Paper campaign kick starts action against email footers

Companies with footers encouraging users not to print emails are being targeted by APIA’s paper – part of every day life campaign.

According to Tim Woods of the paper – part of every day life campaign, an increasing number of industry companies, organisations and individuals are damaging their business value chains by using email footers that suggest paper-based communications should be reduced.

"Slogans at the bottom of an email like 'think before you print' or worse, the totally incorrect 'save trees and email this' imply there is something wrong with using paper, especially when compared to using email,” he said.

The promotional campaign is writing separately to every company, organisation and individual using these incorrect and unhelpful email footers, seeking their assistance to help promote sustainable communications media.

"We do not want to directly criticise businesses that are part of the same value chain and who fail to support paper as a sustainable communications medium. First, we are approaching them to seek their voluntary withdrawal of these email footers," Woods said.

Woods’ advice is for companies to rethink their email footers. "We should all have email footers that say things like: 'Print and share this email to ensure the paper industry grows more trees'," he said.

"We all support resource conservation, so we should support print on paper as the only truly sustainable communications media. We must avoid falling into the trap of assuming that because electronic communications are new, they are more sustainable. That just is not true.”