Wednesday
Dec092009
Naughty or Nice?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 5:56PM
‘Tis the season! And with all the holiday merriment comes lots of beautiful catalogs and other solicitations in the mailbox. Catalog Choice has brought cheers of relief to many consumers inundated by catalogs they no longer wish to receive in the mail. With the Christmas lights and eggnog, it’s also that time of year for Forest Ethics’ annual Naughty & Nice Scorecard on the Direct Mail Industry. Catalog mailers as well as companies in the financial sector were scored this year on four criteria related to paper sourcing, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) paper, recycled paper, and paper reduction efforts.
This year, there’s more Santa and less Grinch, with direct mail companies showing positive trends and improvement toward greener practices. Out of 21 companies evaluated, 11 made Santa’s “nice” list, nearly four times the number from 2006. We want to applaud those “nice” companies that also participate in Catalog Choice. Here’s some good cheer direct from the scorecard:
Improvements for next year? We’d like to see Forest Ethics include participation and compliance with Catalog Choice as one it is “paper reduction” criteria. We think that honoring consumer mail preferences is a big gift in our collective stocking and an important criteria for the Naughty & Nice Scorecard.
This year, there’s more Santa and less Grinch, with direct mail companies showing positive trends and improvement toward greener practices. Out of 21 companies evaluated, 11 made Santa’s “nice” list, nearly four times the number from 2006. We want to applaud those “nice” companies that also participate in Catalog Choice. Here’s some good cheer direct from the scorecard:
- Patagonia once again stands atop the highest peaks, using the highest percentage of post-consumer recycled content in all the land.
- REI knows that FSC is the only credible forest certification and is very merry to work with, just like any good camping buddy.
- Crate & Barrel’s catalogs are now printed entirely on FSC-certified paper. Jingle all the way!
- Dell has enhanced a strong paper policy with strong climate goals. Joy to the World.
- Williams-Sonoma finishes what they start: their 99% FSC-certified content is now a perfect 100%. That’s a gift to all forests!
- J.C. Penney vastly reduced its paper consumption by completely eliminating their big catalog! Sometimes less is so much more.
Improvements for next year? We’d like to see Forest Ethics include participation and compliance with Catalog Choice as one it is “paper reduction” criteria. We think that honoring consumer mail preferences is a big gift in our collective stocking and an important criteria for the Naughty & Nice Scorecard.
Reader Comments (1)
I'm happy to have found your blog site up. However, I haven't been able to access the website for a week or more - can't use the Contact Us link either. Is anyone else having this problem? With so many Christmas catalogs showing up, I'd really like to login, but I keep getting: "We're sorry, but something went wrong.
We've been notified about this issue and we are working on it right now. Please check back shortly." Any suggestions?