To an increasing number of our clients, environmental responsibility is a high priority. Many have serious plans in place to reduce their carbon footprints in the years ahead. High on the list of measures is the exclusion of suppliers who send them unwanted brochures and mailings.

Sharing the same goals as our clients, Ideasbynet have launched a 'Forests Not Flyers' initiative that aims to influence the catalogue driven promotional gifts sector, to desist from the blanket marketing of brochures and flyers. It is estimated that in the UK, 1 million glossy brochures are mailed annually by the promotional gift industry. If the average brochure is 100 pages thick... that amounts to a massive 1,200 tonnes of paper (or 19,200 trees).

It is hardly surprising that organisations are now refusing to deal with 'catalogue dependent' businesses. Our 'Forests Not Flyers' campaign is designed to raise awareness of this fact to the promotional gift industry. Clearly there are no excuses any more for indiscriminate blanket mailings. Five years ago maybe, but not now. Every client has internet access so it makes sense to market to clients through a website channel.

Ideasbynet do not print or mail out catalogues, nor do we appear in any other trade body brochures. We do not mail-out flyers. Wherever we can, we recycle everything. When sending out samples we take pride in reusing Jiffy bags and mark them with a recycled stamp to prove the point.

We urge other businesses in our sector to follow our lead for two reasons. Firstly, there is satisfaction on a corporate level in being environmentally responsible. Secondly, and to keep things in proper perspective, reducing costs through eliminating wasted marketing costs makes irrefutable business sense.