About Us

The conversation about paperless mail has begun, and everyone has a seat at the table. Paperless Please is an initiative by Zumbox that seeks to provide a dialog between all those who send and receive paper mail. Registering for Paperless Please and claiming your Zumbox is your vote for paperless mail. It's a vote for a new choice in how we receive and access our mail. It's also a key step toward reducing the environmental impacts of paper mail. The campaign enables you to make formal paperless mail requests to companies that currently send you mail. This will also support the campaign community.

What happens when I sign up for Paperless Please?
Paperless Please is a specific portal through which to claim your Zumbox, whereby you simultaneously join the campaign for paperless mail. In other words, by signing up for Zumbox through Paperless Please, you are taking a proactive step toward transitioning your postal mail to paperless.

How do you use the Paperless Please campaign registry?
The Paperless Please address registry remains private and secure. It is not openly shared with any third party. When mail senders join the Paperless Please campaign, they are able to see which addresses in their current database match those of the registry. This way, they know immediately that they may start sending electronic (paperless) versions to those on the registry. Each mail sender may have a different way of going about this, which may require an additional step to opt in. This is entirely up to the mail sender.

Is Paperless Please just a way to get me to sign up for Zumbox?
Zumbox is currently the only way to receive secure, paperless mail using your street address, and receiving any type of mail is free. Individual users can also send mail for free (according to a pre-set limit), and there are free-postage programs for qualifying organizations. Otherwise, sending mail via Zumbox represents a significant savings in printing, paper, and postage. And while Paperless Please relies on Zumbox to fulfill its mission, the goal of the campaign is much broader in scope. There have been untold trillions of dollars invested in our digital information infrastructure, yet we still consume paper at an unsustainable rate. Paperless Please addresses this issue with a practical alternative to paper mail but also seeks to broaden awareness about the larger issues of climate change, forest stewardship, and sustainability.

Can businesses, non-profit organizations, and government entities join Paperless Please?
Absolutely! In fact, the Paperless Please community depends on the participation from all types of organizations. Go to our Partners page to see who is already involved. To become a Paperless Please Business, Non-Profit, or Government Partner, please send an email to partners@paperlessplease.org.

Are there ways to promote the Paperless Please campaign?
There are several ways to further the Paperless Please campaign. First, you can invite your friends to join via e-mail. Next, you can post the Paperless Please widget to your Facebook, MySpace, or blog. Finally, you can send a letter via Zumbox to companies that currently send you paper mail and request that they send it paperless... please. This requires that you've already claimed and secured your Zumbox in order to send the letter(s). We'll be adding new ways to promote the campaign in the coming months, so please check back. In the meantime, please let us know your thoughts and ideas!

Is Paperless Please and Zumbox available outside of the United States?
At this time, Zumbox is exclusively available within the United States. However, the Paperless Please campaign will soon add international registries in order to facilitate the expansion of paperless mail into new countries.

How is this different from e-mail?
Zumbox is different from e-mail in several ways, most notably in that it uses actual street addresses to send and receive mail. This makes the Zumbox system compatible with the way companies currently send mail... sans the paper, of course. Zumbox is also a closed system, which enables the highest levels of security, control, and accountability. Zumbox is intended as an alternative method for delivering postal mail that otherwise would have been delivered as paper. It is not a messaging service.