I just wanted to let you all know about our new blog over at Make Hay Ethical E-Media.

For a little while now I’ve been having lots of fun writing Make Hay newsletters for our clients, providing news about what we’ve been up to and links and resources to help ethical business owners and we thought it was about time we shared it with everyone.

On ‘Make Hay, The Blog‘ we’ll be talking about useful websites, news from the world of ethical business and web design, special offers and anything else we’re inspired by.

Check us out on www.makehay.co.uk/blog

This is my final instalment of articles about our experiences at Make Hay of working to be a green and ethical company. This article is related to my previous posts where I talked about using ethical suppliers and encouraging others with your ethical policy.

Just to recap, the previous articles were:

Part 1 – Powered by the Wind
Part 2 – Waste? What Waste?
Part 3 – Be a Smart Consumer
Part 4 – Live your Policy

PART 5 – MAKE ETHICAL FRIENDS

Starting out with an ethical business was sometimes an isolating experience for us. At that time there was not the huge number of like-minded entrepreneurs around us and we were often told that what we were trying to do was a bad idea.

If it wasn’t for the enthusiasm of the people we met via green blogs, directories and networks life would have been much more difficult.

Making ethical business friends does not necessarily mean you are running an ethical business but it certainly motivates you to keep learning and working harder to improve. Seeing more and more new ethical businesses appear shows that the market is growing and consumers want more responsible services. I strongly believe that there’s power in unity and making links with these businesses allows us to share ideas, good practice and collectively raise the profile of ethical entrepreneurship. If, collectively, ethical businesses can influence business practice as a whole then eventually ethical business won’t be unusual or alternative but just the way things are done.

Community Working

Another way that we have made friends here at Make Hay is by getting involved in local community groups and activities.

Some businesses align themselves with a charity and donate a percentage of their profits to that charity. This can work well for larger companies but for small businesses like ours there is another, more creative way to provide useful, substantial support; and that is to volunteer your expertise.

We are actively involved with a few community groups in this way. For example, we provide free Green Hosting and voluntary web designs services to All Ours. This is grassroots service which holds social sessions and cooks healthy, organic meals for people experiencing mental ill health. For the Gedling Fairtrade Group we provide voluntary web services and work on the steering group to raise awareness of Fairtrade issues in the local area. Additionally, we are currently providing voluntary web design and consultancy to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and have built them a brand new content managed site.

Whatever type of business you run it is highly likely that you have a product or service that you can donate to someone who needs it. You don’t have to have lots and lots of spare money (and most small businesses don’t) just be able to give up a little of your spare time.

Making friends with individuals and groups within your community allows you to make tangible changes by doing what you do best – your ethical business.

What do you do?

Well I’ve talked quite a lot about Make Hay and the things we do to be an ethical business but there is always room for improvement and new things to learn.

I’d love to find out about other business owners’ experiences (good or bad), practices and ideas. Contact me at Make Hay, I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

In my 3 previous ‘How can a web design company be green and ethical?’ articles I focused on the business as a consumer. However, of course, the main purpose of a business is to provide either a service or a product. So how can you make sure that as a service provider you’re working in an ethical way?

PART 4 – LIVE YOUR POLICY

Whatever business policies you have they should be so much more than a statement. They should be a guide and point of reference for the way you do business every day.

Here at Make Hay we have an environmental policy, a working document which helps us to make sure we keep up our green practices as well as make new plans for the future.

It is our ethical policy however that is the backbone of our business, it encapsulates the reason we set up Make Hay and demonstrates to our clients that we won’t make money from unethical sources. To give you an idea, these sources include those who harvest natural resources, test cosmetic / household products on animals, chemical manufacturers and so on.

Think about the way you live your daily life and you can apply this to your business. Just as you wouldn’t want to give your money to an unethical company you probably wouldn’t want to earn money from them either.

We set up Make Hay because we wanted to support ethical businesses and organisations to raise their profile via the web. Conversely we wouldn’t want to promote businesses or organisations which are involved in environmentally or socially negative practices. Therefore our ethical policy states the kinds of activities and businesses we will and will not support via our services.

We’re also very interested in spreading ethical business as a whole and encouraging businesses to change their ways. Our policy isn’t meant to be judgmental and excluding but aims to be thought provoking and motivating. We believe that encouraging clients and colleagues to consider this means of ‘service activism’ and get them thinking about what their money may be supporting is very important.

