Green Building – Bag for Life syndrome?

Posted on by November 8, 2013

I’ve just read this article on the GreenWise blog, which is fast becoming essential reading and has made it onto our blogroll. It offers theories as to why high profile ‘green building’ Portcullis House hasn’t turned out to be the eco-giant it was meant to be. It could be subtitled ‘why all was well til the janitor turned up’.

Green Building – Management Blues

The article effectively makes the point that it’s all very well designing for sustainability, low-energy use etc, but if that approach is not taken on and actively practised by the end users of the eco-friendly item then really we’re getting nowhere.

Bag For Life syndrome

‘Bags for Life’ spring to mind here.  Someone I know (who doesn’t deserve it but shall remain nameless) has grasped the concept that environmentally responsible people use bags for life. So, every time this person goes shopping they buy a new heavy-duty plastic bag. The concept of reusing the same bag until it’s falling to pieces and thereby reducing the overall number of carrier bags bought and therefore made (in theory) has completely passed this person by. The thought processes, such as they are, go along the lines of ‘I’m buying the eco-friendly bag’ and stop there. Bang. By blindly adhering to just one eco-friendly principle in isolation, this individual is in fact consuming a far great quantity of resource than if they paid no attention to the environment and picked up a new, regular carrier bag every time, so the whole thing has backfired.

No brainers

I can see the argument for no-brain-required eco-friendly measures and there is a case for them in various circumstances I’m sure, but it’s not a long-term answer. In the context of a large and complex green building such as Portcullis House, buildings managers are needed who understand how to get the best from the set-up. The lesson we can all take from this is that good low-impact design is only the start.

Little things like…domain name email

Posted on by March 4, 2014

I’ve just read Merrie Marketing’s excellent weekly MerrieZine, which this week focussed on the impact of small details, both positive and negative. Immediately my beef with businesses running on non-domain email sprang to mind.

Every sector will have its own pet hates and appreciate that which the rest of us will barely register. There must be those, for instance, who swoon with horror at my business cards (to use one of Kim’s examples) as they aren’t printed on both sides, aren’t half an inch thick and don’t have a photo on them. On the other hand, they’re supplied by a local company, printed on paper from managed woodland, and they’re clean and without dog-ears. They have a QR code on them, which other tech-minded people will notice and excitedly go ‘oooh look!’ and fire up the barcode-reading app. Joking aside, our cards are smart, up-to-date and professional.

Can the same be said of a company operating via a Hotmail, Gmail or – perish the thought – a btconnect email account? I’m distinguishing here between a company promoting itself and its services, and someone making tentative first steps and using their existing arrangements. We forgive the latter (aren’t we generous?), but a company using a generic email account on advertising, business cards and their website is broadcasting to the world that they aren’t at all concerned with projecting a professional image, and that instantly makes me wonder where else their professionalism falls down. This is the problem with lack of attention to detail – it immediately raises doubt in your potential customer’s mind as to where else they might meet that in dealing with you.

Note the reference there to a website – the number of websites sitting on a small company’s domain but using a generic email account is quite shocking. If you’re in this position *please* ask us for help. We’re happy to explain how to set up email using the domain name you already own. It’s yours – use it. It will do wonders for the impression your company makes, and once you’ve done it you’ll wonder why you ever waited.

Green for Efficiency

Posted on by March 20, 2013

I was reading this article on the waxing and waning fortunes of the ecological agenda (no, don’t click away, there is something in this for you!) and was struck by this remark:

numerous polls and research reports demonstrate that green businesses outperform their peers

Efficiency, in a word. Efficient business practices will streamline your business and save you money (though there may be an element of swings and roundabouts involved, but better that money is spent to advantage than wasted), reason enough to embrace them even if you are not pink and fluffy about the environment. The article goes on to say:

there is a more sustainable alternative to business as usual

And this is the real point. Those companies among us who are trying to fly the green flag and do our bit, however piecemeal or haltingly, have to demonstrate that to survive the long term, green is the only way forward.