Setting standards - a new industry initiative

When, over two years ago, the DMA started planning the industry’s response to the environmental challenge. There were 2 questions that members kept asking:

1. What exactly do I have to do?
2. And how do I communicate that I’ve done it?

Some form of measure was needed that would provide tangible evidence to policy makers and regulators that the DM industry was living up to its obligations. The standard – PAS 2020 - will complement the DMA’s drive to raise standards and is intended to work both independently and alongside existing environmental management standards such as ISO 14001. PAS 2020 is expected to become a benchmark for other industries and – through independent external accreditation – will enable organisations to make a verifiable environmental claim about their Direct Marketing campaigns. The standard is being constructed by using BSi’s well developed model of building consensus amongst key stakeholders. The model has two key groups – a Steering Group and a Review Panel. The Steering Group is a collection of 30 to 40 industry practitioners, representatives from national and local Government departments (such as DEFRA, BERR and Local Authorities), and key Non- Governmental Organisations (eg Institute of Environmental Managers Assessors). Their task is to create the content for the standard using their particular expertise.

 

The Review Panel is even broader and consists of several hundred organisations, both individual companies and representative bodies. Their role is to consider the content and provide feedback on its suitability and make suggestions for changes where appropriate. PAS 2020 has been produced for all organisations which use Direct Marketing – not just DMA members. It also aims to provide guidance for all DM channels – although initially the focus is on the paper based ones. Not unsurprisingly, much of the standard is around effective production methodologies and the use of data to minimise waste at source.

The standard’s requirements are expressed in a number of levels. Typically organisations that are following current best practice should be able to achieve the lowest level. The highest levels, however, incorporate a number of challenging ideas (such as providing consumers with a method for unsubscribing from future communication at a brand level) that mean it is unlikely that any organisation could meet all the requirements today.

 

After a year’s intensive work from the Steering Group the first draft document went out to the Review Panel in mid-June prompting over 600 comments from more than 50 organisations! As a result the deadline for publication has been extended to November 2008 which will allow further investigation of some technical issues as well as for several other groups to add their feedback. Following publication the basis for accreditation to the standard will be agreed.

 

 

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