Email Is Green

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Greg No Comments

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Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum I think you’d agree that it’s important to be environmentally responsible. In general, most people are mindful of the footprint they’re leaving and try to recycle when given the opportunity.

In 2008 Pitney Bowes did a study of the environmental impact of paper-based mail. Obviously Pitney Bowes has a vested interest in encouraging the use of direct mail. One of the main points of their study was, therefore, that while direct mail causes carbon emissions it’s not that big of an impact when compared with other trash. Direct mail (so-called junk mail) only accounts for a per annum average of 20Kg of waste per consumer. Contrast that with an average of 41Kg of newspapers and 132Kg of other packaging and it’s not that much.

Well, email marketing causes very little carbon footprint. Okay, okay, some of you may be saying, “Wait, what about all of the spam being sent?” You’ve got a point. But that’s spam. You’re not spamming, are you?

The reality is that email marketing is green!

Hey, on a related green note, did you know that the average office worker prints 1,000 pages per month (2007 Boston Consulting Group study)? Not only does printing 1,000 pages per month waste paper, it wastes toner. Toner has an impact on the environment, too.

One way to use up to 50% less toner is to use Ecofont. There’s even a free download available. Ecofont uses little circles of toner-free space to save on toner. The font is still easy to read (see example below). So if you’ve got a font choice for that next document and you know people are likely to print it, consider using Ecofont!