Background images are not suited to all sites though. Solicitors, Financial Advisers and Government Departments for example, need to have a professional and corporate look and feel to their site, the big background is not for them.

One thing I love about a big background is it doesn’t take much to give your site a ‘fresh’ look.

Every so often; maybe once a month, or at the change of each season, you change the background image and your site becomes fresh and new.

What do you think? Are you for or against image changing?

Thanks for all of the feedback about the last ideas, it’s much appreciated to know that we may be helping you make a difference.

See also the article above that shows that it is worth making an effort.

If you agree or disagree with any of these ideas, or have some ideas of your own, please email us.

1. Computers

Computers are, on a weight for weight basis, more environmentally damaging to produce than cars. The manufacture of a typical desktop computer and 17″ screen requires a total of 1.8 tonnes of material, including:

• 240 kg of fossil fuels
• 22 kg of chemicals
• 1500 litres of water

So don’t replace that computer to hastily! If you really have to upgrade, always pass your old one on to someone else. There are also some free services being started by local councils  that will recycle various parts of old computers. So call your council.

2. Mobile phones
About 94% of Australians own a mobile phone and upgrade every 18 months to 2 years.

Mobile phones are not biodegradeable, but most of the materials can be recycled. The Australian Telecommunications Association have begun a ‘MobileMuster’, where you can simply drop your old mobile phone at ANZ branches, mobile phone retailers and local councils.

3. Office machines
make sure that when you replace the office photo-copier or gfax machine, that the new one is  energy efficient. The more energy efficient they are, the more your company will save.

Energy efficient machines not only cut the cost and carbon emissions of running the machine, through producing less heat, they also reduce the amount that is spent on air conditioning by as much as 30%.

Also make sure the photo copier has the ability to print double sided and use less ink and that these settings are set as standard.

4. Pens & pencils
In Australia, there are over 140 million pens* and pencils bought every year… and most are disposable and end up in the bin within a few months. Make an extra effort the next time you are ordering pend and pencils and insist on long-life refillable pens and make sure the pencils are from sustainably harvested wood.

5. Coffee-break
The next time you take a coffee-break, make sure that it is organic and a fair-trade brand, and take your own mug! The little things really do make a difference.

Not only is it no longer more expensive, it can also look and feel just like non-recycled paper (if that is what you are after).

Recycled paper has come a long way from the brown scrunchy material from a few years ago, now it can be white, gloss, silk or matt and looks and feels great.

Most of the recycled paper we use goes through three stages before being ready to be re-used, these are:

Sorting – The paper is separated into paper, cardboard and newspaper

De-inking – The recovered paper is put through a flotation process where air is blown into the solution. The ink adheres to bubbles of air and rises to the surface and separates from the fibre. After the ink is removed, the fibre may be bleached, usually with hydrogen peroxide.

Slushing – Water is added and it is ‘slushed’ into a pulp and contaminants (staples, plastic etc) are removed

The next stage depends on the final requirements, if, for example, the paper is to be used for quality printing, virgin pulp is added, to strengthen the fibres, but if the final destination for the paper is a newspaper, no virgin pulp is needed as newspaper print is most often made from 100% recycled paper.

It really is an amazing process that is well-worth seeing if you are ever invited to a paper mill.

If you need more information or would like some samples of recycled paper, please call us on 1300 720 705 or email us.

We at Green Publishing are now getting more and more requests to produce eBooks, software companies such as Adobe, Brothersoft and Zinio are making it easier to produce them and Apple with their iBook store are making it easier to promote them to a wider audience.

So who reads eBooks?, where do you get them from and what do you read them on?

Who, where, what

I recently got onto an a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne, and on my way through first-class I  couldn’t believe the amount of people who had an iPad. Now that’s not to say that only those that can afford to travel 1st class can afford a reading tablet of one kind or another, more that those that travel first class, often travel regularly, and it’s these people that have found the benefits of having a reading tablet.

