A group calling itself the Green Marketing Coalition is trying to produce best-practices guidelines for the direct mail business. That would be the “junk mail” business to most of us. “So far the coalition’s guidelines are long on earnestness and short on truly new ideas,” the New York Times concludes. The paper quotes one head of a nonprofit dedicated to protecting forests:

 

“It’s hard to argue against any well-intentioned effort to use more recycled paper, but the idea of greening junk mail is still a bit like putting lipstick on a pig.”

Ouch. I suppose the direct mail business earned that swipe. I hate junk mail as much as the next person. But not all direct mail is junk. It’s the rare individual who never responds to a single direct mailer. A generally acceptable response rate to a mailer is about 2%. That means most mailers are not junk to 2% of us. Believe it or not, that’s usually enough of a response for businesses or other organizations, including nonprofits, to keep stuffing our mail boxes. 

The Green Marketing Coalition, which got its start in Seattle, is made up of both direct marketing businesses and their corporate clients. Their guidelines are aimed at reducing the environmental impact of direct mail. It’s easy to scoff at their efforts, like the nonprofit executive director quoted here. Many believe direct mail is fundamentally unsustainable, given its waste of paper and the energy used in the production, distribution and disposal of materials that so frequently get ignored by its target audience.

But direct mail continues to be used because it can be, and often is, an effective marketing tool. We probably all know admirable environmental nonprofits that are among the legions of direct mail marketers. As a former co-owner of a marketing agency that offered direct marketing among its services, I would urge organizations to move completely to electronic mail as soon as possible. Although most of us hate junk email as much as junk paper mail, at least it’s more eco-friendly. 

One reason companies don’t resort to email exclusively is the anti-SPAM laws that restrict the use of commercial email to opt-in subscribers only. Traditional postal mail has no such restrictions. It’s easy to buy a postal mail list and send away. The environmentally responsible thing to do is use postal mail only when there is no alternative, such as when you’re just starting to create an opt-in email list or your target audience doesn’t have email access. Those are not problems for most major companies or organizations today.

If direct marketers really wanted to make a difference, they wouldn’t promote products or services that are not sustainably made or delivered. Period. The junk goods and services purchased as a result of successful direct mail do far greater environmental harm than junk mail itself. 

I don’t think you’ll be hearing that conversation among members of the Green Marketing Coalition anytime soon.