There’s always a very specific reason you want to give a gift. Maybe it’s your daughter’s graduation. Maybe it’s your co-worker’s retirement; or maybe, you just want to say thank you to a group of volunteers who helped advance a movement. Every gift giving circumstance comes with a different purpose; and each purpose always has a set of gift giving “guidelines”. So you hit the web and search: “gifts”….

Secret Santa gift, or retirement gift?
Volunteer gift, or executive gift?
Each circumstance is so different.

Our hope is that this blog will to help guide you in giving the perfect gift each time — for every circumstance. So how about a “green” gift.

When our customers want to “go green” we lead them towards re-purposing material items. Ever hear of the term “up-cycled”?

Repurposed, or up-cylced, materials will always carry with them strong history. Every so often, the places in our lives undergo renovation. It’s a good thing for progress, right? New spaces, updated looks, cleaner walls, shiny floors, bigger glass windows—new and improved, right?

But have you ever watched a renovation project and thought something along the lines of: That’s where I used to sit a have my morning coffee every day. Now it’s gone. It is nothing more than a pile of rubble and stone.

Or maybe you stood and watched a tree service crew spin their saw blades through the most beautiful and old weeping willow. You watched as limbs fell and the shade it once provided vanish. As the saw dust and limbs scattered about, you imagined yourself jumping the orange fence and stealing a little limb to take home and keep as a memento.

That building was there to help you build your career. It functioned as a secondary home many days you arrived early and left late.

Up-Cycled hardwood flooring from the White House

That tree stood silently every day you ran to and fro in your busy life. You remember the first week on your new job when you so embarrassingly tripped on its large roots in front of everyone. These places and items have a history all their own; and they have a history specifically with you too—almost like a friend.

This is where green and recycled gifts get exciting!

custom challenge coin
Challenge Coin containing metal from the International Space Station

Going green pushes our art department in the best of ways. It allows us to change the way we think about your gift’s materials. It opens up a new form of creativity in the way items are decorated. It forces us to re-think packaging and presentation. It stretches our creativity!

Wether it’s stone, wood, glass, wallpaper, photography, or marble—there’s a way to repurpose these materials and generate a truly exceptional gift. The reception of repurposed (up-cycled) materials, often becomes more meaningful and personal than anything new.

White House Situation Room Shadowbox
Wood from the White House Briefing Room

Our recycled and repurposed gifts take on the greatest sense of history. Over the past 20 years we’ve seen a large pile of “old” turn into something totally new. We’ve repurposed hardwood flooring into retirement gifts. We have repurposed marble into cuff link sets for executive gifts. We have minted repurposed metal into a limited edition series of coins. We have crafted bookends from the exterior of old buildings. We have framed small pieces of old wallpaper. We have embedded broken stone into lucite for donor appreciation. We have sanded down and laser engraved magnolia wood into retirement gifts. The list goes on and the history never stops. It never repeats itself either—each recipient brings to the piece their own history. It’s almost poetic when you begin to think about it all.

Supreme Court Marble Cuff Links
Cuff Links crafted from up-cycled marble of the U.S. Supreme Court

C Forbes Inc provides more than an award or a gift. We provide the expertise in presentation, packaging, and delivery. Your small and worn out photo of you at your desk on day 1 of your job may be insignificant when it sits alone in the corner of your desk drawer, but when it sits framed next to a repurposed piece of the old office building and a personalized plate it becomes new again. Your retirement gift becomes more than a fancy watch—instead, it plucks at the strings of your heart and reminds you of hard work, true friendships, and the sacrifices of success.

So next time you’re thinking, “I don’t have anything good to give, I’m so unsure how to give a meaningful gift”; think about tagging C Forbes Inc into your gifting process. We’ll help guide you towards something meaningful. Chances are you probably already have something meaningful—you just haven’t realized it yet!

Take into consideration the little pieces of your history—they are everywhere if you train your eye to pick up on them.

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