Do Not Mail

The Columbus Dispatch -- Credit-card offers start to multiply

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Excerpt #1 from The Columbus Dispatch:

Remember a few years ago when credit-card offers spilled out of your mailbox whenever you opened it?

The onslaught has returned.

Credit-card companies put about 1billion offers in the mail in the second quarter, more than double the 419 million mailed in the same quarter the year before, said Andrew Davidson, senior vice president with Mintel Comperemedia, which tracks direct mailings.

Excerpt #2 from The Columbus Dispatch:

The increase also means more paper coming to people's homes. And that bothers environmental groups.

"Junk mail is inherently wasteful," said Mark Schofield of ForestEthics, which has worked with retailers to reduce the number of catalogs sent to people's homes.

The group has been working with five of the largest credit-card companies - Bank of America, Chase, American Express, Discover and Capital One - to reduce paper and use more recycled paper.

"They need to make more responsible choices," he said.

Read the full article here >>

Tell American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Geico, Discover, and Chase to reform their paper and mailing practices

Fort Worth Star-Telegram -- Fort Worth senior deals with a mountain of junk mail

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PDT

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Founded in 2000, ForestEthics is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect endangered forests. According to the New American Dream, another environmental group, more than 100 million trees' worth of bulk mail arrives in American mailboxes each year -- the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.

In 2008 ForestEthics launched a website (DoNotMail.org) that listed the problems spawned by direct advertising and included a petition supporting a Do Not Mail Registry. The petition has more than 115,000 signatures.

"Many people don't realize how easily their names and personal information are bought and sold," said Will Craven, a ForestEthics media officer. "It's quite easy to buy a list that targets very specific groups, people who are most vulnerable."

Read the full article >>

Help build a case against the worst junk mailers: Submit your junk mail story

Do you know what's in your junk mail? Forests.

Wed, 19 May 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Watch ForestEthics Executive Director Todd Paglia featured on Canada's Global National TV.

Among these forests: Canada's Boreal Forest. Yesterday, ForestEthics joined eight other environmental groups in the largest conservation initiative in history – the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. We're working around the clock to keep Endangered Forests out of your mailbox.

Yesterday's unveiling of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement marked a historic moment in the fight to protect the world's most critical forests. It commences with a three-year moratorium on logging across more than 70 million acres – an area the size of Colorado. It also begins the negotiations to assess an area the size of Texas or France – 172 million acres – and to reach consensus on lasting protection for the Boreal Forest land, the preservation of woodland caribou, and world-leading green forestry practices.

Needless to say, the press picked up on it.

The handshakes at yesterday's press conference were the result of many years of strategic marketplace pressure, and as ForestEthics Executive Director Todd Paglia told the Toronto Star, it took more than "kumbaya" to bring seven environmental organizations, two foundations, and 21 large timber companies to the same table:

"It’s very easy for people to say: This is a new model (for agreement); people should just be getting along," he said. “It’s actually not true. What people should be doing is having rigorous conflict and also trying to find out, what is it they can say Yes to. I think that’s what we’ve done."

Ian Austen of the New York Times cited ForestEthics and other groups' linking of the American marketplace with the logging of the Boreal, while the Guardian UK called the agreement 'unprecedented'. Canada's Globe and Mail credited the market shifts catalyzed by "heavyweights" including ForestEthics.

Global National TV ran a feature on the announcement featuring Executive Director Todd Paglia and the Victoria's Dirty Secret campaign, while CTV connected the agreement to British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest and the battle to stop the Tar Sands filled Gateway pipeline from running through it – all areas where ForestEthics is actively engaged.

(Speaking of 'engaged': if you haven't already take action and pledge to be a Boreal Watchdog!)

More media here: Reuters, the Associated Press, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Post, CBC News, the Vancouver Sun, the Montreal Gazette, Discover Magazine, Environmental Leader, with more to come...

The Spokesman-Review -- Mail cull: Debating a proposal for limiting unsolicited direct mail

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:00:00 PDT

The Do Not Mail resolution before the Spokane County commissioners, and soon to be before the Spokane City Council, makes good sense whether you’re concerned about the environment or just tired of “junk mail.” And when you think through the few objections to it, it makes even better sense.

More than 100 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered each year in the United States – an average of 848 pieces per household. The production, distribution and disposal creates 51 million metric tons of greenhouse gases – equal to the emissions of almost 10 million cars and more than the combined emissions of seven U.S. states. Climate change or no, that’s a lot of pollution.

