(10-day Blogathon #9!  )

I’m happy that I finally have a chance to relay some important information!  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are “greening” our business to reflect how we live in our day to day lives.  Living responsibly is something that is so important to us in our personal lives, and we are so excited to take it a step further into our businesses.  We will be constantly looking for more ways to achieve less of an impact on the environment, and improve the well-being of those in our community.

To us, “green” is not just using paperless billing or recycling your office paper (although, those are wonderful steps that everyone can do immediately to have a big impact on our environment). To us, “green” is taking responsibility for the effects that we are having on the environment, caused not only by the man-made materials we use everyday, but also how we live our lives, and how we choose our suppliers.  Another issue that I think goes along with being “green” is helping our community, and all those in it.  Maybe it’s not the government’s responsibility to help those in need (I’ll leave that argument alone), but we strongly believe that “We are our brother’s keeper”. If every one of us occasionally made one small gesture to help someone in need, then imagine how much more pleasant all of our lives would be.  Just by one small gesture…

Moving on, I’d like to list a few things that we are currently doing that we consider to be a part of our Green Initiative.  If you have any questions or suggestions for us, let us know!  We are constantly reviewing our processes to find more ways to GO GREEN!

• We offer Green albums! More on this when I get a sample with my images… two clients have already taken advantage of these, and they LOVE them! Wait until you see the “green” details of these albums!
• No direct mail campaigns
• Email marketing campaigns are hosted by Vertical Response, an environmentally-friendly email marketer
• We offer Virtual Web Meetings to wedding clients through Sightspeed - I have lots of Northern Virginia clients, and this saves on gas tremendously!
• Paperless… well everything possible!  From billing, to sending brochures, to paying our bills online… everything that’s possible is done paperless!
• No more plastic CD cases!  We have a super-cute trifold holder now that our clients can easily recycle when they find a new home for their CD (we found that most clients don’t use the plastic cases anyway, because they have some sort of bulk organization system that does not require individual cases)
• When we exhibit at bridal shows and must hand out literature, we qualify the clients first (asking wedding date) to eliminate unnecessary waste
• Printed proofs do not come in our packages - all proofing is done online for 3 months, so we no longer have a need to print 1000 pictures to let the clients see for a week and then find a place to store or dispose of them - plus, all our wedding clients receive all high res files for printing, so they can print only those pictures they want anywhere they’d like!
• Recycling of any product we need to dispose of… including paper, electronic equipment, plastic, boxes & packaging, etc.
• Use of rechargeable batteries.  Our cameras of course use only rechargeable batteries, but we use AA’s for our speedlights, which we average about 40 batteries for each wedding (we actually used disposable AA batteries up until 2007, can you imagine all that hazardous waste?)
• Periodic tree-planting!  We live in a tiny townhouse with only 400 sq feet of backyard (YIKES!), so I can’t offset my carbon usage there, but I do have a small portable nursery that I grow trees from seeds (organically), and when they are healthy enough to survive on their own we find a lonely spot in the woods or down a back road that needs some love
• Energy Star rated electronics are used, and we keep all computer equipment unplugged when not in use.  I’ve created a quick start-up routine with power strips, surge protectors & extension cords that doesn’t interfere with my time-management.
• I offer complimentary photography services to non-profits (if you are a non-profit, get in touch!)

And to come…

• Our hosting company is changing in June to Thinkhost, an environmentally-friendly hosting company operating 100% on wind and solar (we are using Thinkhost for our personal site currently, and we LOVE them!)
• And something I’ve wanted to do for a while…   Starting in June, we will donate 5% of your bill to one of 3 charities…. and YOU will be able to decide which one your money will go to!  I’ll announce the charities next month when I nail down the last one

Thanks for logging in & be sure to check back tomorrow for the last day of the Blogathon!!!