Blog Action Day: Environmental Communication Practices

This post is my contribution to Blog Action Day, with today’s theme being the environment.

Marketing professionals have some of the most important influence when it comes to a company’s environmental practices. Here are some specific steps that marketer’s can take right now that can positively affect our environment.

• Do you produce a magazine? If so, consider using recycled or post-consumer waste paper. Or, if you want to create a print product and go the distance, check out what Deliver magazine recently did with their special issue on “green”.
• Brochure Assignment: Go into your storage room and tell me how many brochures you still have from 5+ years ago. If you are ever considering printing a brochure again, shame on you. If you absolutely need to print something out, try a tip sheet that drives your readers to your web information. Frankly, it’s more environmentally friendly and smarter marketing. You can also continually update a tip sheet and print on demand if necessary. Do buyers still read brochures anyway?
• Alternative magazine production: Depending on your audience, it may be possible to cut your print distribution by delivering a digital magazine. This is especially true if you have international audiences. Try asking your print subscribers if they would like the digital issue instead…possibly use an incentive. For more information, try the good people at nxtbook media or Texterity.

Here are 20 additional tactics compliments from our friends at Deliver magazine that you may want to consider:

1. Decrease the thickness of your paper stock
2. Reduce the trim size on a mailer or catalog
3. Use recycled or “groundwood” paper rather than virgin stock
4. Use chlorine-free paper
5. Use soy- or water-based inks
6. Use such alternate energy sources as solar- or wind-generated electricity
7. Donate money to green initiatives to offset the cost of environmentally harmful business practices
8. Clean your mailing lists of duplicated or non-active recipients
9. Ask customers to specify how frequently they’d like to hear from you
10. Opt for printing processes that produce less waste, such as rotogravure
11. Offer customers print-on-demand technology
12. Send customers online for follow-up information
13. Send out larger print pieces on CD
14. Print marketing materials on both sides of the paper
15. Choose vendors based on their use of renewable energy
16. Provide encouragement, incentives or opportunities for customers to use renewable energy
17. Engage a third-party organization to perform an audit of your environmental practices
18. Benchmark your environmental efficiency against local and national standards
19. Communicate your green efforts to your customer base
20. Share an environmental innovation with one or more of your competitors

Make a difference today!