Responsible Swag: Rethinking Giving and Receiving at Events

Professor Sonali Diddi (in green) at the Fashion and Circularity Symposium held at Colorado State University in 2023.

Sonali Diddi, an associate professor in the Department of Design and Merchandising at Colorado State University (CSU) and a faculty affiliate at CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, is an expert on textile waste, including the environmental impact of “fast fashion” — low-priced, cheaply made apparel that’s meant to be rapidly replaced and often ends up in landfills. In 2023, when Diddi organized and hosted the Fashion and Circularity Symposium at CSU, which invited scholars and others from around the world to present research on reducing waste in the fashion industry, her attention shifted to another form of overconsumption: conference swag.

Sonali Diddi on swag: ‘It’s very much human nature to pick up anything which is free.’

As she was organizing the event, sustainability was at the forefront of her mind, Diddi told Convene. She knew that the symposium participants, who were as passionate as she is about reducing waste, would happily go along with her request to bring their own water bottles, and such decisions as using compostable plates and cups and forgoing printed materials. But the question of swag gave her pause, she said. “Would people be expecting it?” she asked herself and her colleagues at CSU.

Diddi is outspoken about the adverse effects of the kinds of swag made of cheap plastic materials and, like fast fashion, has a short shelf life. In addition to the resources that go into both manufacturing and shipping swag, there are human costs, Diddi told Mark Gokavi at CSU’s news service. “Given that typically the cost of swag items is very low, there is a high likelihood that some of the products are made in facilities that have poor working conditions, directly affecting workers’ health,” she said.From her own experience at conferences, Diddi told Convene, she also was familiar with the lure of swag — she had picked up a bag at a conference and later asked herself why. “It’s very much human nature to pick up anything which is free, and which looks bright and shiny” — it brings almost a sense of exhilaration, she said. But beyond that temporary lift, Diddi said, swag serves another, deeper purpose: “I think it comes down to the human part: the desire to feel connected.”

Diddi worked with a university maker’s lab to create handmade name tags, with surplus lanyards, for symposium participants.

For the Fashion and Circularity Symposium, Diddi wanted to create something that would tangibly connect participants with the event and remain consistent with the symposium’s focus on the reducing waste and reusing resources. Working with a “maker space” at the university, Diddi created name tags with participants’ names laser-cut into pieces fashioned from wood scraps, attached to surplus lanyards. The tags, which included an outline that resembled stitching — a nod to the fashion industry — were otherwise unbranded, so attendees could use them again, elevating a conference staple into a handmade keepsake. Although sponsors and organizations like to put their logos on items they give away, that branding often keeps items from being reused, she said.

Diddi also decided to offer participants pens and notebooks — also not exactly “swag,” but items that could be useful to some attendees during the event, she said. But a sign was posted alongside them,asking that only those who needed them take them. “It was just a quick reminder: You don’t have to pick it up.” Many conference-goers reason when they are offered swag that since it is already there, they may as well take it, Diddi said. But when participants deliberately choose not to, it sends a message to conference organizers, who are then less likely to offer as much swag in the future, she said.

Change can be slow, she said, “but we need to start somewhere. We can’t just keep passing the responsibility of reducing waste to somebody else.” It’s high time, Diddi told Gokavi, “that all partners promoting and using swag take a pause and rethink the best way of using nature’s resources and accepting accountability.”

Barbara Palmer is deputy editor at Convene.