Destinations

Read the original post from the HubSpot blog to stop outbound marketing.

Casto has a number of activities planned for it’s employees on Earth Day, one being to help them eliminate junk mail by paying the postage for them to opt-out of various marketing, credit and insurance direct mail services. There was an excellent article posted to the HubSpot blog regarding our alarming junk mail statistics.

The best part of it is that for each link to their article before April 30, 2008, HubSpot will make a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation to plant a tree, up to a total of $5,000. For example, if 500 people link to the article, they’ll give enough money to plant 500 trees. We commend the donation and provide their post below. You can also visit us online for more information about Casto’s Green Initiative.

Shocking Junk Mail Statistics & Environmental Damage

1. Junk Mail Kills 2.6 Million Trees Every Year. I assumed each piece of “standard mail” was junk mail (this is only about 50% of the total volume of US Mail) and assumed that junk mail uses 2 sheets of paper (1 envelope and 1 letter), found the number of sheets of paper per tree, and did some math. Of course some junk mail is only a postcard, but some is a catalog. And some does use recycled paper. But I did not factor in any of the damage caused by all those trucks burning gas to deliver all the mail either.
2. Every US Household Gets 6 Pieces of Junk Mail Each Day. I took the total volume of junk mail and divided by the number of households and the number of mail delivery days and got the answer, which is 6.3.
3. In 5 Days We Produce Enough Junk Mail to Reach the Moon. I took the width of a business envelope (8-7/8 inches) and multiplied by the number of junk mail pieces and divided by the number of inches to the moon, and saw that we could reach the moon 61 times per year with our junk mail. If you divide the number of mail delivery days by 61, you get 5, which means every 5 days we could reach the moon again with our junk mail.
4. Junk Mail Produces 1 Billion Pounds of Landfill Each Year. If you take the 2.6 million trees killed each year and convert that into pounds of paper, you get roughly 2 billion pounds. Even if you assume half of that is recycled (I saw an estimate of 45% on Wikipedia) you still have 1 billion pounds of paper going into landfills.
5. Junk Mail Weighs Almost Double the US Military’s Tanks. Our junk mail weighs nearly twice as much as all the US tanks in the world, combined. If you take the average US tank at a weight of 67 tons (a ton is 2,000 pounds) and divide the total weight of paper from junk mail by that number, you find that junk mail produced each year weighs the same as over 15,000 tanks. According to Wikipedia, the US military has about 8,000 tanks. By the way, a tank weighs about 40 times more than a standard car.

   

Spain’s Up Coming Events:

All over Spain there are events that will satisfy any and all travelers tastes. At the center of all the commotion is Zaragoza. The city of Zaragoza is where the International Expo will be taking place starting June 14th through September 14th, the theme being Water and Sustainable Development. There will be more than 100 countries participating and an expected six million visitors will be attaining. Non-stop entertainment has been planned to keep the masses busy. More then 3,000 shows featuring some of the world’s finest artists, including an everyday parade put on by Cirque du Soleil that will take place on the Expo grounds.

Spain is also having a countrywide Museum and art expansion.

Exhibitions to catch while in Spain:

• Madrid’s Cultural Center, CaixaForum is a seven-story complex that will present art exhibitions, music and poetry festivals, film screenings, conference and workshops.

• Goya in Times of War exhibition at The Museo del Predo, April 15th to July 13th

• Portraits of the Renaissance also featured in The Museo del Predo, June 3rd to August 7th

• Modigliani and His Time exhibition at The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum through May 18th

• Collection of the Musee National Picasso in Paris exhibition at the Renia Sofia through May 5th

• “MAXImin: Maximum Minimization in Contemporary Art,” a collaboration of works with the Damier Art Collection through May 25

Performing Arts:

• Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica celebrates its 100th anniversary with year long events, including art exhibitions, concerts, and cultural projects.

• Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia starts its season with Homage to Puccini with the Valencian Regional Orchestra performing, Placido Domingo conducting February 20th.

Sporting Events:

• August 24th, formula one cars will be racing trough the Valencia’s city streets in the European Grand Prix. In addition there the motorcycle Grand Prix.

• Barcelona is holding the Eurogames 12th annual European Gay & Lesbian Championships August 24 to 28.

• The Volvo Ocean Race starts in Alicante on October 11. The race is 39,000 nautical miles and will stop in 10 ports all around the world.