Garbage disposal takes place at sites that taxpayers build and maintain, using equipment and facilities that are replaced at public expense as they wear out. At least 34 percent of Americans (about 100 million people) don’t have access to curbside recycling and much of the direct mail that becomes refuse isn’t shredded – or even opened – creating privacy issues and the potential for identity theft.

Read the full article >>

Use video as a tool to grow the Do Not Mail Movement

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 PDT

The Do Not Mail campaign has some exciting news: we have partnered with CitizenGlobal, a new interactive video platform that is revolutionizing media as we know it. This partnership makes it possible for anyone to take videos to the next level and join in hot campaigns like Do Not Mail. Watch this video explanation of the project, then join us and start submitting footage of your junk mail today!

Want to participate in the Do Not Mail Video Project?

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Register with CitizenGlobal and join the Do Not Mail Video Project -- click the "Join Today" button on this page to get started.
2. Start shooting the footage of junk mail that we need, and look out for 'footage calls' for specific media we're looking for.
3. Submit your footage to the Do Not Mail Video Project by uploading it!

Why are we so excited about CitizenGlobal? It actually features all the tools you need to upload, edit and mix audio and video for professional-quality storytelling.

Video is one of the most useful storytelling tools. We've used them for training activists, getting the word out about new actions, reporting on our successes, and more. Most of the videos listed below were made by folks with access to fancy tools. Now, with CitizenGlobal, anyone with a video camera can make high-quality videos.

Check out some of the videos we've already made for the Do Not Mail campaign below, and then join up to take part in our Do Not Mail Video Project on CitizenGlobal to help us create more.

Telling the story

The first step in building a massive campaign like Do Not Mail is explaining the issue and getting out the word. Some of these videos use humor, others are straight reporting. Here are some clips that illustrate ways to show potential supporters what's happening in the world and how to get involved:

Junk Mail Monster

Slow the flow of junk mail

Stop Junk Mail -- Sign the petition (Annabelle Gurwitch)

Take a brief Google Earth Tour of Sierra Industries clearcuts

Celebrating our victories

When Seattle became the second city in the US to pass a resolution supporting the Do Not Mail campaign, we told our supporters with this video recap:

Seattle City Council passes Do Not Mail

For another example of telling the story of a campaign, this video shows how ForestEthics was able to completely transform one of the largest cataloguers in the world into a forest ally:

Transformation Through Collaboration

Being our own media

What happens when supporters take to the street and traditional media don't cover it? We can report it ourselves! Here's an example of a video of a street action for the Do Not Mail campaign:

Do Not Mail Action - August '08

Training supporters with calls to action

For those of you on our email list, you've probably seen these videos before. Last year, we held a national day of action where folks actually sent their unwanted junk mail back to the worst offenders. Here are the videos we released to help supporters take action:

Return your junk mail to the worst offenders

How to "Return to Offender"

These videos were mostly made by folks with the tools to edit and produce videos. Now, with CitizenGlobal, anyone with a video camera can make videos like these. What kind of video will you make to help take back our mailboxes?
Check out the Do Not Mail Video Project >>

The Spokesman-Review -- County urged to back ‘Do Not Mail’

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Junk mail is costly to recipients as well as annoying, according to a Spokane woman who wants a spam filter of sorts for physical mailboxes.

In addition to indirect costs such as wasting resources and damaging the environment, junk mail imposes a disposal cost on recipients and local governments, Donna McKereghan told Spokane County commissioners last week.

She urged commissioners to ask the Legislature to pass a statewide “Do Not Mail” law modeled on the federal registry of telephone numbers solicitors are prohibited from calling.

Citing statistics prepared by the ForestEthics environmental organization, McKereghan said junk mail produces 56.2 tons of greenhouse gases annually. That’s the equivalent of the exhaust from more than 9 million cars.

Read the full article >>

Do Not Mail campaign timeline

2000-2004

We target the office supply industry, which at the time had virtually no environmental paper standards, in a new campaign. Over the next four years, we leverage groundbreaking commitments from several companies, including Staples, Office Depot, and FedEx Office. This lays the foundation for the ForestEthics Market Solutions work, which continues to this day.

2004

This video summarizes our Victoria's Dirty Secret campaign, which led to the launch of the Do Not Mail campaign.

The Victoria’s Dirty Secret campaign launches, targeting Victoria’s Secret and parent company Limited Brands, Inc. One of the ads we ran in the New York Times gets the attention of the catalog company.

2005

An independent report confirms that the office supply companies that just a few years earlier lacked basic environmental standards were now causing recycled paper mills to operate at record capacity. Let’s just say they didn’t figure it out on their own.

December 2006

Hundreds of storefront demonstrations and mainstream press hits later, Limited Brands announces landmark paper policy.

