Ethical Business

Our business is officially 20 years old! In 2004, two twenty-somethings embarked on a new adventure of entrepreneurship. After having worked in the IT training industry and the voluntary and education sectors we were motivated and inspired by seeing what can be achived when passionate people want to bring about positive change and by wanting to work our own ...
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To celebrate our 20th business anniversary and to say thank you for your custom we are excited to offer you the opportunity to win a year of free website hosting. It's simple to enter: This offer is for our clients but if you're not already a client, read to the end... Send us a message or memorable moment of our working together that we can ...
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Calling all Make Hay and Green Hosting clients This September will mark our 20th business anniversary. Wow, where did that time go?! On the approach to this big milestone we're taking a moment to reflect on the incredible journey that has brought us to where we are today. We are immensely grateful for the opportunity to work with you over the years and ...
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As ethically-minded business owners we are always looking to be more responsible in the way we work and in the things we purchase to run our business. Often it’s the immediately obvious things that are dealt with first, like buying recycled stationery, using eco-friendly packaging, cutting down on waste and using like-minded suppliers. However, one ...
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Last week I met with a lovely lady who teaches creative digital media at a college in Leicestershire. She felt it would be useful for her students to learn about the social and environmental impacts of our industry and was particularly curious to find out more about web design as a green and ethical business. It was really interesting for me to re-visit ...
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When we first learned of the Dummy Jim movie in the making we were enchanted by the idea of James Duthie's journal, 'I Cycled into the Arctic Circle', being brought to life. So when Matt Hulse, the creator of the film asked us if we could help in any way we were more than happy to become sponsors. As you can imagine, we were very excited when ...
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This month Make Hay turns ten years old! Hooray! We can hardly believe that a whole decade of running an ethical web design company has flown by, building websites for wonderful charities and social businesses. Our motivations are the same today as they were in 2004, to make a positive difference through our web design and Green Hosting services. So, ...
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Once again our clients continue to amaze us with their brilliant work and projects. Here's our latest... Client News Roundup Planetary Collective successfully met their Kickstarter target to create their feature length documentary. Check out the trailer, its incredible! Climate East Midlands is on the hunt for good examples of low carbon schools to ...
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Client News Roundup Spring 2013 Spring is always such an exciting time of year with lots of new possibilities to look forward to. This spring we were very happy to be involved in some great projects and see our clients do more fantastic things. Astronauts, awards and anniversaries, it's all here!... ORCA, the national whale and dolphin conservation ...
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We have been so busy with project work that I haven't posted for a while. When it came to putting our last newsletter together, recent conversations with both new and long-term clients reminded me, in the hectic schedule of everyday life, why we do what we do at Make Hay and Green Hosting. So this is just a little thank you to our clients for the ...
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Switched-on businesses and organisations like our clients are well aware of their social responsibilities and that they have an important role to play in reducing their impact on the environment. Many other businesses are also reviewing their energy consumption, the waste they produce, the activities they support and the suppliers they choose. Consider ...
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Welcome to my guest blog! Let me introduce myself, I’m Dr Isobel O’Neil a lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Nottingham University Business School. You might be wondering what I’m doing hijacking Make Hay’s blog? Well, Vicky was kind enough to take part as a case study for my research and invited me to share this with ...
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This morning I had a very interesting meeting in the beautiful Newton Building at Nottingham Trent University. This is the home of Future Factory, an impressive project set up to support sustainable product and process design in the East Midlands. As Debra Easter, Project Manager, explained this project aims to help SME businesses to become more ...
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For folks in Nottingham, here's some great green news: Nottinghamshire Green Network First of all, the fledgling Nottingham Green Network has just taken flight, newly launched a couple of months ago and looking for members and supporters to join them. I only found out about them a couple of weeks ago and have recently joined the team as the green ...
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Business isn't usually associated with kindness, in fact, it's often associated with quite the opposite. The idea that bosses are mean and companies are greedy are almost accepted as the status quo. But isn't that sad? The virtue of kindness doesn't need to be linked only to charities and non-profits, business has a great capacity for ...
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Well, strictly speaking this is a week in the life of one half of Make Hay. I should add that during this busy week and every week, the other half of Make Hay, Jez, is even more busy managing projects, designing, developing, building and providing support to our Green Hosting clients as well as a whole range of other tasks. I thought I would write about ...
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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! 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 ...
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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. The organisers of GOW are encouraging businesses up and down the UK to take action in their offices, tackling a different area each day ...
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Recently a couple of clients have asked me where they can find other types of green services, such as energy providers, banks and printers. When I'm looking for a green service or product I turn to directories that specifically register ethical and eco-friendly businesses and I've built up a little list of them over time. So, I thought I'd ...
