Make Hay Ethical E-Media

Leonora of Elio Studio has worked with Make Hay for some time, being one of our longest-standing Green Hosting and web design clients. She is also a good friend of Green Girls Global. So, a warm welcome please…

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work.

Hello, my name is Leonora Oppenheim and I’m the director of Elio Studio, a design consultancy that crafts narratives to inform and inspire.

Our work can be described as design storytelling – in other words, we use word, image and form to tell local cultural, environmental and community stories to wider audiences.

We work in collaboration with architects, designers, curators and scientists on creative projects that promote engaging conversations around sustainability issues.

I also regularly put finger to key to tell epic tales of design derring and sustainability do for TreeHugger.com and other online and print publications.

How is your business different to that of others in your industry? How do you stand out from the crowd?

From working on plans for a chocolate factory with cacao farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon to reporting on biogas toilets from the mountains of northern Ethiopia, we tell many an adventurous tale of beautiful and inspiring encounters with creative minds around the world.

With an unusual combination of design, writing and sustainability skills Elio Studio tells cultural stories through several disciplines, including public design installations, journalism and brand consultancy.

This diversity gives us multiple platforms to communicate from and we often enjoy blurring the boundaries between them, which makes for a pretty dynamic and unique approach to storytelling.

How would you say your work is ethically and / or environmentally responsible?

Every project that Elio Studio is involved in has its root in ethical and environmental responsibility, we take that as a given. If the project is not making a positive contribution in some way then it’s not the right fit for us, and moreover it’s just not fun to work on.

What motivates you to do business this way?

I like a good challenge! And I really believe that forging emotional connections between individuals and their local environment is one of the greatest design challenges of our time.

At the studio we’re excited by the possibilities of creative collaboration with local communities. We take local stories at a grassroots level and promote them on global platforms, inspiring businesses & individuals to create positive change.

How do you communicate your positive work with clients and potential clients and how do they respond?

We try to take a light, engaging tone that shows we’re as passionate about good design as we are about environmental issues, and that the two are not mutually exclusive.

We communicate using word and image through multi-media channels of email (hello [at] eliostudio.com), website (www.eliostudio.com - thanks to Make Hay) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/ElioStudio).

Occasionally, when we really want to grab someone’s attention we like to be old school and send a beautiful hand written note. Sometimes we even turn up in person!

Each medium is useful in it’s own way. For example Twitter is an excellent tool, not only for promoting your own work, but also to curate content of others you trust and admire. It gives you the opportunity to create a dynamic ‘brand voice’ that gives potential clients an impression of what your business is about.

Do you see your work as part of a movement of ethical business?

Yes, absolutely.

It’s difficult to say whether there is any body else doing exactly what Elio Studio is doing right now, but there is certainly a fantastic community of sustainable design thinkers locally in London, and globally in the blogosphere, working in all sorts of different disciplines – fashion, products, architecture, service and systems design.

We all bounce ideas off each other regularly and often form fantastic collaborations. I feel very lucky to be part of this community that keeps me inspired and motivated every day.

My top 5 UK ethical design business picks:

Worn Again - www.wornagain.co.uk
Imaginals - www.imaginals.net
Thomas Matthews - www.thomasmatthews.com
Exploration Architecture - www.exploration-architecture.com
New Frontiers - newfrontiers.uk.com

Share your top 3 tips on how other businesses can work more responsibly.

Cradle to Cradle – learn to embrace systems thinking and close the loop.

Act local. Think Global – get involved in your local community and tell everyone about it online.

Work for ‘More joy per person’ – always ask how your business decisions affect people, from supplier to consumer and everyone in between.

How do you see the future of your business and what are you most excited about?

The future of my business is multidisciplinary and multi platform storytelling, finding creative ways of communicating the important issues of our time to people locally and globally.

I’m most excited about the possibilities of working with commercial brands to communicate their sustainability initiatives to their customers in fun and engaging ways. I think there is so much potential to inspire people through design storytelling.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your work?

You might like to check out one of Elio Studio’s projects that’s currently in development. It’s a series of public design installations called Creative Data (www.creativedataprojects.com) that are taking place around the UK over the next few years.

We’re working in collaboration with climate scientists with the aim of the communicating local environmental issues to local people in their local environment.

You can watch the short film of our pilot project The Butterfly Effect,  and watch out for the up coming Creative Data projects in Wales 2010 (coastal), Cornwall 2011 (Eden Project) and London 2012 (Olympics).

If you are interested in finding out more about Creative Data or would like Elio Studio tell your design story please do get in touch (hello [at] eliostudio.com)

Visit Leonora’s website at www.eliostudio.com

Whether its on Green Girls Global or in the Make Hay newsletters I’m always talking about ways that we can be greener at work.

The reason I go on about it so much is because its really easy yet the benefits can potentially go a long way.

I was glad to see The Big Green Switch run a feature this week on ‘Going Green in the Workplace‘. They break down the various aspects of an office based workplace and what we can do to make it greener. Check it out at www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/workplace

A few more things that I would have liked to have seen included in their feature are:

Green Electricity: Switch to a green energy provider for your office. There are quite a few alternatives available nowadays and you can find out about them on the Energywatch website

Save Water: Save water in the office as you would at home by using a ‘Save-a-Flush’ bag (or something similar) in the loo. A lot of UK water companies will send them to you if you ask.

Green Website Hosting: Although the company website isn’t strictly ‘housed’ in your office it is a large part of your business. Your website can be hosted on servers which are run on renewable energy. Take a look at our Green Website Hosting service www.green-hosting.co.uk

Write an environmental plan: It might not be easy to implement your new green practices straight away so write an environmental plan or policy along with the key decision makers and those responsible for ordering goods for the office. Using such a plan can help you commit to making green changes as well as setting more targets for the future.

Well, actually knowing about the electricals you use for your business is much more than etiquette, it’s about working ethically and being responsible towards the environment.

We all need to use computers for our day to day work, that’s just a fact of life. On top of that there are printers, mobile phones, laptops and the list goes on. So, how do we ensure that what we’re buying has the most electrical efficiency and least environmental impact? Plus what should we do with electricals when we don’t need them any more?

Buying Electrical Equipment
There are online resources available to help you find out about the electricals you’re buying and the companies who manufacture them. Use these kinds of guides when considering new computers, mobile phones and other equipment for your office and show manufacturers that you want only the highest environmental standards:

* Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics - Number 8
* Energy Star Product Guide
* Gooshing

Need to WEEE? Yes, you do.
Once you’ve finished with an old computer or printer you could donate it to a charity or community group (making sure it is safe to use and confidential and sensitive data has been completely removed first).

However, there will be times when the appliance is broken and of no use and this is where the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive should be observed.

The WEEE Directive exists to reduce the amount of EEE which goes into landfill and ensures that it is treated and recovered instead. The WEEE directive applies to all kinds of businesses including those which simply use electricals for regular office use. The Environment Agency provides clear and useful information on responsibility of disposing of EEE and how it affects businesses and organisations like yours.

Visit the ‘Business users of EEE: your responsibilities‘ page to find out more and download the free fact sheet for businesses.

Also see www.envirowise.gov.uk and www.netregs.gov.uk for more on reducing waste in your business.