You know what it’s like when you travel, you’ll need that days newspaper, your favourite magazine and your current book. Put these all together and you have one very heavy cabin bag. But now you can read all of these (and more) on one device. Being from England I love being able to get that days English Newspaper delivered to my iPad, not to mention the amount of magazines that I can now read from all over the world.

As I own an iPad, I can only comment on the reading apps on that appliance, so below are my favourite reading apps that are available through the Apple App store.

1. The Australian Newspaper – at $5.99 for a month of newspapers? Why would you still buy the paper version?
2. Kindle – Worried about being overtaken by the iPad, Kindle very cleverly released an app for the iPad… and it’s great. You can now download and read any book you like directly from Amazon, and most books are around US$8.99
3. Press Reader – Download newspapers from all over the world, that day in pdf format – fantastic!
4. iBooks – It took a while for Apple to open the Australian version, but they finally got there. Still a way to go to match Kindle prices and selection, but a very nice looking app.
5. Stanza – Can’t find that book or magazine anywhere? Stanza is the place to go. Using book and magazine websites from all over the world, there are many books that this app won’t find, and prices are good too.

Before deciding on how many you want printed, ask your self a few questions:

• Can we email it to people?
• Does everyone need a copy, or is one per couple/family/company enough?
• Can the life of this product be extended by adding information people can keep?
• Will the information be outdated before you have used them all?
• Can the information be included in an e-newsletter/e-bulletin?

Please feel free to contact us and we would be more than happy to find alternative and more sustainable ways to get your messages out to your clients.

If you look at the environmental costs, costs to human health, costs to our habitat and the habitat of fellow species, I think you would also come to the same conclusion… recycled paper does not cost more.

But if you check your receipt after purchasing recycled paper, you would see that in monetary terms, it does cost more, an average of about 3-5% depending on the finish, weight and where it comes from.

But isn’t it worth paying just a little bit more to ensure that what we do does not impact on the planet?

This book explores profitable business practices with an emphasis on optimising resources and maximising purchases and investments while minimising the costs of non-product, unemployment, short-term thinking and environmental degradation. We highly recommend this book… and it’s completely free to download!

Download here

Really it is horses for courses, If a message is better communicated through print versus web then it should be produced for print. If interaction is important, then the internet is probably best. The internet can stand alone as a medium, but with no support from print, websites are often easily forgotten or never found in the first place.

While the internet has the flash and sparkle that print sometimes lacks, people need a break from constant motion, glowing colour and computer screens. Often both print and web design are needed in tandem; as they can quite often compliment each other.

The one-two punch of a good print ad that features the web address of a well-designed and thought-out website is the ideal way to go.

Thanks for all of the feedback about the last ideas, it’s much appreciated to know that we may be making a difference.

If you agree or disagree with any of these ideas, or have some ideas of your own, please email us.

1. Coffee-break
The next time you take a coffee-break, make sure that it is organic and a fair-trade brand, and take your own mug!

2. Pens & pencils
In Australia, there are over 140 million pens* and pencils bought every year… and most are disposable and end up in the bin within a few months. Make an extra effort the next time you are ordering pend and pencils and insist on long-life refillable pens and make sure the pencils are from sustainably harvested wood.

3. Carbon offsetting
You can now carbon offset your journey into work, your
flight, and your electricity use. Do some homework before deciding which service you are going to use as there are many available.

4. Getting to work
Promote the use of public transport or car-sharing within your company. Put a list of who comes in from where and at what time and see if you can match some people up… it will be good for morale as well.
Put timetables and maps up in the canteen to help employees with public transport.

5. Lunch time
Make sure that your kitchen has good facilities to encourage staff to bring food from home, which is usually cheaper and healthier.
Your kitchen should have separate bins for recycling, waste and organic matter and mugs rather than the disposable cups that fill the land fill.

If you know anyone out there who still thinks that we are not the cause of our planets demise then you have to introduce them to him.

Amazing speech and some great hard-hitting facts that can’t be ignored.

I have asked Ian to send me his powerpoint presentation and he has very kindly agreed, so I hope to bring some excerpts which I hope you will find as inspiring as I did.