In the early days of setting up Make Hay people thought we were being silly cutting out areas of a market with our ethical policy. But we decided that if we didn’t do that it wouldn’t be the business that we wanted to run. Indeed we have turned away very lucractive jobs because because those clients would have contravened our ethical policy but we haven’t regretted it for one second.

Understandably its difficult to say ‘no’ to clients when you need to pay the bills but just think, if many more businesses decided that they wouldn’t take money from unethical customers what a big difference we could all make together.

Next instalment: Part 5 – Make Ethical Friends

Vicky – www.makehay.co.uk

In my first two installments ‘Powered by the Wind‘ and ‘Waste? What Waste?‘ I talked a lot about saving energy and materials. In this third part I want to highlight how businesses can be greener by thinking carefully about where they buy.

PART 3 – BE A SMART CONSUMER

I remember hearing a news report a little while ago which said that whilst people regularly buy environmentally friendly and ethical products for their homes they didn’t do the same for the workplace. I couldn’t help wondering why – its just as easy to be a smart, ethical consumer at work and the wealth of suppliers out there prove it.

Here at Make Hay, our ethical web design company, we always aim to choose suppliers who have positive green credentials. This includes all aspects of running our business from the stationery we use and the equipment in the office to the advertising we buy and banking.

Finding green or ethical suppliers only takes a little research and the great news is that it’s getting easier all the time. As more and more eco providers come into existence the more choices we have and vitally the greater clout ethical business can have in the market. I’ve always believed you can make a big statement about the things that are important to you by using your consumer power – this includes where you do and don’t spend your money.

Equipment & Stationery

With regard to office stationery there are many, many companies that now offer recycled items and vegetable ink printing. Just put ‘green stationery’ or ‘green printing’ into Google and you’ll be spoilt for choice! Here at Make Hay we use The Green Stationery Company for all of our recycled paper products as well as pens, diaries and so on.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts buying second hand or using Freecycle is one of the greenest ways to shop. However, if you need to purchase new equipment take the time to research the producer or manufacturer and their ethical practices. We use websites such as Gooshing to find out how the bigger brands are improving their green and ethical ways

Ethical Advertising

Of course there’s a double bonus when buying advertising with ethical companies. The first being that you’re financially supporting a way of business that you believe in. Secondly your advert will likely be seen by a relevant market, specifically a selection of consumers who are looking for green and responsible products and services.

We’ve used a range of ethical advertisers in our time including New Consumer, Changing Times and The Good Shopping Guide and there are may more available.

Whilst we’re talking about advertising and marketing its also worth mentioning that green and ethical directories are another way to reach potential customers, often for little or no cost. Recently we listed a range of such directories in one of our Make Hay newsletters – “To Market, To Market”

Who looks after your pennies?

Banking your hard, ethically-earned cash is a big consideration too. Do you want a bank to invest your money in arms or tobacco? If you don’t then find out your bank’s ethical policy. We use The Cooperative Bank who are well known for their use of ethical investments and taking a stance against unethical practices such as cosmetic testing on animals. Fortunately we’re able to buy our insurance from the Coop too!

The directory ‘A Lot of Organics’ provides a good list of ethical banks, investment and insurance companies.

According to an article in the Guardian investors are increasingly turning to ethical products due to demand. What great news!

Maybe we are becoming smarter consumers after all!

Next instalment: Part 4 – Live your Policy

Last week, in my post ‘Powered by the Wind‘, I talked about how our web design company, Make Hay, works to be green and ethical by the power and energy we use .

This week I want to talk about waste, or at least how to waste less in an office-based business like ours. In our industry of website design we need very few physical materials or goods to provide our service and therefore have no need to create a lot of waste. However there are still several places to tighten up…

Part 2 – Waste? What Waste?

Water ways
Like most offices we don’t need to use water for anything more than making drinks and using the bathroom but there are still ways to reduce the waste of water there. The Water Guide website provides some water saving tips for the home which can easily be applied to the office too. This includes simple practices that we use such as filling the kettle with just the right amount of water and having a jug full of cold water rather than running the tap every time you want to fill your glass. We use a ‘Save a Flush’ bag in the loo too which stops the cistern from filling right up and eventually flushing more water away. Many UK water companies will also send you a free water saving loo bag if you ask them to.

Don’t waste, re use
So the point of reducing waste is to cut down the number of new things you buy and to keep as much ‘stuff’ as you can out of the landfill.

