Reduce your carbon foot print :
Environmental awareness is now a cornerstone of responsible corporate practice. As well as making a positive contribution to the world around us, taking a greener approach makes good business sense. Besides
enhancing your organisation’s public image, considerable savings can also be made by following some simple green guidelines.If you use direct mail to market your business, it’s especially important to
be seen to be green. The Environmental Protection Agency reported in the National Waste Report 2005 that an estimated 1,244,967 tonnes of commercial, or non-household municipal waste, was managed in Ireland
in 2005, an increase of 3.5% since 2004.
1. List hygiene and data management More accurately targeted mailing lists mean fewer wasted mailings. That’s better for your business and the environment. So consider taking the following steps to ensure good
list hygiene.Maintain suppression lists •Maintain in-house ‘do-not-market’ lists for prospects and customers who do not wish to receive future solicitations from your company.
•Maintain a more detailed suppression file that enables customers and prospects to opt out of your company’s marketing lists on a selective basis, such as by frequency or by category.
2. Design & packaging The design and packaging aspects of direct marketing give you real opportunities to put good environmental practices into action. So identify how to minimise the use of environmentally undesirable elements in envelopes and mail packages.
3.Recyclable and reusable materials As a direct marketer, your use of paper is proof (or otherwise) of your green-friendly credentials. This means you should work with suppliers who can assure you that the paper you’re using comes from sustainable forests.•Aim to use recycled paper. The good news is that recycled papers are now equal in quality to virgin stock and also compete effectively in terms of performance. Crucially, the cost of recycled paper is comparable to virgin stock.
4.Reduce toxicity of materials For the most part, petroleum or mineral oil-based inks are the norm in the printing industry. However, the quality of more environmentally-friendly vegetable oil inks has improved greatly in recent years and now matches (and sometimes exceeds) that of mineral oil inks.
5.Understandably, consumers can be very sceptical of business’s commitment to the environment. This means a clear and consistent approach to communicating your stance is essential to convince others of your good intentions.
6.We’ve put our money where our mouse is. Instead of printing a longer brochure, we’ve cut down on the paper used and put additional information online instead. So take a leaf out of our book and visit www.takealeaf.ie Here you can register your commitment to responsible direct mail. You can find details of others who have done the same and locate a comprehensive directory of suppliers of environmentally responsible materials. You can even download the ‘take a leaf’ logo for use on your own material to encourage others to follow your example. source:www.takealeaf.ie
leaflet distribution