 Ann DeLaVergne spent time making her own, reusable envelopes via a sewing machine to help in preserving trees and using less paper. She eventually went on to patent ecoEnvelopes with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
The envelopes zip closed, eliminate the need for a separate reply envelope, and are manufactured with paper from managed forests and contain up to 100 percent post-consumer waste content.
DeLaVergne used to be an organic farmer and beekeeper. The environment has always been important to her and she has spent a huge portion of her life devoted to being "green." The ecoEnvelope sort of became a passion and she took it under her wing, perfecting it and sharing it with the world. She received grants from the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance and the Eileen Fisher Foundation and won supporter after supporter, including the former CEO of one of the largest envelope manufacturers in the U.S.
The main objective of these envelopes is so businesses need not enclose an envelope inside your mailed bills and such. If you're not comfortable going paperless with billing then the least you can do is push for companies you deal with to use the environment friendly envelopes. As it stands right now 80 billions "reply" envelopes are sent each year in the U.S. alone and that is just unacceptable.
On February 20, 2008 the USPS finally decided they are going to take this green initiative and legally push the bill. The ecoEnvelopes have received a key National Customer Ruling from the U.S. Postal Service and this is VERY important. "The USPS National Customer Ruling is issued after an official testing and approval process. The ruling provides customers with increased confidence that ecoEnvelopes' unique designs meet the most stringent qualifications for use in the US mail."
"Eliminating return envelopes saves energy, water, and forest resources and reduces the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Every one million ecoEnvelopes used saves an estimated 250 million BTUs of energy and 37,000 pounds of greenhouse gasses. All ecoEnvelopes are manufactured on certified papers from managed forests using up to 100% recycled content."Labels: carbon emissions, ecoenvelope, environment, forest conservation, recycling |
