Let’s send some marketers to a treeless planet.



100 million trees are cut down every year so that you can receive junk mail. Who exactly does this help?

The statistics are staggering: 100 million trees are destroyed each year to create the 4.5MM tons of junk mail in the US alone. 28 billion gallons of water go into the production of US junk mail annually. Each American adult spends approximately 70 hours per year dealing with the handling of the junk mail that comes into our mailboxes.

“But it’s my job. I’m getting a good response rate – 2% – for my clients.”

How, how, HOW can marketers contribute to this waste in good conscience?

I’d love to ask the marketers working for Capital One, coupon printers, the people who flood magazines with blow cards, and anyone else involved with this waste and destruction how they feel pulling in their average paychecks, knowing they’ve contributed to deforestation, water waste and time waste by millions of Americans.

Want to do something about this? Check out Greendimes.



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  • I love this post.

    Direct mail that wastes time, money and resources is irresponsible.

    Does it make sense from an ROI standpoint? Sometimes, yes.

    Has my firm done it? Yes (see above for the reason why)

    But the bar is being raised.

    Marketing should absolutely be socially and environmentally responsible. But it also must be responsible from strategy to execution, it must respect its audiences and it must provide some ROI.

    There are ways to make direct mail more responsible (offer opt-out on every piece; target lists better, etc.), but sometimes the most responsible form of direct marketing is to not do it at all.

    Keep up the great work.

    Patrick Byers
    The Responsible Marketing Blog
    http://responsiblemarketing.com
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