Paper
Paper is the easiest one. In fact, if it wasn’t for junk mail coming through our door we probably wouldn’t need to put any paper in the recycle bin. We’ve joined the Mail Preference Service to cut down the amount of junk mail we receive but some does still slip through. However it always goes out with recycling – never in the landfill.

On the whole we don’t need to print very often as most of our communication is electronic. We work on the principle that if a piece of paper has a blank side it can be used a few times before it has to retire. A couple of things we do is print double-sided and make notebooks for scribbling ideas and messages. This paper is later shredded and put in the compost bin along with the tea bags and coffee grinds (organic and fairtrade of course).

Furniture
Freecycle is a great place to donate as well as receive office furniture which otherwise may have ended up at the dump. So what if the chairs and desks don’t match? It will give your office character!

At the moment I’m keeping a look out on the Nottingham Realcycle for a table for our office. When we get one we’ll have saved from having to buy a new one and stopped an old one from going into the landfill.

IT equipment
Of course, for a web design company like ours, our computers are the most important equipment in the office. They have to work efficiently and reliably and we can’t run the risk of using slow, old machines. Having said that there’s no need to buy a whole brand new computer each time one part isn’t up to scratch. Updating individual components means that the other parts of the computer can go on doing their job for a little longer. If you’re a techy type of person then you could probably re-build another computer from your second hand parts which would be great for home use. We’ve done this in the past. In future we’ll donate to a local community group or charity.

Whether you’re recycling a whole computer or its component parts take care to make sure you’ve deleted all confidential and sensitive information from the hard disk first. If the computer just doesn’t work then you need to dispose of it safely and within the WEE directive regulations. The Envirowise website has some useful WEEE links where you can find out what it all means and how it may affect your business.

Next installment: Part 3 – ‘Be a Smart Consumer…’

Vicky – Make Hay, ethical web design

Whenever I tell people that my partner and I run Make Hay, a green and ethical web design business, I nearly always get asked “how can a web design company be green and ethical?“.

We asked ourselves the same question back in 2004 when we decided to break away and do things our own way. Inspired by Neil Crofts and his book ‘Authentic – How to Make a Living by Being Yourself‘ (which was followed by ‘Authentic Business – How to Create and Run your Perfect Business‘) we decided that we just needed to follow the things that are important to us in everyday life.

A few years down the line and we’re still always considering new ways to conduct business ethically and responsibly, whether that’s socially, environmentally or technically.

Because people often wonder how a web design company can be green and ethical I thought I’d share how we work with you over a series of posts:

Part 1 – Powered by the Wind
Part 2 – Waste? What waste?
Part 3 – Be a Smart Consumer
Part 4 – Live your Policy
Part 5 – Make Ethical Friends

PART 1 – Powered by the Wind

In the industry of web design we have a great advantage when it comes to waste and energy – That advantage is that we don’t need to buy physical materials and stock to provide our service. However, the one thing we couldn’t live without is our computers and therefore our primary consumable by far is electricity.

The simplest and most effective way to reduce electricity use is just by remembering to switch things off, its as simple as that. Be liberated from the ‘stand by’ button and turn things off completely when you don’t need them. You’ve heard all this before but it really does make a difference, not only to the planet but to your energy bill too.

The electrical equipment in your office that is switched on should be energy efficient to minimise electricity waste. We all know about the low energy light bulbs and most of us now use them everywhere but there are computer components which use less energy too. To cut down waste we tend to replace computer parts rather than whole computers in one go, and when we do, we look for those types of components.

However, if you want to green-up the power you use in one swoop then how about using a renewable energy provider? Switching to renewables means that your lights, computers, printers all the electrical equipment in your workplace will burn less or no oil. We use ecotricity (a company which provides electricity generated by their wind turbines) but there are now many others available. In fact Energy Watch provide a comprehensive list of Green Electricity Tariffs where you should be able to find one that suits you.

Green your website too!

Did you know that your website can be powered by renewable energy too? Well it can. All of our Make Hay websites are wind powered and we provide green hosting for our clients as well.

Like electricity tariffs there are various types of eco-friendly web hosting, some of which offset carbon, some plant a tree for each new customer. Our hosting servers, data centres and offices are powered by the wind so they really are green. Visit www.green-hosting.co.uk to find out how it all works.

Next installment: Part 2 – ‘Waste? What Waste?…’

Vicky – Make Hay