The recommendation is part of Fedma's, and the national Direct Marketing Association's, recognition of the need to incorporate environmental sustainability into direct marketing strategies.
Fedma said that the recommendation is intended to help marketers pursue good practice when producing email and for the national DMAs to choose self-regulatory policies appropriate for their national markets.
Ara Cinar, Fedma's outgoing chairman, said: "This is a very positive step forward to help marketers show that they are acting responsibly. We need to be very aware that consumers are concerned about environmental waste.
"Sometimes very simple actions can help --such as the postal operators creating databases for changes of address to make sure that mail is not delivered to the wrong, old address."
The toolbox of best practice has been drawn from existing codes and recommendations operated by DMAs in Europe and elsewhere.
It is intended simply as a guide to aid the DMAs and also individual companies to choose from best practices, which have been selected by the Fedma environmental and ethics committees.
Fedma said that it was helped by the postal operators, and in particular by La Poste France, in preparing the recommendation and toolbox.
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