As Canadians are now looking for information on local businesses and people in a variety of ways, YPG offers the choice to Canadians to opt-out of receiving the print directory. When launched in 2009, YPG was one of the first directory publishers internationally to offer such a program.

In a context where a majority of Canadians continue to use our print directory, one of our challenges is to inform online savvy Canadians that if they no longer need a print directory, they can opt-out. Here are the top 5 ways we are using to achieve this objective.

1) Call out on the cover of all our print directories

It was natural to start including a clear call out on the opt-out program on the cover of all Yellow Pages^TM directories that we publish.

2) Twitter social media campaigns

Twitter has been a great tool to inform Canadians of their choice to opt-out in large cities. A few months before distribution in a particular city, we send a message via our corporate Twitter account and we encourage our municipal and environmental partners to re-tweet (or send similar messages) informing their residents and members of the program.

Last fall, our opt-out message went viral in Calgary generating 100 tweets in 48 hours. We estimate that close to 2000 residents opted-out because of the viral tweets.

3) Doorhanger reminders

As a pilot, YPG will distribute over 80,000 door hangers in select Montreal neighbourhoods this summer to remind residents that they have the choice to opt-out.

(only in french)

4) Facebook ad campaign

In April 2012, we launched a small ad campaign to inform Toronto residents about the upcoming opt-out program, targeting either Facebook users with interest in the mobile phone or the environment. We are currently scaling up a similar campaign in Montreal.

5) Our opt-out website is social media enabled

To sustain all the promotional efforts in informing residents of the opt-out program, we have added Facebook and Twitter widgets to our opt-out site, to help residents spread the news in their own communities.

For instance, on June 13^th, 6 people tweeted the opt-out message with a total of 1189 followers while 15 people shared the information via Facebook.

6) Bonus – This blog post?

Maybe this blog post will help spread the word on our opt-out program! Indeed, if you no longer use one of our printed directories to find information on local products and services, do not hesitate to opt-out and spread the word in your network!

How do you opt-out? Visit http://www.ypg.com/delivery

or contact Yellow Pages Group’s Distribution Call Centre at 1-800-268-5637.

Winter – Assessing our carbon footprint

Every winter, we ask our suppliers, employees and building managers to help us measure our carbon footprint for the previous year. In 2010, YPG reduced its carbon footprint by 17%!  See our recent blog post for more on our carbon footprint.

Spring – Out with the old, In with the new

Instead of clearing out those dust bunnies, in April we converted most of our office printers at YPG to print double-sided paper by default. This project increased the rate of double-sided sheets being printed by 150%. This follows a series of initiatives such as paperless ad creation over the last three years which have reduced internal paper use by 15%.

Summer – The season to be social

Even if 89% of Canadians keep a directory at home, Yellow Pages Group understands that some people prefer digital alternatives. Therefore, the Company encourages those who do not wish to receive our printed directories to opt out of the print directory distribution. In March, we placed a clear call-out on the cover of all the directories promoting our opt-out program. We also spread the word via social media. In August, a few months before the distribution in Calgary, our social media community manager and local environmental groups informed Calgarians about our opt-out program via a Twitter campaign that went viral and prompted about 2,000 opt-out requests in 48 hours.

Fall – Changing patterns

Canadians are changing their local search information patterns and are now increasingly using digital alternatives such as YellowPages.ca or Canada411.ca. Our commitment to distribute responsibly by reflecting consumer demand and to continuously improve our manufacturing processes has resulted in various initiatives that lead us to reduce our directory paper consumption by 22% from 2010 to 2011 (a total reduction of 44% in 3 years!). One of the most significant reduction projects was to modify the territory covered by residential directories in Quebec and Ontario to reflect evolving consumer habits.

Environmental stewardship is a path

We’ve ended 2011 by attaining most of the goals set in our environmental plan. In 2012 and beyond, as we continue our digital transformation and as paper suppliers get increasingly efficient, it is foreseeable that our overall environmental impact will continue to decrease.

As one of the leading Internet companies in Canada (with over 9 million unique visitors per month for our sites) we will endeavour to better measure in 2012 (what gets measured gets managed) the direct and indirect environmental impact of searching on our online and mobile platforms.

For more information on our environmental program, please consult our website.

It is therefore a fitting time to report on what we have done so far at Yellow Pages Group to measure our carbon footprint, assess how our carbon footprint methodology compares to other Canadian companies, review our reductions over the last few years and reflect on 2012.

What evaluation process do we follow to assess YPG’s annual carbon footprint?
The 2010 carbon assessment was our third. Each year, our model and data collection process are continually improving.

Here are the three basic steps we use to estimate our carbon footprint:

1) Build a list of all emission sources, for example:

• Office emissions: Energy used to power, cool and heat our offices
• Transportation emissions: Car fuel used by our media consultants travelling to meet our advertisers
• Print directory emissions: Energy used to make paper from wood chips.

2) Calculate the emissions for each source. The quality of the data varies significantly. For instance, it is high when data comes directly from the yearly utility bills. It is much lower when it is based on surveys assessing our air travel emissions.

