Take advantage of Sustainable Mail™ and save money
GI Direct has long been an advocate of improving the environmental reputation of the print industry and has recently cemented its commitment to environmental improvements, and demonstrated industry best practice, by renewing its CarbonNeutral® status for a further three years.
The print industry is still prone to negative preconceptions with regards to its environmental impact, and clients and the Government are continuously putting pressure on the industry to improve its environmental record.
In an attempt to strengthen the environmental stance of the industry, independent bodies seek to influence the behaviour of companies using direct mail as a medium to communicate with their customers to encourage them to take into account environmentally sustainable ways to achieve their objectives.
Overview of Sustainable Mail™
Royal Mail has recently introduced a new optional standard to ensure that the impact of customer communications are minimised. Sustainable Mail™ promotes the use of environmentally-friendly materials, whilst aiming to reduce the amount of mail in the waste stream.
Sustainable Mail™ enables companies to strengthen their long-term commitment to green credentials as well as strengthen their environmental stature by helping them to reduce waste, increase levels of recycling, and ensure that their mailings are manufactured in a responsible manner. Sustainable Mail™ also aims to engage end-consumers by demonstrating a higher level of communications are backed by green credentials.
What do you need to do to comply?
The standard Sustainable Mail™ is divided between entry and intermediate levels. Both levels assess the same criteria to lesser or greater extent. The criteria selected for the standard incorporate the processes necessitated by a mailing campaign as well as the materials used:
Improving targeting:
By using data intelligently and sending pertinent information to your customers, you reduce the amount of mail in the waste stream, and save money by reducing costs involved in the production of the mailings.
Sustainable resources and materials:
By using environmentally friendly resources, companies make a statement on their environmental stance, engage their customers and minimise their long-term impact on the earth’s resources and climate change. It too, guarantees a better future to developing communities and countries whose local resources are not jeopardised. The standard also takes into consideration environmental accreditations and the sustaining of environmental practices.
Recyclability:
Recycling is at the foundation of environmental debates. As there is no uniform regulation which regards to local recycling collections, mailing companies are encouraged to maximise the use of materials that can be recycled (i.e.paper) in most councils and dismiss any add-ons that might jeopardise the sustainability of the mailing (varnishes, large ink coverage). Both the act of recycling and the encouraging of it are taking into consideration to reach maximum level of compliance.
For an overview of what each level entails, please download the specifications here.
Benefit for compliance
The impact of the print industry on the environment must not be neglected. In order to entice companies to act above and beyond current legislation to their new optional specification, Royal Mail is offering postage discounts to make best practice standard. By complying with Sustainable Mail™ specifications, companies using Mailsort agreements can benefit from bulk savings. These are directly related to the level of compliance (entry or intermediate level) and can reach 4.70% depending on the service chosen. For more information on discounts and to calculate the savings you could achieve, visit the Royal Mail Mailsort Technical website.
Making it easier for you to comply
To make the process easier for our clients, GI Direct offers advice on how to achieve these specifications and uses the Royal Mail Checklist to ensure all criteria are met and ensure maximum discounts are achieved.
Improving targeting:
- We offer our clients free data health check: this includes suppression against an up-to-date Mail Preference Service (MPS), as well as additional commercial services such as The Bereavement register, Gone Away Suppression, MORTASCREEN and Xpression.
- All address fields (including postcodes) are automatically checked for accuracy, and corrected if necessary with the pioneering Cygnus software.
Sustainable resources and materials:
- GI Direct is certified to both FSC and PEFC chains of custody. We can source recycled paper or FSC or PEFC-certified paper, of which virgin fibre emanate from sustainable sources.
- GI Direct is accredited to ISO 14001. Our Environmental Management System drives our effective use of resources and its disposal as well as upholds our commitment for continuous improvement. Our EMS is driven by set annual objectives and strengthens the audit trails for any environmental improvements and processes in place.
Recyclability:
- We actively promote environmentally-friendly mailings which can be fully recyclable such as one-piece mailers and mail packs used with read and print technology. We can advise our clients of the most suitable format to ensure the correct balance between environmental care and creative impact.
- We work with our clients to ensure that their mailings display the adequate logos to engage their customers and encourage recycling.
Responsible Mail
Sustainable Mail is specifically designed for customers who use the Royal Mail for their postal needs. Customers who use Down Stream Access may too benefit from postal discounts should they demonstrate environmental awareness through the Responsible Mail™ scheme.
Both standards are fundamentally the same and assess the same criteria with a two-stage structure with entry and intermediate level of compliance, but discounts are slightly different. Discounts for Responsible Mail are 0.3p per mailing for entry level and 0.7 p for intermediate level. GI Direct has the skills required to audit the mailing to ensure it meets Responsible Mail™ specifications to ensure our clients benefit from maximal discounts.
For more information on Responsible Mail and the related specifications, click here.
Clients and suppliers must work together to ensure the highest level of compliance to environmental standards, and we would welcome the opportunity to work alongside you to strengthen the environmental stance of the industry.
For more information on Sustainable Mail™, please visit the Royal Mail website.