E-mail and Direct Mailing CO2 Impact

What’s behind my m@ail? Comparative Analysis of Sustainability and effectiveness of e-mail vs paper mail Gaëtan Dartevelle , Managing Partner , Greenloop Jacques Bruyneel , DM Consultant , bpost business 22/03/11

Common assumptions
Direct Mail generates more carbon footprint than digital
It’s better for environment to move to CRM paperless
Direct mailing is a waste of trees

What we believe by bpost

bpost approach with Greenloop
STEP 1 : a DM carbon meter = how to measure and reduce “your” direct mailing C02 impact; bpost is the first post & media to calculate LCA
STEP 2 : To compare the C02 for delivery of a mailing and an e mail
Purpose : Advices to go for better green Direct Marketing

E-billing to save the trees and the earth? http://www.digi.com http://www.greencitizens.net http://www.timewarnercable.com

E-billing to save the trees and the earth?

E-folders to save the trees and the earth? “ In 2 weken, 600.000 folders, of 5.000 ton papier en 41.600 bomen bespaart”

E-catalogues to save the trees and the earth? Source: www.e-leclerc.com

And the consumer? 38.000 bomen en 1512 ton C02 bespaar

And the consumer?

And the consumer? Heel wat klanten (...) vinden het niet kunnen dat het bedrijf beslist heeft om hun rekeningen voortaan via e-mail te versturen. “ ONGEVRAAGD EN ONGEWILD ” luidt het. Source: Het Laatste Nieuws 02/12/2010

Dematerialization «From atoms to bits»? 1995 - MIT professor Nicolas Negroponte Sources: Radicati Group, 2010; Mcafee, 2009; UPU, 2009 Number of emails/day has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, but the number of post letters has only slightly decreased

ICT and PAPER usage Sources: 1 CEPI, 2010; 2 Arnfalk, 2010 Production of paper & board in CEPI countries, quarterly trend 2000 - 2010 1
Conclusion 2 :
Relatively small substitute effect
Large complementary and generational effect

Environmental impacts of the ICT and paper industry Beyond CO2... Resource extraction Production Usage Waste energy usage & GHG emissions Effect on: biodiversity toxicity energy usage & GHG emissions biodiversity toxicity energy usage & GHG emissions biodiversity energy usage & GHG emissions biodiversity TOX GHG BIO

Sources: 1 UNEP, 2010; 2 Umicore, 2007; 3 CSIRO, 2007
Rare materials
Modern electronics contain up to 60 different elements 1
800 laptops contain up to 1 kg of gold 2
Intensive chemical refinement of materials Water usage 250.000 M 3 water is used for 1 tonne of gold 3 Impact on resource extraction TOX GHG BIO TOX

Logging of mature virgin forests
56% of all woodsources in EU are PEFC and FSC certified 1
Homogeneous replanting for logging Source: 1 CEPI, 2009 Impact on resource extraction BIO BIO GHG BIO

In Europe, only 15% of paper “raw material” comes from specific “thinning” (cutting of trees) 25% Waste of forest industry 50% Sanitary “thining” 25% Specific “thinning”
15% (= 25% of 60%) of paper “raw material” comes from specific “thinning”
25% of these virgin fibers comes from specific “thinning” 60% of paper production is made of “virgin” fiber
 “ Use of paper” DOES NOT mean “forest destruction”
Even environmentalist say that there is nothing wrong in using timber (large or small trees) for paper production, provided the forest is managed in a sustainable way

Source: 1 Williams, 2004
Energy intense complex production
81% of life cycle energy use during production phase 1
Chemical treatment Impact on production GHG TOX

Impact on production Production of pulp & paper CO2 emissions have decreased by 42% per tonne of paper pulp since 1990 1 Bleaching COD used has decreased by 76.3% since 1990 1 Water usage Source: 1 CEPI, 2009 GHG TOX GHG TOX TOX TOX

Continuous energy use
ICT GHG emissions are 2% of global total 1
Global data centres GHG emissions comparable with those of The Netherlands 2
Sources: 1 Gartner, 2007; 2 McKinsey & Co, 2008 Impact on usage GHG

A non polluting ICT?
ICT sector’s current share of world greenhouse gas is 2% and it is expexted to more than double by 2020
Source: Gartner – IT Vendors, Service Providers and Users Can Lighten IT’s Environmental Footprint, December 2007 IT carbon emission breakdown

Transport 430 billion mail items send in 2009 1 Source: 1 Arnfalk, 2010 Impact on usage GHG

Impact on waste Landfill Only 15% of global E-waste is recycled 1 Yearly E-waste increase: 40 million tonner/year 2 Quickly obsolete Increasing life span of phone from 1 to 4 years decreases environmental impact with 40% 3 Sources: 1 Pike Research, 2010; 2 UNEP, 2010; 3 Umicure, 2007 BIO TOX BIO TOX GHG

Source: 1 CEPI, 2009
Landfill
Paper recycling rate in EU 2009: 72,2% 1
Impact on waste GHG GHG

Comparing life cycle ICT and paper: linear versus circular system 15% 72%

Comparing apples and pears? ICT and paper: difference in functionality & usage Compare the function: ‘send a message’

