The end of 2024 saw us say goodbye to a year where Arcadia worked hard to put in place policies and procedures to increase sustainability as an organisation, resulting in us reaching EcoVadis’ Platinum status. One such policy was around wastage and this saw us form a partnership with the growing charity A Good Thing. A Good Thing are a charity that help businesses donate unwanted items, reducing the amount sent to landfill.

After a very successful donation to Crisis UK earlier in the year, we wanted to make sure that another load of surplus merchandise found a good home. Using the A Good Thing platform, we were able to list the items we had available, which included baseball caps, beanies, notebooks, power banks and much more. The total merchandise load covered more than 5 pallets!

Arcadia were matched with a small London based charity called Save the World Club, who work hard to uplift their local community in Kingston.

Through promoting eco-friendly uses of spaces, organising redistribution of food and promoting sustainable lifestyle choices, they not only support residents in the area but help their local environment.

Lots of the merchandise items were used in Christmas hampers that were delivered by helpers to those in need and others were given as thank you gifts to volunteers. We were thrilled to receive the below from founder Des Kay.

“See [the picture] below where Father Christmas and his trusty little helpers put together 50 Christmas hampers to deliver to those that need a bit of help and support this Christmas.

They were particularly grateful as because of these extra goodies, we were able to include some extra special items. Thanks to “A Good Thing” and the company for their pallets of merchandise gifts.

Many thanks for your support.”

It was great to be able to use A Good Thing again in our plight for sustainable practices and to see such a wonderful charity benefit.

Happy New Year!

Jason Markwick

Having worked in Promotional Merchandise for the last 30 years I have been exposed to all aspects of the industry. Starting out as an account manager working with some of the worlds leading brands, I have learnt to understand the needs of a client, manufacturing processes, and what it takes to deliver a successful promotional campaign that is on brand, on time and within a given budget.