Deliver Magazine – put out by the USPS – is a magazine for marketers…and they made their most recent September issue “green”.

 The stats are fascinating:

• 101,000 pounds of paper used
• 100% Percentage of post-consumer recycled content
• 969 Numbers of trees preserved
• 411,862 Gallons of waste-water flow saved
• 2,799 Pounds of waterborne waste avoided
• 45,571 Pounds of solid waste prevented
• 89,728 Pounds of greenhouse gases prevented, net
• 686,800,000 BTUs of energy saved
• 46,622 Pounds of air emissions prevented
• 20 Barrels of crude oil saved

Can you imagine the positive environmental effects if more direct marketers, catalogers and publishers went green?

Fortunately, the issue also goes on to list some tips on making your direct mail more eco-friendly:

1. Decrease the thickness of your paper stock
2. Cut down on the number of elements in a mail package
3. Reduce the trim size
4. Use recycled or “ground-wood” paper rather than virgin stock
5. Use soy or water-based inks when possible
6. Make a continuous effort to keep your lists clean
7. Explore printing processes that produce less waste, such as rotogravure
8. Utilize Print-On-Demand technology
9. Send customers online for follow-up information
10. Send out large print pieces on CD
11. Print marketing materials on both sides of the paper
12. Use chlorine-free paper
13. Ask customers to specify how frequently they’d like to hear from you
14. Choose vendors who use renewable energy, or urge current customers to do so
15. Experiment with CDs, PDF file and other formats that require less paper and package

We’d like to end this blog post with a neat tool from the DMA called the Environmental Planning Tool.  It evaluates your environmental practices and also gives you ideas and strategies to implement.