May 4th, 2012
What a difference an app makes: Shopping and sustainability go hand in hand
“A virgin forest is where the hand of man has never set foot.” ~Author Unknown
53 million clear-cut trees. 19 billion catalogs requiring printing and postage. That’s the impact of the print catalog business on an annual basis. With the re-emergence of the catalog channel enabled by the iPad, Catalog Spree is firmly committed to sustainable initiatives that counteract the environmental impact that print catalogs have.
We will continue to raise awareness about the sustainable nature of digital catalogs, and encourage consumers and retailers to join the effort. To help save more trees, you can help in a number of ways:
1) Download the free app and start receiving all your favorite catalogs digitally
2) Visit http://catalogspree.com/green and help spread the word
3) Sign up at http://catalogchoice.org to stop receiving your print catalogs in the mail
4) Download the app, Paper Karma: Enter your name and address (once) then take a picture of the catalog, upload it to their servers, and they will contact the company FOR you to remove you from the list!
During Earth Month in April, we formed an alliance with the Arbor Day Foundation, and encouraged consumers to help us plant 25,000 trees – through the mere act of downloading our free app in April. With the main objective focused on reforesting Pike National Forest, we quickly reached our goal and added 25,000 trees to Arbor Day Foundation’s conservation efforts now taking shape in this ravaged area.
Located in south central Colorado and covering over 1 million acres, Pike National Forest is a diverse landscape where planting of more than 140,000 ponderosa pine and Douglas fir trees will begin this year. In June 2002, the Hayman fire burned approximately 137,000 acres – the largest fire in Colorado’s history. In moderate and high intensity burn areas, 100% of the trees were lost – and, along with them, future seed sources for natural regeneration. We are honored to be part of the effort to regenerate this land, and help restore its natural beauty. To learn more about the reforestation of Pike National Forest, read here.
We also conducted an Earth Month survey of 300 consumers, to better understand the catalog consumption habits related to print catalogs. An astonishing 89.8% of survey respondents indicated they would prefer to receive some or all of their catalogs digitally, if this was an option. Retailers – listen up. Nearly 90% of the catalogs you are printing and sending to consumers are not even wanted! Think of the positive environmental impact you could have, and the additional economic savings for your organization if you used this insight to move yourself to a larger digital commitment. In fact, at Catalog Spree, many of our partners are committed to digital-only catalogs for this very reason, including Sephora, Karmaloop, Fair Indigo and others.
So what’s next? Our commitment goes far beyond planting 25,000 trees. To date, we’ve published nearly 500 catalogs in total on our platform, and we’re proud to be the exclusive partner to help the Arbor Day Foundation go digital with their Tree Book (check it out here), saving even more trees.