The 'Green' Movement

It seems everywhere we turn these days someone is ‘Going Green’.  Today for instance I drove by a car dealership and they had all of their scooters out on display, every color combination you could think of, and a huge banner saying ‘GO GREEN’.  I have not been on the Green bandwagon 100% (who can really) but there are a few things that I have gone Green with.  The first huge change that I made was not printing out a big Products Price Card.  I use to do this every time my products or prices would change and then always ended up with copies that would not get used.  Sure I can recycle them but even that seemed wasteful, especially of the ink involved.  I then decided to create an entire website dedicated to my prices and products where I can direct prospective clients and current clients to.  This website has everything a client could ever want to know.  It just might have to much information on it but it is all there!  It enables me to get information to clients without mailing a large packet prior to them booking their session.  Then after their session they receive a small packet with information on what to expect and to help them put their order together.  So far it has been working wonderfully and I hope my clients find it helpful!

Another area of my business that is ‘Green’ is my proofing system.  I do not print out paper proofs which has cut back on unused prints.  I average 90 images per session shown to my portrait clients.  Nobody has all those images printed, for obvious reasons!  There would be many prints that would just be ‘wasted’ away.  I can attest for this because I have boxes of prints that are never seen!  I wish instead of having all these 4×6 prints boxed away that I would have one large print hanging on my wall or a book of several favorite images.  I want this for my clients as well so I provide digital proofs that can be looked at anywhere from a computer and then only the favorites are printed for wall portraits or custom books.  Now that’s going green!

Then on a more personal note, the plastic bags everywhere drive me nuts!  They have bothered me way before every store started offering reusable bags.  I have always kept them and used them in our small trash cans in the bathrooms but I get way more then what I can go through.  I have purchased the Safeway black bags but they are not easy to carry around.  Last week I found what just might be a great solution!  Envirosax!  I have not purchased an Envirosax YET but I am about to very soon!  Look at all these great colors!  The only thing I wish was that they were made in the USA instead of China, then they would be perfect.  I also noticed how a few of these bags go perfectly with my branding…might look for a way to incorporate these into my business.  Thinking!!!

This is how small these bags fold up so they fit inside a perse and can be taken out whenever you make a purchase at your favorite store.

What are some things that you do to ‘Go Green’?