Kermit the Frog famously said that it’s not easy being green. It may have been hard for a puppet frog, but it’s becoming more and more critical for businesses. Our heedless, throw-away culture has been replaced by rising sales of hybrid cars, nationwide recycling programs, and even fast food packed in paper rather than Styrofoam. With growing concerns about global warming, the strain on natural resources, and environmental protection, going green is good for the environment and good for business.

However, if you use direct marketing to promote and ship your products you probably use a lot of paper and a lot of packaging. You need paper to print your letters, postcards, and brochures, and mailers, boxes and fillers to ship them in.

What can you do to make your business greener?

Cut Down on Waste

1. Keep your list clean (fewer bad addresses means less waste). Make sure you remove names of people who no longer want to receive your mailings. Also, use a merge/purge program. This will eliminate duplicates when you are combining several lists or names of people you have gathered from multiple sources.
2. Put an opt-out on your mailings. This is good public relations, good for the environment, and good for your business. One, you will be perceived as a good corporate citizen. Two, you use fewer resources, and three, you save money because you aren’t sending mailings to people who don’t want them.
3. Choose lighter paper or use less of it. Heavier paper uses more resources, and requires more money and energy to produce. It’s also more expensive and since it weighs more it will increase the cost of postage. If appropriate (say for lead generation), try a postcard rather than a full letter, brochure, and envelope.

Use Greener Suppliers

1. Use green printing companies. They use soy and vegetable –based ink, which is less toxic, and paper that is both recycled and chlorine-free.
2. Use recycled paper. Recycled paper can be “post” or pre-consumer/recycled, and will list the percentages. Pre-consumer means that it’s waste from the normal printing process (initial copies that didn’t print properly, or feed through correctly); post-consumer means it’s already been printed and used once and then sent back to be re-used.
3. Use greener packing materials. Boxes, bubble wrap, cushioned mailers, and packing materials are all available in less wasteful and recycled forms.

Printers

Greg Barber Company
http://www.gregbarberco.com/

Ecoprint
http://www.ecoprint.com/

Green Packaging Sources

Packaging Price.com (bubble mailers)
http://www.packagingprice.com

PolyAir (padded mailers and cushioning materials)
http://www.polyair.com

Rock-Tenn (recycled boxes)
http://www.rocktennpaperboard.com

United Container Company (recycled cartons)
http://www.unitedcontainer.com

Green Business Directories

LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability)
http://www.lohas.com/

The Green Pages
http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/greenpages/

Green Your Own Office

1. Have an environmental friendliness policy (and post it prominently on everything you send; put it on your Web site too). Decide what constitutes “environmentally” friendly. Is it just biodegradable? Is it something that can be recycled or something that has already been recycled (or partially recycled) once? Will you take the amount of energy required to produce it into account?
2. Practice what you preach. Recycle your own excess paper, bottles, newspapers, and cans.

Environmental Policy Tools

The DMA Environmental Planning Tool and Policy Generator
http://www.the-dma.org/envgen/

The DMA Environmental Resource Center
http://www.the-dma.org/environment/