17 July 2007 - Royal Mail has announced it will encourage businesses and organisations using its 'door to door scheme' to go green.
The initiative gives companies the opportunity to carbon offset any CO2 emissions caused by their door to door advertisements. The 'carbon neutral door to door scheme' can be seen as Royal Mail's answer to recent announcements by the government that it is looking at ways to make it easier for people to opt-out of receiving unaddressed mail.
The scheme lays down a range of standards companies must adhere to before they can register with the scheme. These include:
After the carbon footprint of a mailing has been minimised through these measures, Royal Mail will pay to offset the remaining carbon footprint through schemes such as the Woodland Trust's Carbon Plus+ programme.
Companies joining the carbon neutral door to door scheme will be asked to include a 'carbon neutral' logo and the Waste and Resources Action Programme's 'recycle now' logo in their mailing. The logos show customers that the mailing is carbon neutral and that the advertisement can be safely recycled.
Ross Drake, general manager of Royal Mail's 'unaddressed service', said: "The environmental issue is becoming more important to companies and consumers and it is moving higher up the political and business agenda.
"We are in an ideal position to lead change in the direct mail industry and are prepared to spend money to incentivise our customers to make their unaddressed mailings carbon neutral.
"Businesses' commitment to reducing the impact of their operations on the environment is growing and this includes their marketing and advertising activities. Consumers are also increasingly demanding evidence of this commitment from companies they do business with. This helps our customers show they are taking this issue seriously."
Robert Keitch, director of 'media channel development' at the Direct Marketing Association, said: "We've been consulted on this all the way through. I'm really pleased Royal Mail is giving customers something to better their environmental impact. It's good for the public to see something real and tangible."
"We know they are looking at addressed mail too and we expect this to be followed up fairly shortly."