How mail can be a sustainable marketing channel

By understanding its entire life cycle, we can make better, more informed decisions that can significantly reduce our impact on the planet. By taking every opportunity to regenerate, reinvent, reduce, reuse and recycle, mail can contribute to a circular economy, and be part of an effective marketing mix.

PrintGreen – Transforming the sustainability of print channels

PrintGreen is the cross-industry initiative representing the print industry. It’s designed to provide brands, creative agencies and media agencies with data insights and guidance on how to use print channels sustainably.

It’s the go-to resource for sustainability best practice in print ensuring that all your campaigns are created with sustainability embedded from the beginning.

Find out more about PrintGreen and checkout the carbon calculator here.

Learn more

Learn more about mail circularity

01
Regenerate

Paper comes from a natural regenerative crop - trees. Using raw materials from sustainably certified forests supports tree planting and biodiversity and helps absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Learn more about Regenerate
02
Reinvent

Innovations are transforming the paper processing and printing industry. These include returning water used in the paper process, back to the environment, using low-impact paper mills to generate renewable energy as well creating bio-degradable inks.

Learn more about Reinvent
03
Reduce

Royal Mail is rapidly decarbonising its distribution fleet, switching to renewable energy and using more electric vehicles. Not forgetting last mile delivery by posties on foot.

Learn more about Reduce
04
Reuse & Recycling

Recycled paper fibres are re-used on average 3.8 times, and this can be up to 7 times [1]. In fact, over 70% of fibres used to make paper in the UK are recycled [2]. Paper is not only recycled into new paper but also into other products from egg boxes, animal bedding or insulation material

Learn more about Reuse & Recycling

The 5 key stages of mail’s carbon life cycle

Opening the aperture on the carbon emissions for each stage of the mail process. 

  • 01

    Creation

    Design & copy
  • 02

    Materials

    Paper, envelopes & wraps
  • 03

    Creation

    Recycling & landfill
  • 04

    Production

    Inks & printing
  • 05

    Delivery

    Processing, distribution & to user

The circular journey

Discover how mail can be a sustainable choice. Watch our film.

The life cycle of mail

The first step in understanding the carbon impact of the mail channel was to carry out a carbon Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Research carried out by environmental experts, WSP and commissioned by Marketreach produced a full carbon Life Cycle Assessment of Mail. It provided for the first time an in-depth look at the environmental impact and carbon emissions for each stage in the life of mail - from forest source to end-of-life, through the processing, design, production, delivery and recycling stages. 

To view this in-depth study download the report. 

Download now

trees

Steps to more sustainable mail campaigns

Frequently Asked Questions