decisions, this could be helpful to businesses of all sizes.

Let me explain my thought process… I started the evaluation process with the business basics – company letterhead, envelopes and business cards. A quick search revealed that all of these items are readily available in a variety of styles and sizes allowing the use of eco-friendly paper goods which qualifies them for this type of credit. Not to mention that these items are highly consumable products which means you will likely need to reorder them throughout the year. Do some quick math to see how many of these items you usually use during a year of business and then calculate the sales tax you have been paying… it is probably a nice little bundle of refund potential!

Since I am always thinking about ways to maximize company expenditures, as well as refunds, I started thinking beyond the basics. Most companies – regardless of size – also purchase marketing materials that involved the addition of their business information… which means they are a printed item! Consider items such as holiday cards, wall calendars, pocket calendars and pens. There are eco-friendly versions of all these products available for purchase which means you get the bonus of making a green purchase decision for items you would likely purchase anyway along with the potential tax credit. Add the calculation of the sales tax for these types of items onto the number you came up with for your standard business products and I suspect the final tally might get you a little more excited about this legislation being put into effect.