Tips for 'Greening' Your Nonprofit Practices

9. Require paper suppliers to make a commitment to implementing sustainable forestry practices that protect ecosystems and biodiversity.

10. Ask paper suppliers about the source of the paper they offer to avoid paper made from unsustainable or illegally managed forests.

11. Require paper suppliers to document that they don't produce paper from illegally harvested or stolen wood.

Recycling and pollution reduction
12. Purchase more office papers, packing and packaging materials made from recycled materials with post-consumer content.

13. Integrate use of electronic communications for external and internal communications.

14. Ensure your environmental labels and messaging are clear, honest and complete.

15. Encourage consumers to recycle your materials by using the DMA's Recycle Please (www.recycleplease.org) logo on all of your materials and communications.

Brophy stressed the need to green all of the channels you use, noting that just because it's paperless doesn't mean it's green.

For National Wildlife Fund, missioned to protect wildlife for future generations, being green is in keeping with the organization's internal motto to "walk the talk." Eighty-five percent of NWF's carbon footprint comes from paper, including its four education magazines and direct-mail fundraising.

To counteract this, NWF focuses on the following four key areas:

1. List hygiene. This comes down to making sure you're mailing the right people, Zaleski said. NWF employ CASS, NCOA and PCOA; does a chronic nonresponder analysis; and has a dedicated staff person who handles list hygiene.

2. Strategic practices. The organization tries to utilize other channels such as online, print advertising, telemarketing and the Web more. It also does a mid-year performance review to gauge if there are ways it could cut back more. It also has a "Mailing Smarter Task Force" and "Cool It! Committee," which comes up with ideas of ways the organization can make a difference through its internal practices.

3. Eco-friendly materials. NWF looks to select paper for its direct-mail campaigns made from post-consumer waste or sustainable sources. In terms of sustainable papers, Zaleski said to look for vendors approved by the FSC or SFI. But she stressed that post-consumer waste is the best way to go because it saves more trees from being cut for paper in the first place.