Mailing Houses

The objective of Mailing Houses for PAS 2020 is to use mailing houses that manage their environmental impacts.

The greenDM.co.uk web site has been developed to be used in conjunction with the BSI PAS 2020:2009 standard. The environmental performance relating to the level needs to be used in conjunction with the PAS 2020:2009 document.

  

Mailing houses are responsible for distributing items into the postal system and are the final check to ensure that quality has been maintained through the subsequent production processes.

In the majority of case the mailing house will also incorporate the personalisation and customisation of the document or envelope to allow it to be delivered.

It is frequently the case that companies combine the disciplines of mailing houses and printers to offer clients a one stop shop for the full production of direct mail packs under one roof.

Commitment

There are mailing houses that conform to the DMA Code of Practice and have also invested resources in reducing the environmental impact of their business over and above what is already their legal requirement.

This commitment involves gaining various accreditations that are audited and demonstrate the mailing house’s commitment and awareness to environmental concerns.

The accreditations that are most common depending upon the size of the organisation are BS 8555:2003, Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3, BS EN ISO 14001and EMAS. Care needs to be taken when companies state that they are ‘working towards’ a certain accreditation as this really means very little. This is why the PAS 2020 specification makes it very clear that claims need to be documented and accreditations actually gained.

Types of mailing

Communicating with customers and prospects using mail can include the following types of communication:

  • Direct mail

  • Compliance mailing

  • Statement mailing

  • Transpromotional mailing

All of the above types of communication are used to convey information to the recipient and invariably they carry a marketing message. For example this could be an insert in a statement mailing. However for the purpose of the PAS 2020 specification at present, it only requires direct mail to be considered. An insert into a statement mailing can be simply described as an insert.

Personalisation

There are a number of production processes to personalise and customise a document or envelope. The variable imaging can be produced on one side (simplex) or two sides (duplex) of the document. The main processes are summarised below:

Laser Printing

This process uses cut sheets of paper or rolls of paper. Generally speaking lasering onto rolls is a higher speed and more cost efficient. The majority of machines that are now utilised image at 600 dpi as opposed to the older machines at 240 dpi or 300 dpi.

Most machines in the market utilise black toner however it is possible to laser in a range of special colours in combination with black. In addition toner that has MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) characteristics is also utilised to provide subsequent readability with products such as banking cheques when processing.

Digital Print

Once again this process can be produced on flat sheets or rolls of paper. It differs from laser printing in that white paper is processed rather than pre printed stock. The technologies are either toner based, utilise ink jet printing or electro ink. Both simplex or duplex printing can be achieved. This customisation and personalisation capability of digital prinitng makes it ideal for transpromotional mailings as not only will it apply variable personalisation but also customisation of images that are relevant to the recipient. However issues have been identified with water based ink jet printed documents and UV cured ink jet documents during the de-inking process when paper is recycled.

Additionally some systems can only image on to uncoated paper stocks and this produces a much flatter image than those that can use coated paper. It is therefore important that the application to which it is put to use is carefully considered and does not have a detrimental affect to branding. Always produce a test print and see it being produced for yourself on the actual machine that would be used if you embarked upon a project.

Ink Jet

Ink jet can also be mono rather than full colour as described above. It is therefore only used for personalisation or line drawings such as maps in a document.

The most common technology of this type that is used in direct mail is Kodak Versamark which was formerly called Scitex.

The benefits of this system are that it can produce work at high speed either on large flat sheets or as a complete in line operation in conjunction with web offset printing. In this instance personalised documents can be produced at rates of over 180,000 letters per hour. In addition this type of manufacturing can also produce complete one piece mailers from a roll of paper to a completed personalised piece ready for despatch into the postal system.

It is possible to use black plus other special colours to image the document or envelope. It is able to produce products as simplex or duplex personalisation.

Enclosing

Envelopes

The enclosing brings together all the different printed products and personalised and customised documents into an envelope. The mail pack consists of a prime document which can have a number of other personalised or customised documents matched to it. The more pages or documents that are imaged and require matching then invariably the higher the price of the campaign and the slower the process. The majority of direct mail campaigns consist of just one prime document.

On occasions a mail pack has a non window envelope which is addressed and either matched to documents inside or the documents are non personalised.

In addition, either the same or different combinations of inserts can be enclosed for each mail pack depending upon selection criteria that is related to the prime document.

The mailing house is responsible for presenting the mail pack to the postal provider in the correct manner and with the correct documentation. As more postal providers have entered the market then the mailing house has to conform to a number of different systems for presenting the mail packs and the documentation.

Polywrapping

This type of enclosing is cost effective for larger format products and also for bulkier items. It also has the ability to produce products such as matched personalised documents and selective enclosing.

It is important to consider the type of film used in the polywrapping process as different films can affect the environmental impact.

The PAS 2020 specification does allow non recyclable film to be used but it would only achieve a level 1 score. This is identified under the environmental aspect ‘Recyclability’ where each of the constituent materials in the direct marketing communication must be assessed and documented to determine if it is recyclable. However the physical direct marketing communication must carry a statement or logo that encourages the recipient to recycle the communication.

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back to topLevel 1

The delivery of a campaign’s DM communications shall be managed by those organizations identified in 4.4c) as responsible for such activities and that:
d) document a commitment to environmental management and establishing the baseline for environmental performance;
e) identify and ensure compliance with environmental legislation and other environmental requirements;
f) develop environmental objectives, targets and programmes.
NOTE 1 The criteria established in a), b) and c) can be met by conforming to BS 8555:2003, Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3.

Level 2

In addition to Level 1, a campaign shall use a mailing house or in-house facility that has an environmental management system conforming to BS EN ISO 14001.

Level 3

In addition to Level 2, a campaign shall use a mailing house or in-house facility that publicly reports on its environmental performance.

NOTE The eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) is a voluntary initiative designed to improve an organization’s environmental performance. It is established by European Regulation No. 761/2001 [87]. It is a requirement of the scheme that participating organizations regularly produce a public environmental statement that reports on their environmental performance and whose accuracy and reliability has been independently checked by an environmental verifier. Further information can be found at www.emas.org.uk.