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reecovid, the stylish, eco-friendly stationery company, first came to my attention when our friend Katie at Ethical Weddings wrote about them. I'd been looking for exactly this sort of thing for ages. When I learned that their products are made entirely from post consumer waste, and being a bit of a stationery geek, I had to find out more. You can ...
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Good businesses deserve good stuff, right? That’s why we’re sharing a little round-up of new goodies for green & ethical businesses: Business Guide to Climate Change Adaptation Produced by Climate East Midlands, this free guide “Weathering the storm: saving and making money in a changing climate” provides practical advice for ...
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As we mentioned in our last newsletter, we have been involved in the 10:10 Project to cut our carbon emissions by 10% in a year. Our action year is now over and the results are in and we’re very pleased to say that relative to turnover our carbon emissions were reduced by 22%! Our actions to cut our carbon emissions this year included installing ...
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Our latest newsletter ‘An Interview with an Ethical You‘ is out now and we’re looking for your views on a new client interview idea. Make Hay has always been about working to raise the profile of environmentally and ethically responsible businesses and organisations. We like to talk about the positive work that our clients do. We really ...
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Its always good to hear from fellow businesses and organisations interested in raising the profile of positive and ethical work. Recently we came into contact with Rob Morley from Fountain Partnership, a copywriting business, who do just that. Having similar values when it comes to doing business responsibly we invited Fountain to share the benefits of ...
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This month Make Hay turns 5 years old. The time has flown so fast but at this milestone it makes us very happy to take a look back and a look around, to reflect on how we’ve grown and how responsible business is becoming more mainstream. There’s still a great responsibility for the business world (including us) to increase and improve our green and ...
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This week we received an e-mail which was such a perfect example of how not to ‘get’ green business I had to share it. The e-mail was from a salesperson who suggested we would be interested in buying his products because we are a company who sells “solar promotional products”. We don’t, and never have, sold solar goods. His ...
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The folks at Business Link are providing a free consultation and diagnostic service on resource efficiency for small to medium businesses in the East Midlands. Following this your business may be eligible for a grant of up to £10k to help you improve your environmental performance. Resource efficiency is about managing energy, water and materials to reduce ...
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Organic t-shirt company, Albert & I, and fair trade jewellery shop, Jungle Berry, are two of our newest Make Mail clients. They’re using the stylish newsletter system to spread the word about their beautiful clothes and accessories. There are many good reasons for using Make Mail to handle your e-mail marketing. Here are just a few: Your ...
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I recently read a great study on how consumers percieve green products and their decision making behind choosing green, or not. It got me thinking about how we as ethical businesses can reach out more into the mainstream by getting to understand the reasoning behind consumer choices. Having the support and approval of like-minded folk is fantastic but to ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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When Jez and I set up Make Hay we had two clear aims in mind. One was to do business our own (ethical) way and the other was to try to play some part in encouraging consumers to think about where they spend their hard-earned cash. Even a small business can be influential in helping consumers choose green and ethical products and services but simply existing ...
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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. ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Yesterday I received a message via Facebook from our friend and Greenfinder founder Kate saying: “Interested in networking with other green/ethical/community or social enterprise groups in the Midlands?” Are we ever?! Kate has set up a Facebook group for like minded people in the Midlands to connect online and possibly meet up in the region for ...
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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 ...
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Make Hay has become a Green Achiever! If you’re not already aware of Green Achiever it is a scheme which supports businesses to communicate to potential suppliers, clients and other interested parties the positive things they’re doing for the environment. Becoming a Green Achiever involves completing an environmental health check which results ...
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Emerging from the book ‘Your Ethical Business‘ is this online Ethical Business Network. It is a growing community of entrepreneurs and business owners sharing information and support. The network is free to join, all you have to do is register and fill in your details. Ethical business is growing all the time so let’s collaborate to ...
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Check out some of these sites we’ve stumbled across, all very useful for marketing your green and ethical work as well as learning about others. Ecopop ecopop.com™ is a free idea exchange. It promotes brand innovations and business opportunities that merge capitalism with global responsibility. www.ecopop.com Ethical Affiliate Affiliating, ...
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People often ask me how a web design company can be green and ethical and when I tell them they’re usually surprised at all the possibilities. Many of our every day practices and aims to become greener can be applied to any office based business and so I decided to share how we go about it. I have published 5 articles about how a web design company ...
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Don’t underestimate the power of the blogger. In my experience the green blogging community is friendly, supportive and looking for green news and views to share. Successful blogs have thousands of visitors a month and an active community around them who may well be interested to learn about you. I wouldn’t recommend that you contact all of ...
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Who doesn’t love a bargain or a freebie? Nowadays there are lots of great green and ethical web directories out there who work hard to aim their sites at consumers looking for ethical products and services. Many of them do not charge for a basic listing in their directory and those who do tend to request a fee for some added benefits (e.g enhanced ...
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