How Will You Utilize The Web to Celebrate Earth Day?

Many of us believed the inception of the PC and the Internet would help us cut down on our waste and paper products. However, as we quickly found out, this was not the case. In fact, in most cases, it's created more.

How many times have you printed off an email or Web page to find out that two-to-three extra pages of senseless garbage prints out as well? Many people would still rather print an article rather than read it online and/or store in a tidy folder on their PCs. To be fair, I'm a victim to this habit as well, but I think it's one of many things we should all try to think about when considering how we can best eliminate some of this useless waste in the course of our nine-to-five.

Here a few things to keep in mind while working on making your online marketing activities more eco-friendly.

Save paper

1. Instead of printing off copies, save a copy of a Web page as a .pdf file to your desktop. As far as email correspondence goes, try relying more on a tidy directory of folders.
2. Instead of printing every internal document on new, clean paper, save those extra wasted printouts and print on the backside. You won't believe how much paper, waste and eventually, money, you save.
3. Need a new use for wasted printouts? Try creating some scrap notebooks or pads. They're great for doodling or sketching out some ideas.

Marketing

Annual Reports

Instead of creating an expensive annual report for your organization, create an online, interactive version instead. You'll save money and paper while creating an interactive experience that could be 10 times more interesting than a printed version.

Newsletters

In some places, it's still common for newsletters to make their way to you via your physical mailbox instead of your online one. Take advantage of the online channel and send email versions. It's not only a very cost-effective way to communicate with you consumers or constituents, but can be a major force in and driving traffic to your website. Consider some other benefits:

1. It's a cost-effective solution and easy to set up.
2. By using excerpts, you can effectively lead consumers to your site's blog or news page.
3. Save on printing and waste.
4. Creating a digital archive of past issues may entice other site visitors to subscribe.

If you pay close attention to our company's branding, you'll see we love our trees here. As Earth Day approaches, let's all take a little time to look at our business practices and see how we can save a few more of them.