Case Study: A Subtle Approach to Environmental Stewardship

Problem: Officials at Modern Farm and Cody Mercantile catalogs wanted to incorporate environmental initiatives into their business practices.
Solution: They methodically introduced more ecologically sound products, and carefully selected appropriate vendors and partners.
Results: Environmentally sensitive products are registering increasing sales. And catalog managers rest assured they’re moving further toward sound ecological stewardship.

In the past few years The Direct Marketing Association has been calling upon the direct mail and catalog industries to pay particular attention to their impact on the environment. Officials at Modern Farm and Cody Mercantile catalogs offer a good example of how to turn ecological sensitivity into a business practice — without transforming a company into a poster child for the movement.

John Forgit, manager of the Cody, Wyo.-based Modern Farm catalog (merchant of farming and gardening products) and Cody Mercantile (kitchen, yard and garden products, gifts, toys, and home décor), has no set environmental policy in place.

Rather, Forgit slowly has instituted merchandising, print and production practices that, in the aggregate, make the company more environmentally sensitive. Here’s how he has done it.

Merchandise Selection

When the catalogs’ merchants are faced with two similar products and one is more ecologically sound, they’re asked to select that one. Its bat house offering is a good example: The company that makes the houses fashions them out of remnant wood it purchases from a cedar furniture manufacturing plant.

“The remnants would have otherwise been burned or sent to a landfill,” Forgit notes.

The cataloger also sells many all-natural personal care products and leather creams, as well as non-electric appliances and toys, including a solar-powered toy race car.

Finding such items isn’t as difficult as you’d think, Forgit says. Since word has gotten out that Modern Farm and Cody Mercantile are buying such items, vendors have been approaching them with ecological options.

Forgit notes that sales are doing well, and he plans to broaden his offerings in those categories.

The cataloger’s creative doesn’t scream “environmentally sound.” Rather, the staff takes a subtle approach, mentioning the ecological proponents of the merchandise in its regular body copy. Why the soft sell? Forgit doesn’t want the catalogs to be known just as sellers of environmental products.

Nonetheless, he keeps the ecology in corporate conversations. He notes that it’s not difficult to do: The company’s headquarters is a drop-off recycling point for the people of Cody. Moreover, the company works closely with Cody’s Recycle Center to promote this cause.

“Our employees already were receptive to this movement toward a more environmentally friendly effort,” he says.

Print, Production Concerns

The company’s environmental stewardship doesn’t stop at its merchandising or recycling initiatives. Forgit selected printer Quad Graphics primarily because of its admirable environmental record. “It recycles everything possible and uses more ecologically sound inks,” he notes. “Any printer can put ink on paper, but Quad’s environmental practices were a deciding factor for us.”

Additionally, the cataloger, which does its own photo shoots, turned its studio into an all-digital format, thereby saving film.

Forgit says the next step is to switch to more ecologically sensitive packaging materials and perhaps recycled paper, if prices become more reasonable.

In sum, says Forgit, it’s the little things — the easily achievable measures — that can make a difference.

“We don’t need to be considered extremists in the environmental movement,” he notes. “[Environmentalism] can be a quiet effort that will become a way of life for most catalogers, and we will all be better off.”