If you have an older home like ours, outdoor electrical outlets are a rare thing. We don’t have any outlets on the front of our house, so when I wanted to add some Christmas lights to the front during the holidays, I turned to solar powered christmas lights as my solution.

Solar powered Christmas lights are easy to come by – though not locally, I find. I ordered one set of solar lights online last year to see how they work, and I must say, the blueish glow of these LED lights is very festive and are very beautiful in their own right. The great thing is, I can attach them to my trees in the frontyard and with the solar charger, the sun does all the powering for me – without having to run extension cords to plug into a (non-existent) outlet.

Another advantage to solar powered christmas lights is that they come on automatically when the sun goes down. The polycrystalline solar cells on the solar lights are equipped with a light sensor that automatically switches the lights on for you – just as the sun sets. It really doesn’t get better than this, just set them up and enjoy the solar light display over the holidays.

They also don’t need sunlight, if it’s cloudy or snowing, they still collect energy and will still work for a few hours. My only caution is that you need to make sure they don’t get covered by snow! Here, in Colorado, our last few winters have had some significant snowfall, and if I didn’t make sure to keep the solar light charger above the snow, then it wouldn’t charge.

The web has opened up a large selection of new paperless marketing methods that not only save trees and resources, they also save you money! It costs anywhere from 40 cents to several dollars to physically mail out printed pieces to your client – and most likely it will end up in the trash (or, ideally, in the recycle bin). Today, more than ever, businesses have the ability to send out beautiful email marketing pieces that never waste one sheet of paper — and cost less than a penny per customer to send.

Email Newsletters have become a mainstream way for companies to advertise their products, events and news. Email clubs have become popular with customers, who love to sign up with their favorite stores and restaurants so that they can get exclusive “member only” discounts and invites to special events. Email Newsletter software has also come a long way — businesses can now track to see how many people opened their emails, what they clicked on, and can even test to see what email Subjects perform best (such as “Free Wine Tasting Tonight” versus “Wine Tasting Tonight”).

IJDesign offers full service email marketing so that you can collect members on your website through simple signup forms, and then send them colorful, designed emails that will get their attention and drive traffic to your website or store/restaurant. Contact Idelle at 720.260.3541 to discuss email newsletter marketing.

Source: http://www.green.net.au/srd/#green

Here are many ideas to consider that can reduce your environmental impact and achieve better practice.

• Strive to create the greatest visual impact with the least environmental impact. Achieving clients needs while limiting potential ecological damage

• Encourage their clients to consider the environmental impact of their production. Educated clients are more willing to undertake ecologically sound projects

• Consider the use of tree free paper stock such as sugar cane waste, straw, seaweed, algae and hemp. Alternative renewable paper sources can reduce need for wood pulp from old growth forests

• Consider the use of Recycled paper stock with a high Post Consumer Fibre (PCF) recycled content. Clean mill waste has always been recycled so it is better to keep consumer paper out of landfill

• Consider the use of recycled paper stock that has not been de-inked. De-inking is a energy expensive process which still results in toxic waste ink

• Consider the use of unbleached or non chlorine bleached paper stock. Bleached paper requires the use of toxins which are harmful to marine and water based life

• Consider the use of vegetable based printing inks such as soy inks. Vegetable based inks are renewable and emit less toxic Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

• Avoid the use of ink colours which contain high levels of heavy metals such as copper, chrome, etc.. Many bright colours contain heavy metals which leach into ground water when landfilled

• Avoid overuse of gloss paper stock, because more exists than can be de-inked and recycled. In some areas there is a glut of gloss paper because satin or matt paper is used less

• Avoid overuse of plastic films, foil stampings, metallic colours and synthetic adhesives. Some synthetics have a life of 200-500 years after they have been disposed of in landfills

• Avoid over use of perfect bound or spiral bound spines as they are difficult to recycle. The glues and metals in such binding impede cost effective recycling

• Avoid ‘bleeds’ that are then trimmed and must be de-inked before recycling. Ink extended beyond trim marks requires more intensive recycling than ink within trim marks

• Consider the smallest paper size suitable for each job, ie A5 instead of A4. Less paper used means less energy expended and should also be cheaper for client

• Use paper sizes and number of pages that best fit standard sheet stocks without wasteful trimming. Printers can advise on best use of sheet stock for less paper wastage and more price savings

• Use the least amount of ink colours for the job, ie 2 colour output instead of 4 colour. The greater the number of inks the more cleaning fluids required for the presses = greater cost

• Avoid using too much ink in their designs. More ink means more difficult de-inking or greater toxic residue leaching into groundwater

• Consider using filmless and plateless digital printing technology for small run jobs. Modern printing technology can reduce amount of plastics, metals and inks used for printing

• Use computer equipment which has energy saver features. Energy saver equipment shuts down when not is use saving burden on non-renewable fossil fuels

• Use the back side of other sheets to proof their work from inkjet printers. Increases by double the life span of office paper. Be careful with lasers as toner can adhere to the drum.