The life Cycle analysis of a DM campaign

ICT life cycle
Use of rare materials 1 billion de GSM’s contains:
9 T palladium
24 T gold
250 T silver
4000 T cobalt
9000 T copper
Source: L’Echo, 2010 Use of rare materials Production of a 2 gram micro-chip requires 1,6 kg fossil fuel Source: McKinsey & Co.
Energy consumption
Data centers CO2 emissions expected to grow from 80 megatons in 2007 to 340 megatons in 2020
Data centers worldwide generate roughly half of that of the airline industry
Rapid obsolesce
Limited recycling
Toxicity
Source: Williams et al, 2002 Resource extraction Production Usage Waste

Reading a magazine with a clean conscience? Life Cycle Assessment comparison between an online magazine and its paper version
Two-way comparison:
A 120 page magazine (Finnish)
11 editions per year
40 minutes average reading time per month
Online or paper: NO DIFFERENCE in terms of CO2 emissions

The Direct Mailing carbon meter

Number of Addresses & diffusion

The MAILING

Results

E mail carbon Meter
Purpose:
Calculating the CO 2 emissions of sending
a typical DM by post and sending an comparable alternative
campaign via email

E mail Carbon Meter
Email DM campaign:
30.000 recipients
200 kb message
10 mandays of database & campaign design
Reading time recipient: 1,52minutes
& 30 sec.
DM campaign:
30.000 recipients
C5 size letter (3 pages)
10 mandays of database & campaign design
(Reading time recipient: 1,52 minutes)
From Antwerp to whole of Belgium

DM and E mail Carbon Meter 5,6 grams/email DM 5,0 grams/email DM Carbon emissions from email campaign (1,52 Min): (30 sec): 14 grams/paper DM Carbon emissions from paper DM: Results from DM Carbon Meter

Simulating the effect of sending a typical DM and a typical email message C02 EMISSION: 1 DM = 2,0 to 3,5 times email

Some testimonies 80% ongelezen 1 Post=7@

But…volumes are not the same !
Worldwide 1 :
430 billions direct mailing
60.000 billions e mails (SPAM included)
Source: 1 Arnfalk, 2010 X 140

SPAM effect Global CO2 email traffic up to 20 times post letter traffic 1 Source: 1 Arnfalk, 2010

How to reduce your CO 2 impact?
For a DM campaign by email
Minimize the recipient reading time per email
Use url short cuts (1 click = 0,9grs C02)
Be attentive to the size of the email
Use modern servers (virtualized)
Urge consumers not to print the email
Did you know: + 60% of sending an e mail is paid by the recipient !

How to reduce your CO 2 impact?
For a paper DM campaign
Use recycled paper and/or sustainable managed forest
Use non colour intensive graphics
Avoid binding in the DM
Compensate your CO 2 emissions (transport with bpost)
Ask bpost DM consultant team for advices

FACT: consumers receive 1.000 mass messages every week 200 TV ads 150 radio ads 1000’s of ambient ads ... 20 e-mail ads 3 cinema ads 400 press ads/inserts 350+ outdoor ads 2+ DM pieces Over 3.000 messages / day 52 get your attention 4 are kept in mind positively ROI of ads is part of the calculation Source: Mindshare - Henley Centre (and TNS Media & Post survey)

But only one personal postal adres

Value of beta DM is the second best after cinema Campaign recall % per category Avg= 67,4%

FACT: Paper Mailing generates a better content recall than e-mail Paper mail has by far more effect on the long run Direct mail is more effective throughout the media funnel leading to an 83% higher content recall rate compared to email Received DM/Email Recall DM/Email Read DM/Email Correct recall content Paper mail E-mail 100% 100% 49 28 27 16 22% 12% Source: Market research on 1800 customers, utility sector case 49 28 55 57 81 75

E-mail has a much stronger impact when combined with a physical mail Received Opened Clicked Intentions DM + E-mail E-mail only 100% 100% 34 30 21 13 23 9 Source: DMix survey Mail order (2007) 113% 161% +255% 34 30 60 42 93 70

The future is about the integration of E&P
70% of belgian companies integrate e-mail marketing in their mediamix
66% of them declare to be satisfied of the objectives reached
+ 414% 1 IAB - E-mail Marketing Cookbook; 2 Study E loves P – Pilot Research In one of the pilots we ran with our customers, adding DM to email multiplied by 4 the number of final orders 1

The power of Email (benchmark) Source: IAB 2009 Belgian Benchmarks

Benchmark paper & e mail Sources: IAB
Direct mailing Béta: 67,4
e-mail open rate: 24,35%
Click: 6,76%
-5,25% Effectiveness of e mail is decreasing -20,47% -15,85%

Consumers: Media preferences 2010 Scores 6 & 7 on a scale of 7 Étude Market Probe – 2010 – bpost – 1000 interviews

Advices for “green” Direct marketing
We recommend: (shortlist)
First of all: the commercial impact & ROI !
Use and test the best media-mix P + @ alternatives
Inform the recipients of your aim and actions
Be careful with green washing argument
Use valid arguments

Advices for “green” Direct marketing
With the DM Consultant of bpost
Calculate your carbon footprint for both types of media, paper & @
Advice to reduce your C02 impact
Use carbon offsetting whenever possible
Run a pilot calculation with bpost

“ please consider the environment before printing this message” “ please consider the environment when forwarding, responding to, or printing this message” ?

BIOMIM GREENLOOP NV/SA rue d’Alost, 7-11, 1000 Bruxelles Gaëtan Dartevelle, 0475/48.16.94 [email_address] bpost , Jacques BRUYNEEL 0476/42.05.39 [email_address] Presentation available on “ www.DMplaza.be ”

E-mail and Direct Mailing CO2 Impact

by bpost

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