United States Postal Service Full Service Approved
Highlights
- Reduced transportation costs
- Duplicates & undeliverable cause waste
- Automated mail saves energy
With energy costs on a roller coaster and the effects of global warming making themselves harder to ignore every hurricane season, it's no surprise that more and more businesses are looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact lately. At Total Fulfillment, we're looking into ways to reduce waste and consumption, not just for us but for our customers as well.
Our data services include de-duping on all jobs (unless requested otherwise). By eliminating duplicate addresses from your mailing list, we not only save you money on postage, we also reduce the waste involved in making, printing and delivering mail pieces that will only end up in a landfill unread. Our location is another part of our strategy to run more efficiently. We chose our current office largely because of its close proximity to both the Addison and Carrollton post offices. We are 1.1 miles from the Addison post office, and 3.4 miles from the Carrollton post office. Since approximately 95 percent of the mail we process goes to one of those two locations, we rarely have to drive more than 5 miles to enter your mail.
Total Fulfillment has been a proponent of recycling for years. Unusable and leftover job supplies, unless requested by the customers, are sent to a local recycling facility, as are empty boxes. In addition to recycling, we use environmentally friendly, soy-based inks for addressing mail pieces whenever possible.
These are just some of the ways we are trying to make the world a little greener here at Total Fulfillment. If your company is looking into mail, but is concerned about its environmental impact, give us a call. We can offer advice on how to design and produce your mail in ways that are both effective and environmentally responsible.
Tips for mailing green:
Consider your paper.
The paper you choose for your mail will have a huge effect on its environmental impact. For example, using too flimsy a stock on postcards typically results in increased spoilage as it gets chewed up by mailing equipment. Too heavy a stock adds unnecessary weight, causing both postage and energy use to rise. A stock with a high gloss on the addressed side may look nice, but it also requires the use of solvent-based, quick-drying inks for addressing instead of environmentally friendly, soy-based inks. In addition, some paper mills use clean, renewable energy sources while others do not.
Trim your lists.
We strongly recommend having us de-dupe your list to weed out duplicate addresses. Dupes are not only wasteful of both energy and materials, they also increase your postage costs. We also suggest removing undeliverable addresses from your list. The Post Office's new Move Update standards are an indication of how undeliverable mail increases costs of operation.
Do your data work before ordering stock when possible.
If the piece you're mailing contains time-sensitive information, you won't want to order more than you'll need just to recycle the excess. Even if you mail the same piece over a stretch of a few months, paper does not always store well for long periods of time. Knowing how much stock to order reduces waste.
Design your piece to meet USPS standards.
Automated mail is more quickly processed by the Post Office, resulting in reduced energy consumption. It also saves on postage, so most mailers prefer it. Consulting with your mail shop when designing your piece will help ensure that it can be mailed in the first place, and sometimes can save you postage as well.