the Greening of Catalog City

Environmentalism is allegedly running rampantly through corporations around the globe.
Organizations are asking employees to refrain from printing documents unless its necessary. Other businesses are no longer handing out paystubs, instead opting to email pdf files with the same information.

For example, Mountain Equipment Coop no longer mails out printed catalogs. Instead they email out a notification to check the website for new additions to their catalogs. Partly because of their corporate structure, MEC consistently strives to minimize their foot print on the environment.

But on the opposite side, there are organizations that are sending out an overwhelming amount of catalogs. For example, for the past six months the lovely people at Sears have ensured that each week my household receives a catalog. Each week the catalog is different. A winter catalog, an overstock winter catalog, an Xmas catalog, a bedding sale. The list continues.

With consumers having more and more of a role in the management of an organization's reputation. Rumours about an organization's environmental sensitivity can turn consumers off of their company. In the case of Sears, consumers may not want to receive catalogs every week. Its excessive to think of the costs of printing even one batch of catalogs, let alone enough catalogs for a weekly delivery.

In our current economic crisis it is ridiculus to consider that a company would spend excessive amount of funds on catalogs when other organizations are laying off employees. It seems very frivilious to think about how many cash is going into the recycling program.