Environmental Sustainability

In a teleconference last week specifically targeted at the press, Catalog Choice, a nonprofit group that’s been encouraging consumers to opt out of receiving unwanted catalog mailings, set out to clear the air. The organization believes its efforts have been shrouded in misconception, by catalogers and the press alike, since its launch last October. And this call intended to set the record straight. Catalog Choice insists it’s not trying to hasten the end of the catalog business as we know it. Rather, its objective is to be a partner with catalog mailers, providing the opportunity for stronger relationships with consumers based on how

The ever-so-common phrase “going green” means taking the three basic principles of sustainability and applying them everywhere you can in your organization. These principles, of course, are: Reduce — lower your waste and consumption; Reuse — using items multiple times for the same thing; and Recycle — giving something a second life. Environmental stewardship is especially important because our industry is too often viewed as a culprit. The single biggest thing you can do is to better educate yourself. Ask questions about your production process and the materials that are being used. How much do you know about your paper? Where it came

The title of former Vice President Al Gore’s Academy Award-winning film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” sums up the uneasy relationship between catalogers and environmental issues. Catalogers have embraced environmental reforms reluctantly over the years, because they often come with a prohibitive cost. But the issue of environmentalism and sustainability has reached a boiling point this year, what with environmental groups and a number of U.S. states pressing for do-not-mail legislation. You can’t turn your back on these matters any longer. So we felt it was time to give this key issue the attention it warrants. In the stories below, you won’t just find info

Environmental groups Catalog Choice and ForestEthics are hot on catalogers’ tails. So are state governments, with 18 do-not-mail bills under review in 15 states as of the beginning of this year. As if catalogers didn’t have enough adversity — with postage on the rise again and the economy on the fall — they can’t afford to take the issue of environmentalism and sustainability lightly much longer. That’s why we’ve devoted the cover section to this hot topic. Consider the most recent events: • On Oct. 9, 2007, relative newcomer Catalog Choice unveiled its free, Web-based service to encourage consumers to opt out of

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

If you’ve yet to confront the challenge of measuring, reporting and improving the environmental sustainability of your printed catalog, here are six things you can do on your own to minimize the negative impact of your business. 1. Design efficiently. Combine bind-ins and ride-alongs with your catalog in a polywrap to reduce the number of separate mailings and the paper needed for those mailings. 2. Move with customers who move. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 14 percent of the population changed addresses last year. Nearly 33 percent of these people didn’t report their new addresses to the U.S. Postal Service, which

In the second portion of this two-part series on the environmental issues affecting the catalog business today, here are seven ways — aside from the use of recycled paper in the makeup of their books — that catalogers can make their businesses more environmentally conscious and sustainable. (For part 1, click here.) 1. Make it easy for customers to opt out of receiving your catalog and for their names to be rented to other catalogers. Most catalogers do a good job publicizing their “do-not-rent” and “do-not-mail” services. Make it easier for customers to opt for “do not mail” and to be able to not

Recently there’s been a groundswell of consumer support for sustainable business practices among marketers. And no group has drawn more ire than catalogers, whose efforts are visible to the public every day in the mailbox. Fortunately, the printing and paper industries have a wide range of tools and processes available to reduce the carbon footprint of mailings. Here are 10 key practices you should implement to make your business more sustainable: 1. Think big picture. It’s the whole supply chain, not just paper. What happens down the line starts at the design stage. Form a team and think the catalog through from beginning to

In the first part of this two-part series on the environmental issues affecting the catalog industry today, this week I look at the role recycled paper can play in helping your business become more environmentally sustainable. The hot-button issue of environmental awareness has spread to the catalog/multichannel business. Consumers are increasingly asking that their catalogs “go green.” The concept of lowering the carbon footprint, however, needs to be balanced against the economic reality of spiraling costs for catalogers. Is it possible for catalogers to “go green” without going out of business in the process? Step One’s Almost Always Recycled Paper One issue that’s

Aside from the humdrum of what a tough time this is for so many multichannel marketers, the issue of environmentalism and sustainability has easily become the topic of the year. So we made an on-the-fly change in our editorial schedule and intend to devote the cover section of our June print issue to a special report on sustainability. (You heard it here first!) Having begun editing some of the articles for that edition, I’ve been trying to put this whole movement into some sort of perspective. In the catalog business, the emergence of recycled paper dates back all the way to the beginning of