Case Study: Direct Marketing Association reduces waste and avoids legislation with BSI PAS 2020

Helping the Direct Marketing Industry Reduce Waste, Avoid New Legislation and Save Costs

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) needed a clear, credible way to help its members reduce the environmental impact of direct marketing, meet a voluntary recycling agreement with DEFRA, and avoid the risk of industry-specific legislation. It approached BSI to develop a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) that could define best practices for reducing waste and improving sustainability across the sector.

BSI worked with DMA, industry stakeholders, environmental experts, and government representatives to create PAS 2020, a standard that now underpins third-party certification. The result was a major increase in recycling of direct mail materials, rising from 13% in 2002 to 76.5% by 2009, while also helping protect the industry from new legislation, cut costs through better targeting and reduced mail volumes, and deliver savings such as Sun Life Direct’s £150k per year.

Direct Marketing Association

Alex Walsh

Associate Director