It’s not often that the Corporate Social Responsibility Managers within large organisations can take proposals to the Board which not only reduce the organisation’s environmental footprint but that can also generate major cost savings. This opportunity is exactly what the Royal Mail’s Responsible and Sustainable Mail schemes provide for organisations with a large spend on direct mail.

Williams Lea estimates that its UK client base can generate millions of pounds worth of savings through utilisation of these schemes. Full compliance gives a reduction in postage costs of 5% and it is these costs which can represent up to 70% of the cost of a direct mail campaign, so the savings can be significant.

Williams Lea’s first client to access the Responsible Mail scheme was Bank of America Europe Card Services (MBNA Europe Bank Limited). Compliance was achieved on the launch date of the scheme and utilisation of the product is forecast to deliver significant savings along with supporting the company’s CSR commitments.

To qualify for the schemes, organisations must comply with a number of criteria including use of recycled content or certified paper; application of a range of suppression files to customer data and use of printers with robust environmental management systems. The goal of the schemes is to make the direct mail process more environmentally focused, something which Williams Lea is committed to achieve for its clients.

Williams Lea’s demanding environmental programme, which includes its preferred print vendor base being certified to ISO 14001 and development of its sustainable paper proposition, has enabled its clients to quickly meet the schemes’ requirements and access the savings. Paul Buchan, Williams Lea’s Group Environment Manager commented “We build robust environmental roadmaps to support the outsourcing solutions we deliver to clients, making it a relatively short step to then help our clients become compliant to these new schemes. As an outsourcing company we already recognise that efficient resource management makes for strong synergies between cost reduction and environmental impact reduction and these schemes provide additional financial benefits to our clients.”

Williams Lea was a member of the steering group which developed PAS2020 – Direct Marketing Environmental Performance Specification to which these schemes are closely aligned. The next step for many of its clients will be to make their direct marketing campaigns more environmentally focused through compliance with PAS2020.

Background to Williams Lea’s UK environment programme

• Environmental sustainability is a key element of Williams Lea’s outsourcing proposition. We drive environmental sustainability in our supply chain, within our internal operations and to our clients through our solutions. Examples include:
• Working with leading environmental best practice organisations like Envirowise building capacity for action on environment within our supply chain
• Commissioning research. Williams Lea asked environmental leaders Trucost to quantify the environmental impacts of the UK print industry and evaluate how this would financially impact the sector in the long term
• Building sustainable paper solutions for clients that reduce paper consumption and provide for a transition to recycled and/or certified products across all paper products
• Working for responsible sourcing of paper products through membership of WWF Forest & Trade Network
• Carbon footprint reduction target of 30% by 2020
• UK Board member of Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
• Multi-site ISO 14001 certification across operational facilities
• FSC and PEFC chain of custody certified

Notes
(1) www.royalmailwholesale.com
(2) www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/home