• Avoid overpackaging, ie postcard for mailing instead of envelope and letter. Follows credo of REDUCE, avoids unnecessary paper waste and expense

• Use the recycled logo or other devices to promote the recycled nature of their production. Customers and Users need to have the opportunity to know they are purchasing recycled goods

• Promote design responsibility by printing PCW content, ink and bleaching type on their work. Customers & Users educated by one product will look for the same credentials in other other products

• Specify that the windows on business envelopes be of recyclable cellulosic content. Cellulose based windows can be recycled as paper or easily composted, plastic cannot

• Keep informed of the latest environmental developments in inks, papers and printing processes. New technologies and rediscoveries of old techniques for green design are occurring constantly
  

(To implement all the above ideas may be impossible – yet every suggestion adopted will make a difference.)

There is no better way to save trees and resources than offering your clients a wealth of up-to-date information about your company and products / services with a website. Plus, your website can be 100% solar powered with an green website hosting plan. We recommend AISO for website hosting, as they run entirely on solar power – it’s a pretty amazing idea, learn more about them at AISO.net.

Check out the Top 10 web design tips, which will give you ideas on making your website the best it can be.

I can help you research the best domain names for your business. Picking out a good domain name is vital – it is important to choose a domain name that is short, easy to remember, and easy to spell. Ideally, you want to own the .com version of your domain, as .net and others are often times mistakenly typed in with .com, and you will lose potential visitors.

In addition to a website, you can also eliminate a lot of your printed marketing pieces by replacing them with email newsletters. Customers love to sign up for their favorite restaurant or store’s email list. I myself am a subscriber to my local greenhouse, City Floral, as well as a few of my favorite restaurants. Neighbors and customers enjoy email newsletters as they can take advantage of special "member only" savings and coupons, as well as find out about events your business is putting on. This is a great way to market your business and keep repeat customers coming back. You’ll find website and email marketing is a very cost-effective and eliminates printing and mailing costs, saving paper and the environment.

I offer website design ranging from Flash website design, email newsletters and signup forms, ecommerce / online stores, blog creation, and search engine optimization (SEO). Recent clients include solar energy companies, restaurants, non-profits, and others.

My business goal is to grow into the green market – we want to provide design services to businesses that want to help keep the world a wonderful place to live.

Contact Idelle if you are interested in website design with green in mind: 720.260.3541

Top 10 web design tips

A well designed website will help your users easily find what they are looking for and will make your business look professional. Designing a website from the beginning with Search Engines and your users in mind will help your website to be a success. Here are some practical tips and examples:

1. Simplify, simplify, simplify. What is the most important thing you want to tell the visitor about on each page? If a web site has too much information on a page, it ends up being confusing to the user. Additionally, Search Engines actually prefer that you separate topics out onto their own pages, as it sees this as more relevant to the users.
2. Visually highlight important calls to action such as your telephone number and email address. Consider using icons to highlight important items on a page.
3. Set up an email newsletter – this is a inexpensive and environmentally-friendly way to keep in touch with your customers, notifying them of new products, sales, events, or to send them special discounts for being newsletter subscribers.
4. First impressions are very important. When people arrive at your web site, you have about five seconds to convince them to stay. On your homepage, keep it simple, communicate what you do and what makes your business different.
5. Be personal. Use photographs of people and testimonials from happy clients to build trust. Make sure you include your address and phone numbers on your contact page. People like being able to easily contact you and know where you are located.
6. Use maps. Buyers may not be familiar with where you are located. It’s also helpful to have a custom map designed for your site to indicate landmarks that might not be found on Google maps. However, it is also important to link to a Google or Yahoo map so that customers can easily get directions to your locations.
7. Make sure to do your keyword research before you start building your site. After discovering what users are searching, you should then choose 6 to 10 phrases you want to rank for and try to incorporate them naturally into your page titles and headlines.
8. Make sure to organize your web site so that it is easy for your users to navigate and find what they are looking for. Clear and logical navigation will help users navigate your site and help them to understand what you do and how you can meet their needs.
9. Use web conventions. For example, using underlined text when linking and make your logo link back to your homepage. People have certain expectations driven by their experiences of other websites. You need to understand what these are and make sure you accommodate them in your design.
10. Limit your color palette. Professional looking websites tend to use 2-4 colors. This site uses green and white. Use color to help highlight important features on your web site.