2007

Fresh from our Victoria’s Dirty Secret victory, we rattle the cages of the entire catalog industry, securing environmental paper commitments from Fortune 500 companies including Williams-Sonoma, Dell, Crate & Barrel, Hewlett-Packard, and Macy’s/Bloomingdales.

September 2007

A Zogby International poll indicates that 89% of Americans support the creation of a Do Not Mail Registry to opt out of unsolicited ad mail. Meanwhile, ForestEthics plots its next move to transform the paper industry: the Do Not Mail campaign.

March 11, 2008

Five years after the national Do Not Call Registry is enacted, ForestEthics launches Do Not Mail, including a petition on donotmail.org calling for a Do Not Mail Registry in the US. Petition signatures include Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrian Grenier, Darryl Hannah, and Alicia Silverstone. The Washington Post, Daily Kos, New York Post’s Page Six, Globe and Mail, and Philadelphia Enquirer take notice.

May 2008

Under economic strain, the USPS increases the postage rate to 42 cents, while giving large junk mailers huge discounts to send crap that most of us don’t want.

June 2008

The Junk Mail Monster PSA

Our Junk Mail Monster PSA is released on Myspace and Youtube and is viewed more than 30,000 times.

July 2008

As our petition swells to over 50,000 signatures, we release our free action toolkit on Independence Day – providing our supporters and activists with the tools they need to take action on the Do Not Mail campaign. Thousands sign up to take action.

Meanwhile, ForestEthics celebrates a huge victory: the Ontario government commits to protect more than 55 million acres – an area half the size of California – in Ontario’s Boreal Forest. Logging for end uses such as junk mail had threatened this Endangered Forest, and some of the biggest brands in the US helped advocate for the protection, including former campaign target Limited Brands.

August 2008

ForestEthics releases Climate Change Enclosed: Junk Mail’s Impact on Global Warming, a report exposing junk mail’s senseless contribution to climate change. USA Today, New York Sun, and San Francisco Chronicle provide media coverage.

September 2008

Junk mail industry group the Direct Marketing Association launches a rather underwhelming “mail preference” website, Dmachoice.com. While we’re glad to see them acknowledging the power of the movement to stop them, the new site is mostly just for show: it’s still a case of the fox guarding the henhouse.

October 2008

We release our Do Not Mail Bag of Tricks. CBS WBZ-TV Boston airs another in a long line of local TV pieces that interview us, and then talk to local residents pissed off about junk mail.

December 2008

Our 3rd annual Naughty/Nice scorecard on the paper practices of the direct mail industry is released. Naughty junk mail companies like Sears, Capital One, and American Express received lumps of coal. Industry media outlets such as Advertising Age take notice and so do some major direct mailers: Crate & Barrel announces a new policy that calls for recycled content, sustainable paper sourcing, Endangered Forest protection, and overall paper reduction.

Also in December, Time Magazine asks “Remember when going through the mail was a thrill?’, and quotes ForestEthics on the problem of “runaway supply of junk in the face of shrinking and even resentful demand.”

January 2009

Audobon Magazine publishes a feature on our work and how the catalog and junk mail industry is destroying the Boreal Forest.

March 2009

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors becomes the first government body in the nation to take legislative action in support of a Do Not Mail Registry, passing a resolution calling on California to adopt a registry as a common sense tool for its citizens.

We also published an ad in USA Today, while Yahoo.com and other outlets, including San Francisco Chronicle, SF Weekly, Foxnews.com all chronicled the state of the junk mail debate, in the process bumping our petition signatures up to near 90,000.

April 2009

With the release of our new toolkit, our team starts training activists to start pushing municipal resolutions in their own city.

Meanwhile, NBC New York does a story on the campaign, and Annabelle Gurwitch, host of Planet Green’s show “Wa$ted”, talks it up on the CBS Early Show.

May 2009

As the first class postage rate goes up for the third consecutive year to 44 cents, the USPS plans a massive summer sale for junk mailers who mail more than they did last yer. Our Executive Director, Todd Paglia, calls out this absurdity on the Huffington Post.

In other news, Reuters TV profiles the Do Not Mail campaign.

June 2009

ForestEthics helps expose a US tax loophole in the US that allows destructive paper companies to turn tax dollars into environmental devastation. Nearly 2000 supporters take action to stop major corporations from receiving tax credits for “black liquor.”

July 2009

One of our activists shines in an otherwise bland NBC Chicago report.

August 2009

100,000 signatures reached in Seattle!

In the shadow of Seattle’s Space Needle, Maggie Hussey becomes the 100,000th person to sign the petition calling for a national Do Not Mail Registry, and Seattle becomes home to our next push for a municipal Do Not Mail resolution.

