Special Report: Sustainability & the Environment

Environmental activists are encouraging the demise of catalogs by promoting the notion that consumers should opt out of receiving them and encouraging lawmakers to put do-not-mail legislation on the books at the state and federal levels. Their justification and, therefore, talking points center on the allegation that catalogs are killing trees, overwhelming landfills and wasting paper.

It’s time to aggressively counter their charges. We’re calling on all catalogers to step up and publicly declare that they’re responsible environmental stewards.

The catalog/multichannel community can’t sit by and let the success of one of the most beloved methods of direct marketing be tarnished by emotional appeals from those who have no stake in the success of responsible commerce and no handle on the facts. What follows are the key facts every cataloger needs to know.

But this article must not be viewed as your industry advocate standing on her high horse. So below those facts are 15 vital actions we must take in the face of this environmental adversity.

Catalogers are preserving American forests. Catalogers are meeting our need for paper by supporting the sustainability of forests. The amount of U.S. forestland today is actually about the same as it was in the early 1900s, despite our population tripling. The forest products industry in North America plants more trees than it harvests each year. And when you think about it, this is logical and should be apparent.

Catalogers are decreasing the amount of direct marketing materials that wind up in landfills. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a few years ago direct mail accounted for only 2.4 percent of the total municipal solid waste generated in the U.S. annually. Figures released earlier this year show this figure has decreased to 2.2 percent, and it’s likely to decline more as greater strides are made in paper recycling.

Catalogs are recyclable and encourage recycling. Paper is a renewable resource. The American Forestry and Paper Association tells us that 55 percent of all paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling in 2007. That means paper recovery averages around 360 pounds for every person in the U.S.

Still, catalogers are doing more as a community: The DMA has mounted a national campaign to encourage even more recycling. Sixty catalogers — from Kraft to L.L. Bean to Fairytale Brownies — now support the DMA’s Recycle Please program, encouraging consumers to recycle their catalogs.

Catalogs are an environmentally friendly way to shop. We need to continuously remind people that buying through a catalog replaces trips made by car and thereby reduces carbon dioxide emissions by vehicles. By replacing just two of the many shopping trips we all make each year (at an average of 15 miles round-trip) with shopping by catalog, Americans can reduce the number of miles we drive by 3.3 billion per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 3 billion pounds. Not to mention saving nearly half a billion dollars in gas collectively. And with the price of gas now exceeding $4 a gallon in many states, this only makes shopping direct more appealing.

Catalogers don’t want to mail to those who don’t want to hear from us. Since 1971, the direct marketing community has financially funded a means for consumers to opt out of commercially sponsored mail communications through the DMA’s Mail Preference Service (MPS). At this point, more than 4 million consumers have registered to stop receiving prospecting mail.

Honor Opt-Outs
The entire DMA membership and many others honor those consumers’ wishes. Marketers understand this service; they trust it and use it.

Because of MPS, 930 million pieces of mail that would have been mailed last year weren't.

These points are persuasive. Catalogers should state them clearly and frequently because these facts balance the public discourse about the true environmental impact of direct marketing.

Although true and documented, these are hardly enough. As a group, we must go even further to adopt a commitment to continual environmental improvement of our business. Having said that, here
are 15 things you can do in your organization to improve its impact on the environment.

Take a look at what your practices are right now in these areas, and benchmark them. Aggressively promote and use these practices internally. Keep track of your progress. In a year, mark your success.

• 1. Increase your purchases of paper from recognized forest certification programs. There are a number of such programs: the Canadian Standards Association, the Forest Stewardship Council, the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative are the most commonly known.

These third-party auditors assure that the forest that produced the fiber is being managed in a sustainable way.

• 2. Establish an ongoing conversation with your suppliers on your environmental progress. Then set in writing the type of paper you prefer, and challenge them to find it.

• 3. Review your direct mail pieces, and test downsized formats. Simple changes to size, weight and recycled content can make your catalogs more environmentally friendly and often more cost-effective, as well. In testing pieces, re-examine the frequency of mailings, and test to see if mailing less frequently would be more economic for your company.

• 4. Use production methods that reduce print order overruns, waste allowances and in-process waste.

• 5. Ask your packaging suppliers to submit solutions for environmentally preferable packaging, and use lighter-weight and recyclable packaging.

• 6. Provide your packers with alternative-sized packaging for the differing sizes of contents. Train packers how to use the right-sized packaging for varying contents.

• 7. Purchase more office papers, packing and packaging materials made from recycled materials with postconsumer content.

• 8. Integrate the use of electronic communication for external and internal communications.

• 9. Encourage consumers to re-cycle your materials by using the DMA’s Recycle Please logo on all consumer mailings and other direct communications (see the Web site www.recycleplease.org). Many consumers don’t realize that most catalogs are recyclable in most communities in the nation. Help make sure they know they can recycle.

• 10. Maintain, or have your service bureau maintain for you, two in-house do-not-market lists. One should be for prospects, so you can eliminate their names from lists you rent; the other for customers who don’t wish to receive future solicitations from you.

• 11. Provide both customers and prospects with an efficient way to contact you if they wish to stop or reduce the number of communications from you.

• 12. Use the very latest MPS file monthly to respond to consumers’ requests to eliminate commercial prospecting mail.

• 13. Make sure that your service bureau uses U.S. Postal Service list cleaning files for ZIP code correction, address standardization, change of address, address element correction, delivery sequence file, address correction requested and the recently launched file to eliminate vacant postal addresses.

• 14. Eliminate duplicate mailings to the same household, even if addressed to different individuals.

• 15. Strive to be more energy-efficient in your workplace and facilities. Start by replacing all lighting with the most efficient bulbs and fixtures available. Reward employees who carpool, bike and/or take public transportation to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their ways to and from work.

Pat Kachura is senior vice president for ethics and consumer affairs at the Direct Marketing Association. You can reach her at pkachura@the-dma.org or (202) 861-2410.