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Pitney Bowes Announces New Research Helps Pinpoint Mail's True Environmental Impact

July 1, 2008

STAMFORD, Conn. - In a marketplace increasingly focused on environmental impact, the mailing industry is developing innovative new ways of doing business while lessening its environmental footprint. As the mailing industry adapts to environmentally friendly practices, its ability to pinpoint high carbon-emitting areas in the life-cycle of mail will help advance its environmental stewardship and sustainability goals. An assessment of the environmental impact of mail is an important first step in identifying those areas.

In a newly-published White Paper, mailstream technology leader Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) offers a first attempt to quantify and address the environmental impact of mail. Titled “The Environmental Impact of Mail: A Baseline,” the new White Paper is available on the Pitney Bowes website at www.pb.com/mailimpact.

“Pitney Bowes, and the overall mailing industry, measures its business success on a financial, social and environmental scale to ensure sustainability,” said Paul Robbertz, vice president of environmental health and safety at Pitney Bowes. “This new research will be instrumental in helping companies and the overall mailing industry understand mail’s true environmental impact.”

Key findings on mail’s environmental impact include the following:

• Mail is a small component of most consumers’ carbon footprint. Running a single refrigerator for a year, for example, is roughly equivalent to the creation and delivery of 5,000 letters.
• Mail is made from an increasingly renewable resource: trees. Sustainable forests and their related products are increasing in developed countries, despite growth in population and economic activity.
• The mailing industry has adopted many initiatives to reduce mail’s carbon footprint, but must foster stronger partnerships and establish robust sets of data to further understand and expand the environmental sustainability of mail.

“Although mail’s environmental impact is low in comparison with other everyday human activities, Pitney Bowes is committed to supporting the mailing industry in moving to even more sustainable practices,” said Robbertz. “We believe that this new research will be the foundation of future studies, initiatives and collaboration that lessen the carbon footprint of the mailing industry.”