The standard, called the Publicly Available Specification, will aim to become the direct marketing industry's first official environmental benchmark. It will allow businesses to prove they are meeting the DMA's standards for environmental compliance.
The DMA will develop PAS, which is endorsed by the British Standards Institute, with Royal Mail, Acxiom, the marketing communications representative body ISBA, and the Telephone Preference Service, the telemarketing regulatory body.
The scheme will aim to raise environmental standards across the industry by creating a single national standard covering all aspects of direct marketing including field, email and print mail marketing.
It is expected to take between nine and 12 months to develop.
The DMA sees it as a complement to its environmental strategy, which was announced at the end of 2006.
Robert Keitch, director of media channel development at the DMA, said: "For the first time, businesses will be able to effectively and collectively demonstrate their environmental credentials and cut through the 'greenwash'.
"We believe that the standard will act as a credible means of differentiation in a competitive marketplace."
Mike Low, director of the BSI, said: "There is currently no environmental standard specifically for the sector, so the PAS will provide a really useful benchmark for businesses."
In addition, the DMA said it was working with Envirowise, the government-funded advice body, and Friends of The Earth to develop a series of sector-specific "enviro-guides" giving industry members best practice guidelines. It said the guidelines would be announced later this year.