At Harvey McKinnon Associates, we are committed to promoting sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint.  As a forward-thinking direct mail consultancy, we take responsibility for our business, constantly seeking out more environmentally-friendly ways of building donor loyalty.  To these ends, we are constantly striving to ‘green’ our business in each area of operation.

Data Management:
We encourage our clients to maintain suppression lists and merge/purge list data to prevent duplicate and unwanted mailings.  We also maintain clean data files to make sure the mailings reach the correct addresses by accessing the National Change of Address database and collaborating with Canada Post and the Direct Marketing Association.  Furthermore, we test variations of mail packs to determine which receive the best response, and are constantly striving to reduce waste.  These combined efforts ensure both maximum response and minimum environmental impact for all our mailings.

Design:
As the marketplace is always changing, we constantly strive to discover new and improved recycled or reusable materials in our mailings.  In our criteria for collaborating with suppliers, we review their environmental policies and practices.  As well, we work with printing houses to explore new and more efficient printing methods to reduce emissions and waste, such as computer-to-plate or digital printing.  We test design elements with mailing houses prior to printing to reduce waste and optimize efficiency.  We have eliminated extensive inserts and lift-outs from our design platform in an effort to save paper.  So too, we use Adobe PDF^TM files wherever possible to proof concepts and copy in order to reduce waste.

Print and Paper:
As often as possible, we specify the use of non-petroleum based inks in our print jobs.  We work tirelessly with our printers to determine the most efficient method of printing; for non-standard sized mailings, we print as many as possible on one sheet to reduce trim waste, and costs too.  And we also try to use printers and mail houses that are in close proximity to each other, in order that we may help reduce fossil fuel emissions and do our part against global warming.

We are proud that 95% of the direct mail pieces we create are printed on FSC-certified paper.  For all our everyday office printing, we use chlorine-free Harbour 100 paper, which is 100% post-consumer recycled, approved by the FSC, and Green E-certified.  Where possible, we use paper with at least 30% post-consumer content in our print jobs.  We encourage environmental consideration on all our official documents and mailings.  However, we also recognize the significant environmental detriment of the manufacturing, transporting, and de-inking of recycled fiber, and therefore work to understand the investment and impact we have in regards to paper.

HMA and Our Community:
We reduce paper memos by implementing extensive use of electronic communications (such as e-mail and intranet) for our internal and external messages.  We have also developed an online network for reports, projects, and monitoring to reduce paper generation.  And wherever possible, we have necessary hard copies faxed onto reused paper to reduce shipping emissions. 

We reuse packaging material and office supplies whenever we can.  We almost always print drafts on pre-printed paper.

We recycle paper, plastics, metals, cardboard, cans and bottles, batteries, printer inks and toner cartridges, and computer hardware.  Where possible, we buy office supplies such as paper, binders, and packaging made from recycled materials and post-consumer content, that don’t hinder the recycling process.

Our Office Manager regularly attends ‘green business’ conferences to constantly improve the environmental focus in our workplace.  Through our sustainability efforts, we diverted 94 yrds³ of recyclable materials from landfills last year alone!

Nearly all our employees walk, cycle, or take transit to work.  We carpool to off-site meetings as much as we can.  As well, every year we participate in the Commuter Challenge organized by BEST (Better Environmentally Sound Transportation).  We won for 100% participation in 2003.

Among our own staff, many of our employees volunteer for a variety of green causes.  Harvey has trained hundreds of people from many environmental organizations, started the fundraising programs for the Suzuki Foundation and Ecojustice (formerly Sierra Legal Defense), and for five years sat on the board of the Brainerd Foundation, an organization committed to the protection of the environment in the Northwest.

We hope that our commitment to the environment will inspire our clients and competitors to fulfill this global responsibility, and help to make the world a greener place.