Ashkin Group’s Holiday Card Challenge a Big Success

Bloomington, IN, February 09, 2012 --(PR.com)-- More than 10,000 holiday cards have been collected to be repurposed as part of a fund-raising event planned by St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

The Holiday Card Challenge was created by The Ashkin Group, a leading consulting organization advocating for the use of environmentally preferable cleaning products and systems.

The event is part of the hospital’s "Recycled Card Program," which helps the children at St. Jude’s Ranch learn entrepreneurship skills.

The children participate by removing the front of each card and attaching a new back to make a new card. St. Jude then sells these "green" holiday cards in packets of 10 for $10.00. The children receive payment for their work and learn the benefits and importance of “going green.”

According to Elizabeth Steward, marketing manager for The Ashkin Group, one organization, Brandywine Realty Trust, a leading developer and manager of office buildings throughout the United States collected more than 8,300 cards for the “challenge.”

“The cards were sent on to St. Jude’s Hospital, and they expect they will make more than $8,300 from them in a fund-raising event,” says Steward. “And collecting all of these cards really had a [positive] impact on the environment as well.”

Steward says that collecting and repurposing the more than 10,000 cards and not disposing of them, resulted in the following environmental benefits:

- Approximately 320 pounds of Greenhouse gases were not released into the atmosphere.
- About two million BTUs of energy were saved
- The cards kept 116 pounds of solid waste out of landfills.
- More than 1,000 gallons of water were saved.*

“Overall, our Holiday Card Challenge was amazingly successful,” says Steward. “And it shows how we can all take steps to be Greener and more sustainable and [to] benefit a good cause as well.”

###

* Based on estimates using the Environmental Paper Network Paper Calculator