Season's Bleatings

Umbra on corporate holiday cards 6

Dear Umbra,

My company wants to send out holiday cards each year, but I find it wasteful, especially because of the increased transportation load on the post office. What could we do instead?

Cindy
Truckee, Calif.

Dearest Cindy,

A stumper. I can think of three choices: No cards, paper cards, and email cards.

Is tradition stacked against you?

Photo: churl

Businesses send holiday cards to show appreciation, remind clients of their existence, and generally keep clients a-clienting, right? Replacing holiday cards with nothing at all does not help a business meet any of these goals, so I think we will have to nix that one.

Email "cards" can be nice, I suppose. They certainly are paper-free. My guess is they would be well received if the sending company was a techie business, particularly one doing web design or software support. But the card would need to be super-spiffy, really impressive, kind of, "Wow, I'm so glad we hired these people, maybe they can make us look this good." Unless it's well done, or appropriate to the business relationship, a holiday email may just seem like inbox clutter from a lazy company. I'm guessing a little here; as you know, I work for a nonprofit. It could be that corporate holiday emails are de rigueur now.

Our final option is to improve the eco-ness of paper holiday cards. You don't mention how the cards are designed and made, so I'm wandering in the dark a bit here, but there are a few changes you might make. One obvious one is to ensure the paper is high in post-consumer recycled content. You should be easily able to get 30 percent post-consumer content, if not 100 percent. "Post-consumer" is what we imagine all recycled content to be: made out of our old office paper and curbside recycling. Often recycled content in paper is made up of virgin paper trimmings and unused scraps. If we support paper recycling by purposefully purchasing post-consumer products, we help close the circle and cut down on cutting down trees.

Since you are rightly concerned about postal gas use, a second approach to waste reduction would be reducing the size of the card. Let's say you usually send a folded card inside an envelope. Maybe it's a ridiculously small change, but you could go with a folded card that is its own envelope. Print the greeting on one side, fold the card in half and address it on the back. Close it with a wafer seal. Right there you've cut your paper use in half and reduced a tiny amount of weight in your mailing. A postcard would be even lighter. I'm not sure whether that will significantly cut down on postal trips or gas use, but it's worth a thought.

Your golden state of California is ready to help you with your task, Cindy. Cali has a searchable recycled product directory that can get you started. Most major paper manufacturers carry post-consumer products, too, so you are not going to have to look far.

Pulpily,
Umbra

 

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Send your green-living questions to Umbra.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

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  1. Aimee Petras Posted 4:03 am
    31 Oct 2007

    Corporate CardsInstead of buying cards and spending all that money mailing greeting cards, ask your company to donate what they would have spent to an organization or several selected by the employees?   You could even make it democratic and have everyone vote on their favorite.  

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  2. bailsout Posted 7:25 am
    31 Oct 2007

    Christmas business cards.On the other end, maybe we could let the businesses that send those cards know that the snail-mailed sentiment is apprciated, but that, as suggested, they might find a better place for their money and say so in that ecard.

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  3. ECO Posted 7:45 am
    31 Oct 2007

    More Than Just A CardAnother option is for businesses to send a card that is more than just that. Check out NativeEnergy's cards - they not only serve their purpose as a holiday greeting, but every card offsets CO2 pollution. It's a great solution for a company who wants to spread the holiday cheer while providing some environmental contribution as well.
    (And the reason why I like NativeEnergy is because they work directly with family farmers and Native Americans on new renewable energy projects, so there is a social benefit too!)

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  4. akbeancounter Posted 5:16 am
    01 Nov 2007

    Print Boring Cards, Donate the DifferenceI worked for a bank that basically does what Aimee suggested, albeit for social reasons more than environmental ones.  Instead of sending the same lavish 5"x7" gold-foil-and-tissue cards that our competitors sent, we sent smaller and less elaborate cards, cards designed by a local artist and printed at a local shop, and donated the difference to a local charity selected by a panel of employees.
    The idea was pretty well-received; our customers understood that we cared, both about them and about our community.  I never once heard a depositor complain that our Christmas card wasn't flashy enough.
    -- A.

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  5. wouldntitbenice Posted 2:00 am
    02 Nov 2007

    post office?I'd actually like to hear more about the efficiency of the Post Office deliveries.

    At first, I thought, yea, they should definitely invest in alternative fuel vehicles(those little cars they drive around could easily be golf carts, right?). On the other hand, they have a pretty well planned out route, they walk a lot, they deliver multiple things at once...seems to me to be a pretty well oiled machine. I doubt anyone's regular daily errands are as efficient as the post office deliveries.

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  6. pumpkin sparshott Posted 3:23 pm
    03 Nov 2007

    ecardsIt may depend on the nature of the business. I get birthday cards online from 2 or 3 ebusinesses... and they actually make me feel warm and fuzzy. Small businesses. Leftie newsletters. And I'm a lonely old women.

    But a card from, say, Walmart (big business) would not feels so fuzzy. Or at least, if fuzzy, cold. And slimy. Likewise my government or my phone company.

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