Though in the early stages of ‘greening,’ Target Marketing, a direct mail company located in Rockland, has already taken some remarkable strides toward eco-friendly efforts.

In 2005, Target began recycling leftover paper from its shared mail program. That year, it recycled 156,640 pounds of paper. By the end of 2007, it was recycling 460,740 pounds of paper from its processing facility. Still, they knew more had to be done.

Early in 2008, Target formed a committee with its sole purpose to figure out ways to reduce its carbon footprint. Target took action right away. First, it joined the Arbor Day Foundation. Its yearly donation will allow for planting 1,000 trees and preserving six acres of rain forest.

Secondly, Target joined the Governor’s Carbon Challenge, Maine’s voluntary emission reduction program, in hopes of reducing emissions by 10 percent in 2008. An energy audit resulted in changing all 150 light bulbs from T12 bulbs to T8 bulbs, regulating the energy used by its vending machines, and changing to an on-demand water heating system.

Further changes included the purchase of new machines in the processing facility used for on-piece addressing, which has helped to reduce the amount of addressing done on a separate card (called a detach card) from the mail package. With more addressing done directly on the mail package, a substantial amount of paper per year is saved.

It is still too early to tell how much cost savings will be achieved by the end of 2008, but Target continues to work towards becoming a ‘greener company’ and reducing its carbon footprint.