Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

If you currently spend any time working from home (or are perhaps considering doing so in the future) then you might find this post by Treehugger interesting. As well as offering suggestions on how to keep your office healthier, there are also some other handy tips, such as choosing the right desk and chair.

Image by Veo

You can hardly switch on the TV nowadays without being confronted with images of melting icebergs, followed by gloomy predictions about the world’s climate… so it’s pretty unlikely that the term ‘carbon footprint’ has escaped your attention.

So what role does this play in marketing? Put simply, attempting to reduce (or even neutralise) Co2 emissions offers businesses an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

As well as demonstrating that your organisation is forward thinking, this would also send out a positive message to customers, and might even represent a strong PR opportunity.

Not only would you get a ‘warm fuzzy feeling’ from helping to save the planet, but you might actually save money on electricity bills too (freeing up more funding for marketing!). For example, switching just one electricity bulb to the low energy type, could save up to £12 a year. Multiply this several times, and the savings could really start to add up!

Being ‘ahead of the curve’ will also stand your business well for the future, as it is highly likely that environmental legislation will become tougher over the next few years.

Knowing where to start can be difficult though. How exactly do you calculate your carbon footprint?… and where exactly should you focus your attention?

The answer to these and other questions can be found at the government’s dedicated websites:-

Individuals should head to:- Act on Co2
Businesses & organisations should visit:- Carbon Trust

Of particular interest is the Carbon Trust, which is currently offering interest free loans of up to £100,000 for businesses to upgrade their equipment… that is certainly worth investigating, given today’s financial climate.

Finally, you might also find this Wikipedia article useful… it gives a nice introduction to the subject:- Wikipedia

Photo by crrazychaz

Imagine you’d recently renovated you kitchen and you’ve got an old chest freezer to dispose of. It’s not particularly pretty, it’s too big to fit in your family hatchback, and it’s probably not very valuable… but it does work really well. It would be a shame for it to go to landfill wouldn’t it? “I’m sure someone somewhere would find this useful” you’re thinking… “But who?“.

Imagine now, that you could advertise the item completely free of charge, and that someone would come and collect it from your home for their own use. Not only would you have a problem taken off your hands, but a warm fuzzy feeling that someone will benefit from your generosity.

Enter ‘Freecycle‘.

We were going to write an explanatory paragraph about Freecycle, but they’ve already done the hard work for us, so here’s a direct quote from them:-

“This amazing worldwide phenomenon known as Freecycle(TM) started in Tucson, Arizona in 2003 by Deron Beal. Freecycle harnesses the power of the Internet to connect people who have stuff to throw away with others in their area who would like that stuff, so it doesn’t wind up in a landfill. We ALL have things in our garages, closets, attics, offices, etc. that we don’t need. Freecycle lets you find someone who does. No item is too big or too small but ALL must be 100% FREE with NO strings attached. A perfect consumer/earth friendly circle is no overhead, no money, no waste and no catch. After all, there is no point in throwing something away when it still has good life in it or it can be of use to someone else.”

OK, so ideally, we would prefer to donate unwanted goods to charity, however there are certain items that charities will not accept. For instance, here’s a list of what Oxfam will and will not handle:- Oxfam

Another option might be to sell unwanted goods on eBay, but this can be time consuming, and unfeasable for larger bulky items. In addition, it might not be particularly environmentally friendly if your old TV gets shipped up to Glasgow.

So in summary, if you have a ‘useful’ but relatively ‘low value’ item that the ‘charity shops don’t want’, then we think Freecycle is a great solution.

www.freecycle.org

When you visit the site you can search for a group in your area (the local group for Weybridge is listed as ‘Elmbridge’). Freecycle does require that you have a ‘Yahoo id’… if you don’t have one, you can get one for free here

Cartoon via clangnuts.com