Make Hay Ethical E-Media

Green Hosting client Greener Museums was founded by Rachel Madan, a sustainability consultant and coach with ten years of experience supporting companies to become greener.

After working with the Tate Rachel found that most sustainability information is not tailored to the needs of the cultural sector. So, she set up Greener Museums for the museum professional, to provide the tools and resources needed to get them on the path to sustainability.

Take the Greener Museums survey. The results will be used to inform Rachel when providing information on the website: www.greenermuseums.org

Make Mail e-mail marketing clients Green Rocket Group have created an ethical business guide which offers practical advice and guidance on how companies can operate more ethically and boost their bottom line.

The business guide is free to download from their website at: www.greenrocketgroup.com

Happy New Year!

This time of year is always buzzing with the excitement of new things, positive change and plans for the future and its no different here at Make Hay HQ.

The first part of this year will see us re-launching our own websites and making the most of online opportunities to promote ourselves and our clients more than ever.

We keep being told that 2009 will be a challenging year and I don’t doubt that for a moment but let’s make our own challenges and take hold of our own economic and environmental futures as far as we can.

I read a really relevant and valid post today on Seth Godin’s blog which relates perfectly to business and other areas of our lives.

Everybody is in the same boat. We all have so much to do and our time is precious. Respect someone by not wasting their time…

Read what Seth has to say about time.

An issue which has come onto my radar today (articles I’ve read and conversations I’ve had) is people’s perception of green business. Whether this is positive or negative, I’ve been wondering on the whole what do you think?

In our experience of running Make Hay we’ve worked hard to demonstrate that we are genuine in our goal to provide a service which has a positive impact for people and the environment and that we’re good at what we do.

We know we’re not 100% green but we’re transparent about the practices we employ every day to be a responsible business. Similarly we talk a lot about good quality, standards compliant website design.

However, today I became aware that the perception of small ‘green’ businesses may be that they are unnecessarily expensive and may not be as ‘good’ as non-green businesses when it comes to providing a service. I wondered why this may be…

Here are a few questions that came to mind:

• Do people assume that if a business emphasises green working then their primary concern isn’t being at the top the industry that they work in?
• Do people feel that they don’t know enough about how or why a business is green and because of this assume its a gimmick which allows them to add a premium to their price?
• Have people had experiences where apparently green businesses have not ‘walked their talk’?

I have to say that in my experience dealing with small, genuine, ethical businesses has been positive. Colleagues and suppliers of ours are receptive to our needs because they’re like minded. Additionally, because they’re a small business they do not need to charge more to cover lots of overheads and they’re passionate about their industry because they know they can use it to make positive changes. I think they feel this way about us too.

What do you think? How do you view green or ethical businesses in the market place? How would you answer the questions above?

I would be grateful of any feedback you can give. Either leave a comment below or contact me. Your views will really help us to provide a better service. Thank you.