Oct. 2, 2008 - Royal Mail, the U.K.'s national postal service, is shelling out discounts to marketers whose direct mail campaigns meet specific environmental criteria.

The discounts, of up to about 12 cents per item, will be offered to wholesale customers who use responsibly sourced materials and encourage mail recipients to recycle, among other green efforts.

Royal Mail expects that the price discount will encourage its wholesale customers to reduce the environmental impact of their direct mail campaigns.

Minimum requirements to qualify for the entry level price discount, which is about a nickel per piece, include the following:

• Mail items must be made from responsibly sourced materials – virgin fiber content or 50% recycled.
• All paper elements of the pack must be recyclable.
• Recycling messages and logos must be used.
• Envelope windows must be recyclable (from Feb. 1, 2009).

The discount joins Royal Mail's Carbon Neutral Door to Door scheme, which has been launched to give environmental advice to companies on materials to use as well as ensuring effective targeting of a campaign. Once the carbon impact has been minimized in line with the scheme standards, Royal Mail pays to offset the remaining emissions generated by the mail campaign.

A new ForestEthics report pegs junk mail's contribution to climate change at a whopping 51 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually.

The U.S. Postal Service has also made efforts to offset the environmental impact of direct mailing. In February, USPS sanctioned the use of a reusable envelope for bulk mailings that require a response.