Released on: June 30, 2009, 5:02 am
Author: NS & I
Industry: Financial

National Savings and Investments (NS&I), the government-backed savings provider, is delighted to be named as the first customer within the Government to meet Sustainable Mail™ environmental standards.

Sustainable Mail™ has been designed by Royal Mail to help businesses increase the use of environmentally-friendly materials in mailings, while reducing the amount of mail in the waste stream. With almost 27 million customers, NS&I regularly uses direct mail to communicate with customers. The new service will help the financial provider minimise the environmental impact of its direct mail campaigns. Another benefit of signing up to the Royal Mail’s new bulk mail service is a lower price tariff.

Tim Mack, Head of Marketing and Communications at NS&I, stated: “We welcomed and encouraged Royal Mail’s development of Sustainable Mail(tm) and are proud to meet the criteria and pleased to save money on postage costs.”

To qualify for the Sustainable Mail™ product, mailers must meet one or both of the specification requirements - entry level, where prices of up to 2% below normal Mailsort tariffs are available, or intermediate level where this increases to 4.7%.

Matthew Neilson, Head of Environmental Solutions at Royal Mail, said: “There has been tremendous interest in the Sustainable Mail™ service and we are delighted to name NS&I as the first Government organisation to use this service for their direct mail campaigns.”

Sustainable Mail™, along with the Responsible Mail™ product offered by Royal Mail’s Wholesale division, are the first services available that are consistent with the forthcoming BSI standard for Environmental Performance for Direct Marketing. The standard, PAS 2020, was announced in January with the backing of Royal Mail as well the Direct Marketing Association, Acxiom and advertising organisation ISBA.

NS&I produces all its direct marketing material in association with integrated agency Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw. The agency was appointed in January 2008 to provide direct marketing and direct response services. NS&I expects to post its first direct mailings using the Sustainable Mail™ product in July 2009.

About National Savings and Investments

NS&I is one of the UK’s largest financial providers with almost 27 million customers and over £94 billion invested. It is best known for Premium Bonds, but also offers Inflation-Beating Savings, Guaranteed Equity Bonds and Children’s Bonus Bonds in its range. All products offer 100% security, because NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.

ISDN for interviews: 020 7602 4522

Out of hours: All numbers above diverted to staff mobile phones.

Images of Tim Mack are available on request

NS&I PR contact:

Gill Stephens

National Savings and Investments

375 Kensington High Street

London

W14 8SD

020 7348 93449

www.nsandi.com.