Timberland created the “Green Index,” which lists such information as the amount of energy consumed to manufacture a particular shoe, and shares the database with competitors to set a transparency standard for the shoe industry.

One San Francisco retailer’s Web site steers customers to a national database where they can search for the closest recycle center that accepts their direct mail discards, like the retailer’s own glossy catalogs.

Epicurean magazine Saveur doubled its response rate by abandoning its courtesy voucher in favor of another marketing strategy: the magalog. There are a lot of offers in the magalog, from sweepstakes to discounts.

Wal-Mart introduced a packaging scorecard for its more than 150,000 products to determine whether the company and its suppliers can conserve natural resources by reducing packaging and sourcing more sustainable materials.

Sixteen percent of Volvo Rents’ customers account for 89 percent of the company’s business. As a result, 89 percent of the marketing budget is devoted to that 16 percent.

Kodak began offering a high-quality printer that saves up to 50 percent on ink cartridge costs not long after it discovered that the cost of ink was the No. 1 consumer dissatisfaction with home printing.