Our Commitment

UK Netpoint are committed to operating the business responsibly and in compliance with all current environment regulations, legislation and approved codes of practice relating to our overall business activities in line with BS EN ISO 14001.

We constantly monitor and review our environmental performance and environmental policy statement in order to ensure its continuing suitability, and we will implement improvements whenever appropriate.

With this in mind UK Netpoint have recently passed the accreditation process for use of Sustainable Mail, this brings added work to mailing products but the end product being kinder to the environment and further added postage discounts.

 

Sustainable Mail

As stated above, Sustainable Mail is now in use by UK Netpoint.  Sustainable mail brings large discounts to clients and mailing houses up and down the UK.  However to ensure that mailings are actually sustainable mail there are a number of entry requirements that must be met when undertaking mailings, we have included the entry requirements below.

 

Improve Targeting

1.  Where data is not from a consent-based file you must maintain a documented procedure for suppressing customer and prospect data against the Mail Preference Service (MPS), including MPS deceased.  This must be in place and files checked thirty days or less before the item that uses the data is posted with Royal Mail.

For mail produced overseas where the transit time to the UK is greater than thirty days, mailing files should be checked for recency thirty days or less before the items are despatched to Royal Mail and transit time to the UK should be no longer than ninety days.

2.  You must keep and maintain an internal suppression file to ensure that customers and prospects who request to opt out of your postings are properly logged. This data must be checked thirty days or less before you post the item that uses the data.

For mail produced overseas where the transit time to the UK is greater than thirty days, the data must be checked thirty days or less before the items are despatched to Royal Mail and transit time to the UK should be no longer than ninety days.

All items should be at least 90% fully and accurately addressed and postcoded in accordance with Royal Mail’s Postal Address File (PAF).

 

Sustainable Resources and Materials

All paper products used in your posting must contain recycled fibre from recovered waste paper and/or virgin fibre sourced under a certified chain of custody conforming to a certification scheme approved by the Defra funded Central Point of Expertise on Timber Procurement (CPET).

Recycled wood fibre is that recovered from pre-consumer waste paper and postconsumer waste paper but excluding mill broke (i.e. waste paper generated during the production of paper). Virgin fibre is wood fibre that has not been used before.

Currently five certification schemes have been approved as satisfying the UK Government’s requirements for sustainable and legal timber:

1.  Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
2.  Canadian Standards Association (CSA)
3.  Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC)
4.  Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
5.  Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)

All paper products in your posting must be produced using non-chlorinating bleaching methods. Chlorinating bleaching methods are those that use elemental chlorine.  Nonchlorinating bleaching methods include Elemental Chlorine Free, Processed Chlorine Free and Total Chlorine Free including oxidizing and reductive bleaching.

All paper products used must be sourced from paper mills that operate an environmental management system conforming to BS EN ISO 14001 and/or the EcoManagement and Audit Scheme (EMAS).

Most Western European paper mills conform to these standards and paper suppliers should be able to provide supporting documentation upon request

ISO 14001 specifies the actual requirements for an environmental management system. It applies to those environmental aspects over which an organisation has control and over which it can be expected to have an influence.

EMAS is a voluntary initiative designed to improve companies’ environmental performance. Its aim is to recognise and reward those organisations that go beyond minimum legal compliance and continuously improve their environmental performance. In addition, it is a requirement of the scheme that participating organisations regularly produce a public environmental statement that reports on their environmental performance.  The printers, mailing houses or in-house mailing facilities you use to produce the posting must have:

•   A documented commitment to environmental management and a baseline for environmental performance
•   Identified appropriate environmental legislation and other environmental requirements (e.g. standards, codes of practice and/or guidance) and have controls in place to ensure compliance to them
•   Developed environmental objectives, targets and programmes

Any organisation that has or is working towards an ISO 9001 (quality) or ISO 14001 (environment) or Investors in People accreditation should already be aware of what is required regarding the above. Alternatively the above criteria can also be met by conforming to BS 8555; 2003, Phases 1, 2 and 3.

An example of the requirements above at a basic level would be:

•   Writing an environmental policy statement
•   Defining core processes and their interactions
•   Formally documenting the processes e.g. in a flow chart
•   Identifying the environmental impacts that are associated with each process (repeat for legislation)
•   Recording what controls are in place to comply with legislation and minimise environmental impact including training, relevant paperwork etc
•   Identifying key targets and objectives including how they will be measured, reviewed and communicated
•   Undertaking document reviews – what was reviewed, results, actions taken etc.

 

Recyclability

All paper elements of your posting, including window and padded envelopes, must be recyclable. This means all paper elements must be able to be captured and separated from a waste stream for conversion or reuse and be recovered by the majority of local authorities at household level.

You must not use any plastic envelopes (including polywrap) in the posting. Currently, standard polywrap cannot be recycled at household level (only a few local authorities will accept it). This includes biodegradable plastic and polywrap. Because there is not an easy way for households to recycle these items it is more likely to end up in general waste and landfill.

You must not use any laminate finishes in the posting.  This provision means that laminate finishes must not be used in any part of the posting, i.e. it is not just the outer elements of the posting but the contents as well

The item must have less than 90% ink coverage.  This requirement refers to each individual component of the posting. It cannot be averaged across the posting, i.e. you cannot have one item with 100% ink coverage and another with no ink coverage to claim a 50% overall coverage.

All items must display a statement (for example ‘Please recycle this item’) and/or a logo (such as ‘Recycle Now’) on their outside to encourage the recipient to recycle it.  Weve supplied an example below:

 

 

 

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