Every day, the mailboxes of advertising creatives around the world are flooded with paper promos from photographers and illustrators. It’s an incredible waste of paper.

Our objective was to change this wasteful behaviour. As members of a large, global community concerned about the environment, we set out to activate the network of advertising creatives to make a difference. But we knew we couldn’t just ask artists to stop promoting their work. We needed to provide them with an alternative.

First-Stop.org is a completely free, online directory where photographers and illustrators can exhibit their work to creatives all over the world. The only requirement is that those who join pledge to significantly reduce the number of paper promos they mail out.

By persuading artists to shift from the wasteful medium of paper promos to a tree-friendly digital platform, we could potentially save thousands of trees each year.

We started by creating a website where photographers and illustrators could submit their work. Accepted work is linked directly to the artist’s contact information. For advertising creatives, searching through websites, photo and illustration annuals can be a time-consuming process. First-Stop.org offers a simple, visual directory of some of the best artists in the world. The site is searchable by category or keyword, and images can be saved to a virtual "FILING CABINET" for future reference. To promote First-Stop.org, we created an online video, a Facebook page and reached out to blogs and industry press. We sent advertising creatives a sheet of 39 Return to Sender Stickers that could be affixed to each promo they received. By receiving their own promo back with a message from the very people the artists were hoping to work with, they would be more likely to register for First-Stop.org and stop this wasteful behaviour.

In only two months, over 600 artists have signed up for First-Stop. It’s attracted over 30,000 visitors and a host of enthusiastic friends from around the world. Importantly, it's saved an estimated 1400 kilograms of paper and counting.

And this is just the beginning. If every creative in the advertising industry chooses not to receive wasteful paper promos, we will send a powerful message. If every artist chooses First-Stop as an alternative, it will help save entire forests in the long run. That’s a much prettier picture.