Thursday, May 26th 2011 | Short URL
It's that time again! Check out what some of our clients have been up to.
Newly launched websites using Green Hosting:
Barnes & Adams - artisan apple products & cider
Green Talk - Short talks, big ideas from leading thinkers and doers on climate change, energy and food security and the natural world.
Bradford Personalisation - a network of organisations that are actively involved in developing services that people who receive support from Adult Social Care could buy with an Individual Budget
Client News
My Climate Change Garden asks "How green is Chelsea Flower Show?"
The much anticipated 'Dummy Jim' film is underway. This is a great story, set in a cold place, guaranteed to warm your cockles.
Car Free Walks share their top tips for cheaper train travel
Greenhouse PR introduce their brand new blog editor
Those Gertie & Mabel ladies have done it again, with a feature of their Soda Boxes in Country Homes Magazine
Ethical brides & bridesmaids can find out where to get *that* famous 'P Middy' dress via Ethical Weddings
Just So Festival named the 'Best Family Festival' by Green Parent Magazine - well done guys!
Help Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust receive their share of a £35K grant. Also see our NWT news story about tripled website visitor numbers.
Creative Nottingham asks if being creative makes us happy
Transition Vert provide a beginner's guide to recycling
The Sustainability Centre share their inspirations from the South Downs Green Fair
Book now for the Scottish Ecological Design Association EGM and Sustainable Communities Event on 3rd & 4th June
Images above © Dummy Jim & Just So Festival respectively
Tuesday, May 24th 2011 | Short URL
We were in the news yesterday with a story about our work with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. Here's what it said:
Visitor numbers to Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust's website have nearly tripled since a new online presence was unveiled. The number of people signing up online for membership has also increased as a result of the new-look website, the charity reports.
Nottingham-based ethical website developer Make Hay, who created the website in conjunction with the environmental charity, said it was delighted by the news, which comes as the website celebrates its second anniversary.
Pictured above: Victoria Stevens, from Make Hay, and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust's communications and marketing manager Erin McDaid
"The web is an incredible medium, which can be used to spread a message far and wide, and it's crucial that an organisation has a website that reflects its values and its aims, and one which is also easy and convenient to manage and keep up to date," said Make Hay director Victoria Stevens.
"We're extremely pleased to hear that Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has been using the online tools created by Make Hay to market and promote the charity so successfully, and that this has been reflected in increased online membership applications and thousands of extra visitors to their website."
Make Hay, which specialises in green and ethical website design, as well as web hosting which is wind powered, had previously created a website for Attenborough Nature Reserve, which is run by the Wildlife Trust.
The charity, which is the county's leading conservation charity and is part of a national network of 47 local trusts working to protect wildlife, said its new website changed the way the organisation looked at its internet presence.
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust communications and marketing manager Erin McDaid said: "We've seen a tripling of visits to our site, and a rise in the number of online memberships. The new platform makes it far easier for us to promote our work and events.
"We find working with Make Hay a real pleasure. Understanding the technological aspects of creating an attractive and functional website can be quite daunting, but their friendly, straightforward approach makes it a lot easier. Working with Make Hay means that we can concentrate on deciding what we want our website to achieve without having to worry about how to make it work."
Make Hay, run by Victoria Stevens and Jez Swinscoe, was founded in 2004. Its green web hosting arm was launched in 2006.
Clients include the Uganda Carbon Bureau, Climate East Midlands, Foxglove Covert Local Nature Reserve and London Insight Meditation.
Pretty nice story eh? We are continuing to work with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, developing the website and online strategy alongside their work and campaigns.
Thursday, May 19th 2011 | Short URL
Its a lovely thing when you find a local business that reflects your ethical ethos, provides a great service and is good value to boot!
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I was so pleased to find green printers, Print Revolution, the other day. They're just down the road from us here in Nottingham and I couldn't believe we hadn't crossed paths before. After chatting to the director, Adrian Collier, I realised that these guys aren't just about about talking the eco talk, they walk the walk too. Not only do they use recycled paper and card and employ a waterless printing method (which also means less harmful chemicals and much more efficient printing), their work is green throughout and is a big part of how they believe business should be done - just like us! They use a green electricity provider, carbon offset for paper production and distribution and use the brilliant 'We Go' carbon neutral couriers for their deliveries.
I came away from their printing offices yesterday a happy bunny, with a fab new Make Hay poster and having found a great green local printer.
Check them out at www.printrevolution.co.uk
Monday, May 16th 2011 | Short URL
We have a lucky winner of our Green Office Week competition prize - one year of free Green Hosting.
An e-mail has been sent to to tell them the happy news so if you entered our competition then check your inbox now. It could be you!
Once we've got them all set up with their new Green Hosting account we'll announce the winner here.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part and everyone who helped us spread the word about our Green Office Week celebration.
xx
Monday, May 9th 2011 | Short URL
Today is the start of Green Office Week. To celebrate we've decided to help one of you green up your business with one year of free green website hosting worth £120!
For a chance to win this prize all you need to do is sign-up to our free e-newsletter using the form below.
Sign-ups during green office week (that's Monday 9th to Friday 13th May 2011) will enter our prize draw. On Monday 9th May we will randomly select one lucky winner!*
The prize hosting account is our Zephyr hosting package, free for one year.
