Goin', Goin', Goin'... Green!

That’s right! We’re goin’ green - we’re eating our veggies and we’re loving it! Well, at least some of us are. But that’s another story. What we mean is we’re goin’ eco-friendly. Can’t believe we haven’t done this sooner, but we’ve now got a loose green “plan” that will evolve as we proceed, and here are our basic goals and accomplishments. Check back to see how we’re doing!

Short-term goals:

Implement the several “green” measures that can be done as quickly as possible, including:

Reduce printing on office paper and recycle that which is printed

We are Mac-based and are awaiting the issuance of a Mac version of GreenPrint software, which automatically helps eliminate printing unwanted pages (you know those annoying last pages with just a URL, banner ad, logo, or legal jargon). See the “Green” section of our Resources page for more info.
In January, we will be purchasing a new printer that can automatically duplex so that we can print on both sides of office paper.
We are awaiting our new recycling bin that will let us recycle office paper.

Reduce fine art paper waste and recycle fine art paper

We are investigating software to help us reduce waste when printing our giclees.
Our recycler will also take our scrap fine art paper (actually, it’s cotton) which we currently create a bunch of! By recycling all of our paper, we believe we will have virtually no trash. We will watch our waste disposal levels to evaluate whether additional recycling is available.

Change all future office supplies purchases to “green” sources

Done. We’ve found so many wonderful sources of green office supplies on the net. See the “Green” section of our Resources page for more info.

Change all marketing materials to “green” sources

We have found an awesome “green” printer, and all future marketing materials, from cards to brochures to flyers, will be printed with vegetable-based inks on 100% recycled paper. We also use plastic bags to hold certain brochures, and those will now be changed to cellulose bags which are 100% biodegradable. See the “Green” section of our Resources page for more info on these vendors.

Reconsider all marketing to reduce what we throw into the world

So much thought was put into this, but suffice it to say that we are giving our marketing materials a full overhaul.
In addition to printing everything “green” with better inks and paper, we tried to focus on less waste overall. So our brochure has gotten smaller, we will no longer automatically send out many of the things we used to (e.g. price lists that go stale, printed order forms that nobody uses, etc.), those that must still go out will be printed smaller and double-sided, and we are designing flyers and brochures to be sent out without envelopes. This will also reduce the amount of fuel used in shipping our marketing materials.

Draft a “green” mission statement.

Yep, working on this one!

Intermediate-term goals:

We would like to become a certified Green Partner in our local county’s Green Business Partnership. This is not some “where’s the application, let me pay my fee and sign up” club; rather, it’s an arduous application process that reviews all aspects of your business’s environmental stewardship, such as solid waste disposal, water consumption, and energy conservation, and includes an on-site inspection. Our goal is to be certified by summer 2008.
We must begin focusing on our entire production process to reduce or eliminate waste, purchase more environmentally friendly materials for our art products, and consider the “green” status of our materials vendors.

Long-term goal:

To become carbon neutral. Ultimately, we would like to own our own studio that is built LEED certified and be able to be carbon neutral through a mixture of efficient operations and carbon offset credits.