Catalog Choice is a great idea, but not an easy one to use in its current form. For someone who gets too many catalogs (20), I have to click at least 60 times to process choices. Why can’t Catalog Choice allow scrolling of the entire alphabet, all letters and all catalogs, at once, allow the customer to place an X in a box, or move selected catalogs to a list on the right, and then select one reason for all of them (like “don’t want your catalog” or “decline to answer”)? Having to go through the entire data entry process for each catalog, sometimes having to click several times just to display all the catalogs under one letter of the alphabet, is unnecessarily time consuming.
Catalog Choice has made refusing unnecessary paper easier, now let’s make it faster as well!

I hadn’t seen that carbon calculator before. It claims my CO2 emissions are 0.5 ton per year (roughly a 93 percent reduction from the national average of 7.5 tons). That sounds great, but alas, the figure includes only home energy and transportation. When I start considering additional factors, like the type of food I eat and the consumer goods I buy (which generate roughly a half pound of carbon per dollar spent), I think my reduction is closer to 60–70 percent compared to national average.

Eliminating unwanted catalogs is an area where (until recently) I’d been unable to make a significant reduction. And it’s important, since the paper industry is responsible for 9 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted by the U.S. manufacturing sector. Over 3.8 million acres of forest are clearcut every year in North America, just to make paper. When these are replanted with single-species tree farms, irreplaceable habitat is lost for native plants and animals.

Catalog Choice is helping to make a real difference.