3) Crunch the data, then document and report the results on the Carbon Disclosure Project website (www.cdproject.net/) as most of Canada’s top 200 companies do every year.

How did our 2010 methodology and report compare to other Canadian companies?
We scored 69 out of 100 on the quality and extensiveness of our reporting by the Carbon Disclosure Project, which is a significant improvement over our 2008 score of 24. This score puts YPG among the 20 highest scoring companies in Canada.

How has YPG’s carbon footprint improved since 2009?
YPG carbon footprint was reduced by 17% from 2009 to 2010. Here are some of the factors that contributed to the reduction:

Office emissions reduced by 5%
• As 2010 was more than 3 degrees Celsius warmer than average in Canada, this natural phenomenon reduced our energy consumption in winter. We also improved operations in our Vancouver and Calgary offices and made adjustments to the after hours lighting system in Montreal office.

Print directory emissions reduced by 22%
• YPG reduced the amount of directory paper consumed by 25% from 2008 to 2010 mainly driven by reduction in the distribution of residential listings “white pages“ corresponding to changes in usage patterns by Canadians who search differently for personal numbers ─ this cutback translates directly to the reduction of our print directory emissions.

What can we expect in our 2011 and 2012 carbon footprints?
As we look to the future, we will continue improving the precision of our calculations and reducing our emissions.

From a methodological perspective, for our 2011 carbon footprint, we will focus on gathering more detailed results from the data centers hosting yellowpages.ca or Canada411.ca. It is somewhat counterintuitive, but data available from our digital services providers are less precise compared than the emissions linked to our printed directory.

Our 2011 and 2012 carbon footprints will likely be smaller than 2010. This is due in part to the following reduction efforts:

• In our Montreal office, the building manager implemented several energy saving measures such as reduced cooling or heating during off hours.
• During 2011, we implemented manufacturing and distribution initiatives that will likely result in a reduction of directory paper consumed and therefore a net reduction in emissions.

“Many Montrealers have already received their Yellow Pages^TM print directory on their doorstep or in their building’s lobby. The article published in La Presse’s Forum section on August 27 has no doubt led many residents to wonder about the telephone directory’s usefulness and its impact on the environment.

The environmental impact of our print directories is nothing like the one described by Martin Roy. While Mr. Roy takes concrete steps to be an environmentally responsible citizen, the same holds true for Yellow Pages Group (YPG). YPG always factors environmental considerations into its business decisions and works proactively to continuously reduce the impact of its print operations. Here are few facts that reflect YPG’s environmental initiatives in keeping with Canadians’ changing consumer habits:

-    Every month, one in two Canadians consults the print directory to find nearby goods and services, and over 340,000 Canadian companies continue to use this medium to reach potential clients.

-    YPG gives Canadians a choice by inviting those who prefer digital alternatives like the Yellow Pages^TM site or mobile app to take their names off the Yellow Pages print directory distribution list. We have no interest in distributing directories to people who do not want them, and we publicize that choice on our directory covers, on social media and through various other communication initiatives.

-    Yellow Pages directories are produced using wood waste chips that the forest industry creates when transforming logs into square timber. The lifecycle carbon footprint of a directory is less than that of many household activities or products, including three loads of laundry.

-    In Quebec, YPG will pay 80% of used directory recycling costs for 2011. This initiative was launched on a voluntary basis and now continues as part of official recycling programs. The outdated Yellow Pages directory recycling rate is 84% in Quebec, much higher than the recycling rates for similar products like newspapers (70%) and general-use paper (40%).

-    Finally, through various waste-reduction initiatives, we have cut our paper consumption by 25% in two years. That accomplishment is part of a more comprehensive plan of action that started in 2009 with our participation in the Changing the World, One Step at a Time program developed by Equiterre. In two years, we have accomplished 25 of the 31 environmental initiatives identified in cooperation with that organization.

Although these few examples aptly sum up our commitment to the environment, we encourage you to learn more by consulting our website’s Environment section at responsibility/environment or by viewing the following video on our blog: Five Minutes or less. And for anyone who does not wish to receive a print directory, we invite you to opt out of the distribution list, just like the 10,000 other Montreal households who have already done so! Just visit distribution or call 1-800-268-5637.

What could I possibly be doing? Picking up unused directories? Choosing the trees to chop for paper? (Completely false btw, directories are made from waste wood byproducts of the lumber industry that provide wood for our houses).

According to my job description I should be “developing and implementing initiatives to help YPG reduce its environmental footprint in both our internal and external operations”.

But between us, I prefer describing it as implementing common sense initiatives. Some of these projects have an immediate impact (internal paper reduction, energy efficient lighting), others promote healthy work environment for employees (promoting bicycle use, green office cleaning products) and finally others are just good for the community (carpooling to work, including local environmental tips at the beginning of every directory).

In real life, some would consider me an eco fanatic (not me of course) in education, hobbies and in my volunteering. And that’s now transmitted into my work.

Glancing backwards, this company has made some important steps forward in just a few years (stay tuned for a few of these steps in this blog), and yes, we can absolutely go much further.