Monadnock Paper

I love free stuff. Monadnock just sent me a really neat package with all sorts of information about their products.  Did you know that Monadnock papers are:

• Made with 100% renewable electrical energy (a combination of hydroelectric and wind)
• Carbon neutral by purchasing carbon credits
• Have a ISO 14001:2004 certified EMS.
• FSC certified
• PCF (process chlorine free), and the virgin fiber papers are also ECF (elemental chlorine free)
• They make paper fiber into compost and animal bedding

Their website also has an environmental design guide with cool things like environmental calculators and some explanations of common environmental logos.

It was a well put together package. I love uncoated stocks with lots of ink coverage. That, and their field guide has illustrations (by Charley Harper) which really compliment the message they are trying to send. As a designer >cough< I choose illustrations over pictures 85% of the time. Love it as a design element.

Phone books

I don’t have a land line at my house. I shouldn’t get a phonebook. Or 3.

A week or so ago, The Talking Phone Book delivery guy showed up with TWENTY phone books. I told him we didn’t need so many, but they were already packaged together. Whatever. Maybe we can use them.

Then today The Real Yellow Page delivery guy showed up with 20 MORE phone books and an additional 10 of the mini version. Seriously? We have 50 phone books. We don’t even have 50 phones in building.

They probably called someone here and they told them to bring them by, but nobody really needs phone books anymore, if you have one that is from the past 3 years you should find the information you need. And really, if you have access to the internet you can find the information almost immediately. I’m not trying to put the phone book printers out of business, I’m just trying to reduce the numbers of books we have at our office…

If you live in Columbia, you can recycle your phone books in your recycling bins, or you can bring them by the following drop off locations from now until March 15, 2009:

• A Recycling Center – 1009 Fontaine Road, Columbia, SC 29223
• City of Cayce Public Safety Department – 1800 12th Street Extension, Cayce, SC 29171
• Blythewood Branch, US Post Office – 401 McNulty Street, Blythewood, SC 29016 (near the intersection of Blythewood Road and Boney Road)
• Clemson Sandhill Research and Education Center – Clemson Road across from the entrance to First Citizens and Regent Banks at the Village at Sandhill
• Forest Acres Recycling Facility – 3724 Covenant Road, Forest Acres, SC 29206
• Fort Jackson Recycling Center – Building #6568 on Lee Road, Fort Jackson, off Imboden Rd. Enter the Ft. through Forest Drive entrance; be prepared to show valid driver’s license, proof of insurance and current auto registration.
• Harbison Sam’s Club – 350 Harbison Blvd., Columbia, SC 29212
• Lexington County Collection and Recycling Centers – All 12 locations (Hours: Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, 7:00 am to 7:00 pm; Sun, 3:00 to 7:00 pm)
• Lower Richland Recycling Drop-off Center – 10531 Garners Ferry Road (Hours: Mon – Sat, 8:00am to 7:00pm; Sun, 12:30 to 6:00pm)
• Richland County C&D Landfill – 1070 Caughman Road North (off Monticello Road), Columbia, SC 29203 (Hours: Mon – Fri, 8:00 am to 6:30 pm; Sat, 12:30 to 5:30 pm)
• Richland County Public Works – 400 Powell Road, Columbia, SC 29203 (Hours: Mon – Fri, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm)
• SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) – 2600 Bull Street, Columbia, SC 29201 (Bin located in the rear of parking lot next to City of Columbia’s recycling drop-off site.)
• University of South Carolina – parking lot at Gadsden and Greene Streets, caddy corner to Colonial Center parking lot

Reducing mail waste

This is a touchy subject, as printers are the ones printing junk mail and our customers are the one producing mass mailings.

If you are a customer and want to reduce the amount of “junk mail” you send out, consider revising your mail lists. Mail lists can be purchased to target certain audiences/age groups/populations/zip codes. The more specific you get on your lists, the more likely that you will see a higher ROI. It’s estimated that about 40% of junk mail is thrown away without being opened.

If you want to get even higher response rates, consider cross media. With cross-media you directly target a group of people based on very specific designators. Cross media response rates are significantly higher than traditional mass mailings. The cost/piece for crossmedia is higher, but if you will get a higher response rate/piece. Combine that with variable data and personalization and your response rate goes even higher…

We should also consider postage rates. Mailing 10,000 pieces is not cheap. Sure you get a postal discount for volume, but  you can send out 1,000 pieces with a bit of a discount and have a higher ROI.

Personalization/variable/custom mail lists

Less paper + Less postage costs + less waste = higher ROI

If you are interested in reducing the amount of mail you send, while increasing your ROI… give us a call. We can help you out.

In the mean time, if you want to reduce the amount of “junk mail” you receive, visit 41pounds.org . For $41 (for 5 years) they will take your names off of mail lists. You can also do this yourself by calling your credit card and catalogs and requesting to be removed.

Using FSC logos

There are certain requirements for using the FSC logo. First, you need to verify your sheet at http://www.fscus.org/paper/. That will tell you the version that you can use for the sheet. We will confirm that the correct logo has been selected and then send you a FPO version. Wentworth will place the high res version when we receive the files.