 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 Subscribe to RSS News |
| |
|
Creative Times feature on Carbon Creative - The business of going green. |
[24/11/2007]
|
|
Tanya Smith from Creative Times talked to Manchester based businesses who are looking out for more than just the bottom line.
Highlights of the article below:
Salford based design company, Carbon Creative - as the name suggests - also put environmental sustainability at the heart of their company. When facing redundancy in 2002, Martin and Kate Hadfield took the plunge and setup their own business. Combining their passion for both design and the environment, Carbon Creative made an ethical commitment to become carbon neutral.
Martin, the companies Creative Director explains how the recent media coverage of climate change has dramatically changed the reaction of their clients: "Five years ago most people didnt understand our company ethos but in the last twelve months climate change and carbon offsetting has become very topical. I think for this reason it has become a contentious issue and some cynics have hinted that we jumped on the green bandwagon." Not so, says Martin. "
To be fair Carbon Creative began life a long time before that bandwagon started rolling and the fact that most people we speak to now have some understanding of climate change and reducing their carbon footprint is a measure of how far as a nation, we have come." Carbon Creative tries to educate their customers on using recycled paper stocks and environmentally friendly printing techniques to facilitate recycling. In fact, they've launched a website, Carbon Forum, to discuss climate change and related topics.
The company have also developed a not for profit project called Carbon Kids aimed at educating primary school children about climate change. So far they've piloted this at one school in Salford, where they conducted an interactive presentation to three of the year groups. For the project they managed to negotiate a deal with an energy saving light bulb manufacturer to give a child a free light bulb on the day. "It was really well recieved by parents and teachers but most importantly the children loved it." Martin said.
For over a year, Carbon Creative has been running a tree dedication scheme with Red Rose Forrest - a small charity organisation based in Salford Quays that takes care of a number of small forrest around the area. Carbon Creative are pledging to plant trees in support of all new customers and existing customers who place any orders over £500.
"The scheme isn't a legislated carbon offsetting programme - these tend to be exotic overseas projects. We wanted to do something regional and focused around our own city of Salford," says Martin. "We treat the local tree dedication programme as a symbolic gesture to our clients and it's helping Redrose Forrest too"
Carbon Creatives dedication to green issues by no means stops there. They are constantly looking at new ways to improve their energy efficiency. They have recently decommissioned three of their rack optimised web servers to replace with new hardware that uses 75% less energy. Excitingly, the company is also in the process of purchasing their own building, which will incorporate energy efficient features such as LED lighting and PV solar panels. |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
| |
