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Canada Post, which delivers more than 11 billion pieces of mail a year, has launched a national initiative to “help educate marketers and consumers on responsible usage of direct mail and its impact on the environment.” Marketers who visit www.canadapost.ca/green will find “greener” options and ideas about direct mail strategies that better target their messages.

I especially like the handy tip sheet for businesses, which includes a suggestion that marketers visit the Canadian Marketing Association’s “Do Not Contact” service prior to acquisition mailings. On a consumer level, the “What You Can Do” section of the site urges people to recycle more, since many municipalities now take glossy flyer paper, catalogues, magazines, and even windowed envelopes, according to the Paper Recycling Association of Canada.

The effort arose after Canada Post studied results from its latest public poll and whitepaper, "The New Environmentalism," which finds that three-quarters of Canadians consider “environmental conservation and preservation as a matter of personal importance.” The organization also released its first Corporate Responsibility Report today.

Laurene Cihosky, senior vice president, Canada Post’s Direct Marketing Division, speaks today at the Canadian Marketing Association's (CMA) annual convention on "The ROI of Green." She is emphasizing “the risks of environmental inertia, how to make direct mail programs more environmentally friendly and how going 'green' can increase campaign ROI.”