Our 3rd annual Green Grades, a scorecard on the paper practices of the office supply sector, is released.

Meanwhile, our grassroots team assembles at our annual leadership summit and takes on the original junk mailer, Sears, in their hometown of Chicago – landing a photo in the print edition of the Chicago Tribune. Simultaneously, our netroots send more than 2000 emails to Sears CEO Edward Lampert telling him to adopt a progressive paper policy, prompting Sears to re-engage in discussions about their (dismal) paper policy.

September 2009

ForestEthics hosts the 2nd annual “1 Million Trees: A Party to Stop Junk Mail.”

October 2009

A number of bloggers point out that the Direct Marketing Association’s junk mail opt-out website, dmachoice.com, falls short short in several important respects, with particularly biting points made by Jonathan Kamens. The conversation continues on our blog and Consumerist.com.

We also poll our supporters: Who are the worst junk mail offenders? The winners losers? Capital One, Bank of America, and American Express.

The Wall Street Journal assesses the overflow of junk mail from American businesses despite substantial environmental impacts and public resentment.

November 2009

Return to Offender Day of Action

We give the worst junk mail offenders – Capital One, Bank of America, and American Express– a taste of their own medicine with a “Return to Offender” Day of Action. Thousands of supporters send their mail back in pre-approved envelopes to the worst junk mailers.

In other news ProQuo, one of the major players in the helpful yet ultimately unenforceable 3rd party opt-out service scene, goes under.

December 2009

Due to pressure from our “Return to Offender” actions and the release of our 4th annual Naughty/Nice List, several companies step up their game with new commitments to better their paper practices. The scorecard receives attention from Fast Company, MNN, Los Angeles ABC 7, Environmental Leader, and others.

For the first time since the inception of the campaign, ForestEthics delivers the Do Not Mail petition to petition addressee Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Atlanta’s Fox 5 News runs another in a long line of local news stories featuring a ForestEthics spokesperson laying out the problem of junk mail’s waste and environmental impacts, followed by a junk mail industry flack claiming that there is no problem.

January 2010

With effective grassroots political organizing, Seattle becomes the second city in the country to call for a Do Not Mail Registry. The news courses throughout local Seattle media, including the Seattle King 5 News, The Stranger, and a not very well reported post from the Seattle Times.

Our Executive Director whips up a wonderful piece for the Huffington Post about the Seattle victory and how junk mail is, in fact, subsidized during the current recession.

February 2010

Leading up to the announcement of a corporate target, ForestEthics launches the Do Not Mail Video project on Citizen Global, calling on activists and supporters to submit video footage or images related to junk mail.

Citing the growing public controversy about the 'Sustainable' Forestry Initiative's (SFI) deceptive 'green' marketing practices, we send letters to Fortune 500 companies that use the phony 'eco' label on their junk mail.

Postal Service to cut Saturday service?

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 PST

US Postmaster General John Potter last week recommended that the Postal Service eliminate Saturday delivery in order to help stanch the multi-billion dollar bleeding that the USPS has been experiencing for nearly half a decade.

The reason? In addition to frustrating the very customers that the USPS is supposed to be serving, the USPS' junk mail-centric business model isn't very profitable. At all. They lost nearly $300 million in the last three months of 2009 alone, following several years of billion dollar losses.

By all accounts this news is a strong signal that the USPS is finally coming to terms with the way Americans communicate in the 21st Century. We're hoping that part of that awakening includes an understanding that in the 21st Century, Americans expect to have a choice in what they are or are not receiving.

Apparently one of the reforms currently being bandied about is the creation of "a world-class website" for the USPS. Our hope is that they'll seize this opportunity to use that website to run a free, comprehensive, and enforceable Do Not Mail Registry for all Americans to use. The USPS could generate revenue both by selling lists of people who want to receive direct mail to businesses, and also by fining business that violate the registry.

The USPS needs money, and American citizens demand choice. Win-win. Oh, and disrespectful junk mailers lose. So win-win-lose.

Huffington Post -- Subsidizing Junk Mail in the Great Recession

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST

If you think receiving your daily dose of junk mail just kills trees, clogs landfills, exacerbates climate change, is an invitation to identity theft, and is incredibly annoying, well, it actually gets worse: you are also paying for the privilege of receiving it.

Read more...

More good news for the Do Not Mail campaign

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST

Great news in the fight to regain control of our mailboxes: the Seattle City Council just passed a resolution calling for a Do Not Mail registry in the state of Washington! Thanks to the tireless work of ForestEthics supporters like you across the country, we're making real headway in the campaign to reclaim our mailboxes, our privacy, and our forests.