We will contact the winner via the e-mail address provided via the above form.
All of our usual Green Hosting terms and conditions will still apply. For more details about Green Hosting visit www.green-hosting.co.uk.
Good luck!
*This Green Hosting prize is eligible only for:
Friday, May 6th 2011 | Short URL
Did you know that next week is Green Office Week? Well, we would advocate making moves for a greener office all year round but this a good time to think about how to save energy, reduce waste and purchase greener products.
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The organisers of GOW are encouraging businesses up and down the UK to take action in their offices, tackling a different area each day of the week.
Here at Make Hay & Green Hosting there are various things we do to try to make our office greener. We're always learning and looking to improve but here's a run down of GOWs suggestions and the things we do in those areas:
GOW say 'Act on Energy - Encourage measures to reduce energy consumption in your company'.
What we do - First of all, we use a renewable (wind powered) electricity provider to power our office, we're not using a fossil fuel source. We don't want to waste that wind power though, so we only switch on equipment that we're using. At the end of the working day computers, lights, laptops and printers are switched off and have a well-earned rest. Where we can we try to buy energy efficient IT components, such as 'green' storage hard drives and we always use low-energy light bulbs. Our websites are also powered by the wind because our hosting servers use renewable energy too. We provide this green website hosting service to our clients, as you may already know!
GOW say 'Act on Transport - Encourage measures to reduce your company's environmental impact through travel'.
What we do - We're very lucky that our business doesn't require lots of travel. Our office is home-based, so there is no daily commute, polluting the city and we can liaise with our clients most of the time via e-mail, telephone and other methods online. Sometimes we do need to meet up with clients face to face and we will use both public and private transport to do this. If we're heading to London for example then we'll use the train but for clients in more remote places we'll drive. To help counter some of the impact of our car use we use a green motor insurance company who offsets 100% of our carbon emissions through forestry projects throughout the UK.
GOW say 'Act on Waste - Encourage the 3Rs: reduce/reuse/recycle and benefit from the cost-reductions'.
What we do - Due to the nature of our work, which is carried out digitally for the most part, we do not need to buy much materials and really have minimum waste moving through the office. However, we try to re-use or recycle office resources as much as we can. Non-confidential paperwork is either re-used to make notepads or recycled. Confidential paperwork is shredded and recycled but sometimes composted. Non usable electrical items are taken to our local e-waste recycling centre and printer ink cartridges are also recycled via charities such as Age UK. Tea bags and coffee grinds from staff drinks are composted too.
GOW say 'Act on Purchasing - Encourage a review of purchasing habits and switching to eco-friendly office products'.
What we do - We use the Green Stationery Company to buy recycled office products such as pens, folders, paper etc. Publicity materials are printed on FSC certified paper with vegetable based inks. The printer we use partners with a carbon offsetting project in the UK to plant a tree for every order we make. For computer equipment we try to purchase low-energy products as much as possible and from companies with positive eco-credentials and we look to accreditation organisations like Gooshing to find out about this. We recognise though that this is probably the trickiest part of the office to green-up as no IT supplier is perfect and we need to make sure we have secure and reliable equipment to provide a good service to our clients.
Consideration of the supply chain goes both ways for us as we also have an ethical policy which outlines the types of organisations we will and won't supply our services to.
GOW say 'Act on Opportunity - Everyone that took part got that Friday feeling by sharing their successes with colleagues, the media and others involved in GOW. It was a celebration of UK officers being greener.'
What we'll do - We'll be running a special competition all week, in which one lucky business can win Green Hosting for their website for a whole year! Watch this space on Monday for more details.
Tuesday, May 3rd 2011 | Short URL
Well, with all of the recent bank holidays and festivities our April round-up has been slightly delayed. Where did April go anyway? If you have exciting news to share let us know. Here's the latest from some of our fab clients...
Vote for Climate Change Gardening in the 'One Small Step' business competition. Climate Change Gardening provides information and inspiration about gardening in a changing climate, helping to preserve gardens in an uncertain future. Winning this competition would help founder Debbie Anderson develop her business further so that gardeners may access more advice and support resources such as videos, expert knowledge, green gardening products and local climate data. Gardeners will also be able to share experiences of their gardening challenges online. Voting opens on 30th May but you can find out more and send Debbie messages of support at her Climate Change Gardening competition entry page.
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Attenborough Nature Centre are making plans for an exciting new phase of developments at the reserve which was originally opened by Sir David Attenborough in 1966. Can you help them by giving your views on the suggested developments in their online survey?
Ask Iris is looking for footballers with cerebral palsy in support of the Notts FA's search for new squad members to represent the East Midlands in the National Cerebral Palsy Football structure for the 2011-12 season
Bradford Personalisation launches their new website, hosted by Green Hosting. A network of organisations involved in developing services that people who receive support from Adult Social Care could buy with an Individual Budget.
Climate East Midlands reflect on the success of their climate week events in March across the East Midlands.
Ethical Weddings asks 'is the Royal Wedding green?'
Creative Nottingham tells us about local art events over the coming months with an ethical theme.
Notts PPS opens a new drop-in service for parents of children with special educational needs.
SESC announce the Big Venture Challenge award. A competition for social entrepreneurs to win up to 150K
Images above © Climate Change Gardening and Climate East Midlands respectively
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