Royal Mail's carbon neutral door-to-door scheme aims to reduce the environmental impact of unaddressed junk mail. But how exactly do you make door-drops carbon neutral?

When a bulk mailer signs up to the green door-to-door scheme, Royal Mail will calculate the CO2 emissions the mail-out will cause. This calculation takes into account factors such as the number of mail items, the type of paper and materials used and the production process.

Before Royal Mail pays money into a carbon offset scheme to make the mailing carbon neutral, the producer of the mailing must have done its bit to reduce the environmental impact of the mail-out. The requirements marketeers should meet are:

Effective targeting

The company producing the mail-out must use 'profiling tools' to make sure that less items are delivered to households unlikely to be interested in the mailing. Profiling tools indicate in which postcode areas certain types of customers tend to cluster.

Paper and materials

All materials used should be recyclable and come sustainable sources:

• Paper should have a minimum of 50 per cent recycled content and any non-recycled paper content must be sourced from suppliers with a 'forest certification scheme'.
• Polywrap and window envelopes cannot be used, as they are almost impossible to recycle.
• Any packaging should be made of recycled or reusable materials.

Environmental Management System

All companies involved in the production of the mail-out (such as the printers) should have an 'Environmental Management System' (EMS) in place. An EMS ensures that the company is making efforts to reduce their impact on the environment.

Inks and varnishes

Inks used for the mailing should be either vegetable based or recycled. Any varnishes used should be water-based (aqueous) rather than oil based.

Carbon neutral logo

A final requirement is that the junk mail carries a 'Carbon Neutral Mailing' and 'Recycle Now' logo (see images below). This is to advertise the scheme as well as to encourage people to recycle junk mail.