Check out this brief online video we made about the victory:

Seattle media outlets have taken notice of our efforts:

First off, check out some of the news leading up to the Seattle City Council vote: watch this video clip from Seattle King 5 News, check out this post from Seattlite blog The SunBreak, and listen to this report from KPLU, Seattle's local National Public Radio station.

After we won, local Seattle news continued to focus on the story: read this punchy post from Seattle's weekly, The Stranger, and check out some more of the media hits from local blogs and news portals such as Seattlest, Investigate West, Catalog Choice's Paperless Blog, and Kiro Radio. And, if you want to see a great example of lazy journalism in the age of outmoded mainstream press, check out this piece from Seattle Times in which the author asserts that "The environmental community supported the resolution because of all the extra trash created by unwanted mail." Sorry Times, but trash alone, albeit a major issue in the "environmental community," hardly encompasses the wide range of environmental issues that are caused by the production, distribution, and disposal of junk mail. Perhaps an interview with a representative from this community could have elucidated on this myriad of issues? Oh, and yes, we are also quite simply annoyed by it and concerned about our privacy � just like most Americans.

Want to pass a resolution in your city? Download the toolkit to get started today!

Junk mailers have taken notice of our efforts:

In December 2009, we released our annual junk mail scorecard and saw three top junk mailers -- American Express, Chase and Capital One -- respond to the pressure that supporters like you are helping to build. Previously, these companies refused to even talk to us about their junk mail habits, but your Return to Offender actions got them talking. Now, we are committed to keeping their feet to the fire until they reform their wasteful practices.

Want to get more involved in exposing the destructive paper practices of major junk mailers? Learn about the upcoming Do Not Mail Campaign Video Project and start submitting your footage today >>

The Stranger -- Get the F### on This

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST

In general, we're not big fans of the Seattle City Council wasting time on getting all fired up about problems that it's not in a position to fix. But here's one expression of council concern that was worth its while: the 8–1 decision, on January 25, to pass a nonbinding resolution calling on the state legislature to create a Do Not Mail registry that would give citizens of Washington the ability to opt out of getting useless, environmentally destructive junk mail every day in their mailboxes.

According to the nonprofit group ForestEthics, which pushed the measure, the American junk-mail business involves turning 100 million trees into 100 billion pieces of annoying solicitation each year. In doing so, the industry pumps out carbon emissions equal to nine million cars annually, all so that close to half of its mailings can go straight into landfills unopened.

Read more...

My Northwest -- Seattle City Council wants a 'do-not-mail' registry

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST

The city of Seattle is taking a symbolic stand against junk mail.

The City Council is asking the state legislature to create a 'do-not-mail' registry to give people the opportunity to opt-out. Members said they're tired of spending millions of dollars to collect and recycle all those ads for the neighborhood dry-cleaners or dentists.

Read more...

Investigate West -- Seattle Council’s vote for a ‘Do Not Mail’ registry takes a stand for sustainability

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST

Living sustainably means more than recycling. It also means cutting back on all that stuff that lands on those railroad cars that get sent to landfills in central Oregon from Seattle or barged across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii.

Striking a blow for citizens who want to do their part, the Seattle City Council Thursday passed a resolution urging the Legislature to create a Do Not Mail junk mail registry akin to the Do Not Call registry for home phones. Yes, it will probably take federal action to get results. But it’s also true that you have to start somewhere. So take a stand, Seattle!

Read more...

Seattle Passes Do Not Mail Resolution!

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST

Great news for the movement to take back our mailboxes: Today the Seattle City Council approved a resolution (8 to 1) calling for a Do Not Mail registry in the state of Washington! Much like the national Do Not Call registry, a Do Not Mail registry would allow consumers a free, effective way to opt out of any direct mailings that they don't want.

San Francisco passed a similar resolution last year, and now with two major cities calling for Do Not Mail registries, it is more clear than ever that people want the choice to stop receiving unwanted junk mail. This is hardly surprising, since our mailboxes are filled to the brim with unwanted mail. (On average, each U.S. adult resident receives 41 pounds of direct mail every year.)

The Seattle resolution goes further than just calling for an eventual state-wide registry, it also directs the Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to evaluate the current mail opt-out services available and recommend the most effective one to the City Council. This way, the SPU can see which companies actually remove consumers from their lists, bringing us closer to solutions that local cities everywhere can adopt.

Thanks to all the city council members who voted for the change Seattle wants, our Seattle supporters who took on volunteer shifts to get out the word about the council vote, and to all the Seattlites who made phone calls, sent messages, and testified in support of the resolution!

Read our press release to find out more >>