Ecological best practices in a leading catalog business

In business since 1935, Miles Kimball is one of the largest and oldest catalog businesses in the United States. Using its eponymously named brand and other, more targeted brands directed at more specialized market segments, such as Serenity Falls or Walter Drake, the company still conducts a large part of its business through catalogs, mailing approximately 75 million of them every year. As one might expect, telephone and e-commerce also play a big role in generating revenue.

Take a brief look at what the company offers, and, unless you're newly arrived in the United States, you immediately realize that Miles Kimball's products are ubiquitous. Maybe you own a few yourself. The company's presentation is wholesome, traditional, inspirational, and friendly. The products are not represented as environmentally valuable, and maybe some customers wouldn't even like it if Miles Kimball were to offer strongly phrased green marketing messages to them.

Don't let that fool you. Miles Kimball shares a wide-ranging environmental policy and vision statement that is extremely remarkable for its inclusionary approach. The introduction talks about the company's environmental commitment and strong values. One finds many corporate Web sites that drop the subject right at that point. Miles Kimball goes on to detail its plans in eight main areas, including many practical measures it takes to accomplish ecologically sound business practices and induce vendors and partners to do the same. As listed by the company, the main focus areas of the environmental effort are:

• List hygiene and data management
• Design
• Paper procurement and usage
• Printing and packaging
• Recycling and pollution reduction in our workplace and community
• Internal and supplier code of conduct
• Green building
• Social and community outreach

The amount of detail provided is amazing. For example, within the third main subject, "paper procurement and usage," Miles Kimball includes four different realms of action. The fourth one reads as follows:

"We Encourage Responsible Use of Forest Resources

• "We evaluate paper used for marketing pieces and internal consumption to identify opportunities for increased post-consumer recycled content, lower basis weights and other environmental attributes.
• "Whenever the economics are sound and the environmental benefits clear, we purchase paper with recycled content, including papers with post-consumer content
• "We negotiate with our paper suppliers about purchasing papers with post-consumer recycled content at a comparable price, environmental impact and performance to virgin papers
• "We print order forms, blow-ins and order envelopes on paper with a higher percentage of post-consumer recycled content whenever feasible.
• "We reduce the amount of raw materials used to make our products by encouraging the development of lighter-weight grades of paper that meet our organization’s functional and quality needs.
• "From 2005 to 2007 our use of lighter weight paper has reduced our total wood use by 1,472 tons, or 10,191 trees. The energy saved was 21,806 million BTU’s, enough to power 240 homes each year. Greenhouse gases were reduced the equivalent of 4,364,582 lbs CO2, or the emissions from 396 cars per year. Wastewater was reduced 10,219,474 gallons. Click here for more details. [sic — no live link there]
• "We work with our printers to reduce paper waste (reduced overage counts, make-readies, etc.)."

I also find it praiseworthy that Miles Kimball includes social and civic goals within its environmental positioning, drawing clear connections in a holistic approach to identifying what "environment" means to the company and its employees and customers. Take a look at the code of conduct for suppliers or the statements about social and community outreach. These people are profoundly serious about the ecological and social values they advance. Needless to say, the catalog business is not the greenest endeavor one could imagine, but Miles Kimball appears poised to transform it for environmental sustainability without risking what made the company successful.

My company, Washburn Communication, is currently working on a case study about Miles Kimball's implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX to help run the business. Miles Kimball chose Microsoft Dynamics AX because it fit with the company's growth ambitions and long-range plans, and because it generates many thousands of dollars worth of savings in all areas of the operation. Environmental considerations were not a primary concern in picking a business management software solution. But Microsoft Dynamics has a green story to tell and keeps adding to it, so the Microsoft Dynamics software tools are certainly a good fit for Miles Kimball in that regard as well. We'll discuss the green aspects of Microsoft Dynamics another time, soon.