What’s the answer?  Electronic mail… right?

Well… maybe. If you have someone’s email address, or can easily find it, email as currently configured does provide a viable alternative.  But, ever tried to email everyone on your block? If you’re a marketer, ever tried to simply email everyone on your snail mail list? For the most part, unless you’ve taken steps to gather those email addresses, you can’t complete these tasks: email addresses have no immediate connection to a physical address.

Enter Zumbox, a start-up based in the Los Angeles area.  Their solution to the paper-email dilemma: create an electronic mailbox for every physical mailing address in the United States.

Read more of this story »

I don’t dislike it, I detest it. I don’t need yet another bill from AT&T to sit on my desk. I pay it all online anyhow. I’ve signed up for internet only billing with a few companies, but for some I’m so panicked about not receiving the email (think mortgage) that I really want it sent to my physical address.

I’ve eliminated some of the obvious junk with 41Pounds, but there’s got to be a way for me to still get traditional mail without the 42 dollar footprint (no that’s not a typo), well, someone had the idea to stop fighting the postal system and migrate to a virtual mailbox.

Zumbox.

Read more of this story »

Thanks to my other gigs, I’ve got plenty of used packing materials laying around, all of which I reuse, or give to my kids for their art projects. In fact, our Christmas wrap is made entirely from brown packing paper stamped with carved potato stamps.

However, while you may not have those types of packing materials right in your closet, you probably have a few other things in there that will work well, and that won’t create more waste than necessary this holiday season.

Read more of this story »

These envelopes can serve the dual purpose of reducing resource use in terms of paper, handling, and tracking, and at the same time shining a green light on your company. With more then 80 billion reply envelopes mailed each year in the US, this is not an insignificant impact. According to ecoEnvelopes, every one million ecoEnvelopes used saves an estimated 250 million BTUs of energy and 37,000 pounds of greenhouse gases.

Read more of this story »

Ron Wiener is acutely aware of the challenges of receiving and responding to mail while on the go. A serial entrepreneur, Weiner often finds himself out of the office managing his growing business, Earth Class Mail.

Billed as, “The Ultimate P.O. Box”, Earth Class Mail delivers your mail online 24/7 wherever you are. Tired of opening up junk mail? Earth Class Mail will receive your mail for you, scan the envelopes and send them to you online. You decide which get forwarded, which gets shredded and which get recycled. Perfect for nomadic executives and small business owners, Earth Class Mail is also a greener way to manage mail.

Read more of this story »

The two decided to prove the viability of different kinds of feedstock to produce biofuels, especially biodiesel and ethanol. They’ve done that, traveling from Poole, England to Timbuktu, Mali, 4,473 miles, using 396 gallons of fuel made from three tons of discarded chocolate.

The truck was salvaged from a scrap yard, repaired and fitted for the long trip. It will remain in Timbuktu, a donation to a local charity. The crew will also set up a small processing unit to convert waste oil products into fuel.

Read more of this story »

La Poste will phase in the electric vehicles over a five year period and will get their first shipment of 500 in 2008. They've been testing eight electric models in Paris and in Bordeaux since 2005 (which must have gone really well considering the order). Manufacturers expected to bid on the request include French transport groups SVE and Bollore.

There's no word as to how many of the 60,000 non-electric vehicles in the French fleet will be replaced, but government officials are hoping the prominent visibility of these new delivery vehicles will encourage the public to begin to phase out their dirty modes of transport as well.

Although they're going to have to work a little harder if they want to catch up to the United States Postal Service. The USPS already has 37,000 alternative fuel vehicles and they're continually conducting research on new ways to make delivery state-side more enviro-friendly. Afterall, the mail must go through. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night" … nor global warming!

Via WBCSD

Junk mail comes from many different sources, and while it should be easier to remove yourself from the mailing lists, it is possible to get rid of junk mail once and for all. However, we must warn you - there will be days that you go to the mailbox and find it absolutely and completely empty!

First, visit the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service, fill out the form, pay $1 and your name will be removed from most mailing lists. Second, call 1 (888) 5-OPT-OUT to remove your name from those never-ending credit card offers. Third, any other mail you receive such as store catalogs or items from organizations of which you are on their mailing list, you'll need to contact each one directly and request removal.

Finally, you'll want to get rid of those local fliers. These seem to be the most bulky and frequent of all junk mail. These local fliers arrive with a "Current Resident" address card. Use the return address information on this card to find out who is sending these fliers and contact them directly. (If the company is ADVO or Shopwise, remove your address here.)

Rebecca says: The few minutes that it takes to go through these steps is really worth it. Imagine the trash and trees that you are saving, not to mention the headaches! Follow these steps and in 6-8 weeks, your mailbox will be almost empty!

Mail Preference Service

ADVO Consumer Support

Ecorazzi's Be Green Like Leo video