Green Mail

Dear Reader,

In today's world, green, environmentally resp0nsible mailings are imperative for many reasons.

Greening your mail practices:

- can you save you money, decrease your CPM and increase your response rate and ROI.

-better connect you with your audience; they will immediately see your commitment to the environment and sustainability.

Good reasons for going green indeed!

So, let's look at the physical mail package for starters; here's what you ought to be doing:

Use a design that uses the least amount of materials, such as smaller envelopes, lighter stock paper; less is better for the planet.

Use FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified paper. The FSC audits forests for their environmental and social standards, so you (and your audience) can be sure that the paper comes from sustainable wood sources and practices.

Bonus: your audience can clearly see that you are environmentally friendly because you can show an FSC logo on all of your mail pieces, from envelopes to letter to brochure etc.

Use paper sourcing some degree of recycled paper, and it should also be recylable. For more information, please visit www.fsccanada.org.

Keep your ink coverage light, and ensure that you use inks low in Volatile Organic Compunds. VOCs combine with sunlight to produce ground level ozone, which is a component of smog and helps to cause breathing problems.

So there you have some green mail considerations. Next week, I'll look at more ways to green your mail.

Michael Hofmann