Note: I’m publishing this one day after it was written (doesn’t change much, but just to be clear). Also, I normally don’t publish this kind of thing on CleanTechnica, but seems like an awesome new alternative to snail mail and, seriously, who wouldn’t like to win a million dollars, a Nissan Leaf, a laptop, or a tablet? 😀 (And, yes, this is actually an exclusive guest post for CleanTechnica.com and Planetsave.com.)
Randy Dean, VP, Consumer Media, Zumbox
Today is a very special day for Zumbox and, we hope, for people who believe simple changes can make the world a better place. We are launching our campaign to tell everyone about the benefits of digital postal mail, the first upgrade to your postal mailbox since the days of the Pony Express. Our mission is simple: To use the power of the internet and personal computers to make digital postal mail such an incredible value and convenience that people will forget that paper mail ever existed.
We also have a million dollars (and thousands of other prizes) ready for several lucky people who sign up for their very own Zumbox and start replacing paper mail with our high-performance digital postal system. I’ll talk more about that in a minute.
If you haven’t heard of Zumbox, we work directly with mailers to deliver exact copies of your personal business mail – statements and bills, for example – to a secure digital mailbox available online. Messages in your Zumbox are exact copies of the paper mail you now receive. However, it’s not just the same mail, it’s better mail because you can digitally organize, store and notate all your important documents. They are searchable and are stored forever, for free. You can even pay bills directly from your statements received in Zumbox. And once you are comfortable using your Zumbox, tell us to have your paper mail stopped and – whoosh! – you have helped save a tree. And a whole lot more.
OK, back to our million dollar giveaway, which begins today. We are offering the grand prize for up to six winners, plus 20 Nissan Leaf hybrids, along with gift cards and goodies from Apple, Starbucks and Amazon.com. We promise to award at least 650 prizes every month between now and December 15. There are more than 5,000 prizes in all.
Winning is easy: Just sign up for your very own Zumbox, and find out if your address has been selected. We have already placed winning envelopes in thousands of Zumboxes. When you sign up, you will find a message in your Zumbox right away that lets you know if you won or not. In addition, if you help someone else sign up and they win, you receive the same prize they do – even the million dollars or a car!
The time for digital postal mail has come. Each year, in the United States, more than 50 billion pieces of mail are sent from companies to their customers (bills, statements, notices, etc.), not to mention the 90 billion or so pieces of marketing mail (better known as “junk mail”). Less than 40 percent of marketing mail is recycled, leaving about 55 billion pieces of junk mail in landfills every year.
Six days a week, U.S. paper mail is delivered to 145 million households and businesses, and the mail trucks travel about 1 billion miles, using 125 million gallons of fuel every year. The environmental costs associated with producing a ton of paper include 17 trees, 60 gallons of air pollution, 79 gallons of oil, 7,000 gallons of water and 41,000 kilowatts of energy.
If you would like to know more, we have published an essay, “What’s the Real Cost of a 44-Cent Stamp?” that you are invited to download.
Just between those of us concerned with the environment, here is a little secret: The greatest thing about Zumbox is that we are not forced to promote it as an environmental solution because its tremendous value and convenience speaks for itself. Sure, Zumbox is good for the environment, but most people will sign up because it is more convenient than paper mail, not just to save a tree.
The biggest environmental wins, we believe, will be things – like Zumbox – that people sign up for because it meets a personal need. The best solutions are wins for both people and their planet.
We hope you will claim your Zumbox and tell all your friends and family to do so, too. We look forward to awarding the million dollar grand prize, especially if we can give it to someone who shares our environmental concern – and just happens to know a better postal system when they find one!
For more info you can also check out today’s press release, follow us on Twitter at @Zumbox or check out our Facebook page for instant updates!
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
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