For 90 years Pitney Bowes has been dedicated to helping companies grow through more effective customer communications—primarily through the mail, but increasingly through multiple channels including onsite, online and mobile communications as well. In recent years environmental sustainability has emerged as an important success factor for companies everywhere, and we have helped customers meet their environmental responsibilities through a growing range of innovative products and services that optimize the use of mail and integrate it with broader communication strategies.

Our products help organizations identify their best prospects, streamline the development and production of mail pieces, increase yields, manage expenses, minimize undeliverable mail and reduce overall paper consumption. We have also pioneered the development of systems that integrate physical mail with digital media, reduce document storage requirements and enable paperless workflow in organizations of all sizes.

Our 2010 Annual Report highlighted several recently introduced products that serve business and environmental goals simultaneously. Among them:

  • Our Volly™ secure digital delivery service gives businesses and consumers a powerful tool to control their communications and build one-to-one relationships across multiple channels, eliminating unwanted or wasted communications.
  • Our PresortXtra solutions bring the benefits of barcoding and presorting to low-volume mailers, generating postage discounts while expediting delivery and helping to minimize undeliverable mail.
  • Our Connect+ mailing systems give envelopes more impact with customizable full-color graphics that make recipients more likely to open them, improving the efficiency of mailing campaigns.
  • Our Portrait Interaction Optimizer is a dynamic software application that provides accurate, targeted sales, service and retention offers to each individual in a company's customer base at the specific moment of that customer's interaction, whatever the channel. As a result, customers get the information they need quickly and without irrelevant communications.

Design for Environmental Quality
Whatever the application, we design our products to have a minimal environmental impact at every stage from manufacturing and distribution to eventual return and recovery. Environmental considerations are incorporated as early as possible in the product design process under our Design for Environmental Quality (DfEQ) program, established in 1991.

Since we approached the EPA to create a new Energy Star category for Imaging Equipment in 1996, Pitney Bowes has offered a range of Energy Star-rated mailing systems. The EPA raised the standards in 2009, and we have incorporated the new requirements into new product designs including the recently launched Pitney Bowes Connect+.™ Customer Communications Series.

DfEQ has also guided us in complying with other U.S. and international regulations, and in removing hazardous substances from our products. Under DfEQ, electrical components must comply with the European Union's Directives on the Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and the Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE). And since 2008, we have communicated with suppliers and customers to achieve compliance with the Registration, Evaluation & Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) Directive.

Product return and recovery
Pitney Bowes has a long legacy of product remanufacturing and recycling. More than 95 percent of all components of our mailing equipment are designed to be recyclable, and we recover nearly all of our postage meters and approximately 85 percent of mailing products. In 2010, we recycled more than 6.5 million pounds of materials including copper, aluminum, steel, plastic, cardboard and paper through our product take-back program (U.S. and Canada). Returned equipment that cannot be reused is sent to approved recycling partners for resource recovery.

Factory Certified Green Solutions

In 2010 we rebranded our remanufactured mailstream products from "Classic" to "Green" to highlight the environmental benefits of our aggressive program of recycling and reuse of office technology. Green units save money for customers, have the same warranties and maintenance contracts as new equipment, and help divert millions of pounds of waste from landfills.

Pitney Bowes helps Earthsense rank greenest states 
Using analytical tools from Pitney Bowes Business Insight, Syracuse, New York-based Earthsense has established an annual ranking of the top 10 states in the United States in terms of residents' green behavior. Earthsense says its Eco-Insights Survey can help companies sharpen their focus in product development and more effectively market green products and services.

Pitney Bowes environmental innovation timeline
1944—Asset Return Program
1991—Design for Environmental Quality
2000—Green Power Market Development Group
2007—WasteWise Hall of Fame, Carbon Disclosure Project
2008—Eco-Patent Commons, WHQ green renovation
2009—Corporate Responsibility Report & metrics
2010—Third-party validation of CO2 footprint; Coalition for Energy and Environmental Leadership in Leased Space